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Weekly Reader
Weekly Reader was a weekly educational classroom magazine designed for children. It began in 1928 as My Weekly Reader. Editions covered curriculum themes in the younger grade levels and news-based, current events and curriculum themed-issues in older grade levels. The publishing company also created workbooks, literacy centers, and picture books for younger grades.
In 2012, Weekly Reader ceased operations as an independent publication and merged with its new owner, Scholastic News, due primarily to market pressures to create digital editions as well as decreasing school budgets.
Formerly My Weekly Reader, the Weekly Reader was a weekly newspaper for elementary school children. It was first published by the American Education Press of Columbus, Ohio, which had been founded in 1902 by Charles Palmer Davis to publish Current Events, a paper for secondary school children. The first issue appeared on September 21, 1928.
The first editor was Martha Fulton, who had been hired that summer by Preston Davis, the major owner of the Press, and Harrison Sayre, who became managing editor. Sayre, also the editor of World News, a paper for high school students, had been urged to start a paper for grade schools by teachers he had met in June 1928, while on a sales trip in Indiana. Martha Fulton, who was a friend of Sayre's wife, Mary, and a graduate of Wells College, enjoyed travel and adventure. During World War I, she had been an American Red Cross worker in France. She also had "a remarkable rapport with children and had lively interests in every direction." The lead article was about the boyhoods of Herbert Hoover and Al Smith. There were two shorter articles: "Wings for Safety", about street crossing guards; and, "Sky Medicine", which was about the healthful qualities of the Sun. The most popular was a letter from "Uncle Ben" about a ride in a German glider on Cape Cod. Fulton wrote all these articles. Her sister Peg was the first artist, though soon replaced by her friend Mary Sherwood Wright. Beginning with the third issue, Eleanor Johnson, director of elementary schools in York, Pennsylvania, designed tests for the back page.
My Weekly Reader was an instant success. By December, circulation was 99,000. In 1929, a second edition was started for younger children, and their combined circulation was 376,000. By 1931, there were four editions, with a combined circulation of 1,099,000.
The keys to its early success were the timely news articles that had a children's angle, and the Uncle Ben letters describing new inventions and discoveries that excited children's imaginations. For example, the second issue's lead article, "A Village Moves to the South Pole", was about Admiral Byrd's 75-man expedition, their sled dogs, and Paul Siple, a Boy Scout who was with them. Uncle Ben wrote about planned "Seadromes", floating airports that airplanes could use to hop across the Atlantic. The third issue, published on October 5, 1928, began with "How Mother Nature Prepares for Winter". Uncle Ben described seeing his "first radio television set", even though the paper itself had yet to print even a photograph—illustrations for the Reader having only been drawings to date. On October 12, he wrote about Zeppelins, and the first Reader photographs appeared. They depicted "Mr. and Mrs. Hoover" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Grandchildren".
Harrison Sayre, who became president of the American Education Press while remaining managing editor of My Weekly Reader, gave Martha Fulton the major credit for the newspaper's popularity. In his memoirs, Sayre quoted Gertrude Wolff, another editor who shared an office with Fulton: "As I had had some editorial experience, she at times sought my advice on minor details, but the conception and execution of those first issues were hers alone. With her imagination, enthusiasm, intuitive understanding of a child's world, she sensed what would appeal to her young readers. Her very personal stamp on the new publication distinguished the succeeding issues during her years as editor."
As the new editions for upper and lower grades were added, Fulton remained the principal writer, even after her marriage in 1930 (to Clarence L. Sager, a New York City lawyer) and her moves to New York City and Old Greenwich, Connecticut. Sayre remembered that Fulton wrote for the papers for twelve years, adding that "men of the composing room...testify that with her square, legible, longhand copy, she never missed a deadline".
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Weekly Reader
Weekly Reader was a weekly educational classroom magazine designed for children. It began in 1928 as My Weekly Reader. Editions covered curriculum themes in the younger grade levels and news-based, current events and curriculum themed-issues in older grade levels. The publishing company also created workbooks, literacy centers, and picture books for younger grades.
In 2012, Weekly Reader ceased operations as an independent publication and merged with its new owner, Scholastic News, due primarily to market pressures to create digital editions as well as decreasing school budgets.
Formerly My Weekly Reader, the Weekly Reader was a weekly newspaper for elementary school children. It was first published by the American Education Press of Columbus, Ohio, which had been founded in 1902 by Charles Palmer Davis to publish Current Events, a paper for secondary school children. The first issue appeared on September 21, 1928.
The first editor was Martha Fulton, who had been hired that summer by Preston Davis, the major owner of the Press, and Harrison Sayre, who became managing editor. Sayre, also the editor of World News, a paper for high school students, had been urged to start a paper for grade schools by teachers he had met in June 1928, while on a sales trip in Indiana. Martha Fulton, who was a friend of Sayre's wife, Mary, and a graduate of Wells College, enjoyed travel and adventure. During World War I, she had been an American Red Cross worker in France. She also had "a remarkable rapport with children and had lively interests in every direction." The lead article was about the boyhoods of Herbert Hoover and Al Smith. There were two shorter articles: "Wings for Safety", about street crossing guards; and, "Sky Medicine", which was about the healthful qualities of the Sun. The most popular was a letter from "Uncle Ben" about a ride in a German glider on Cape Cod. Fulton wrote all these articles. Her sister Peg was the first artist, though soon replaced by her friend Mary Sherwood Wright. Beginning with the third issue, Eleanor Johnson, director of elementary schools in York, Pennsylvania, designed tests for the back page.
My Weekly Reader was an instant success. By December, circulation was 99,000. In 1929, a second edition was started for younger children, and their combined circulation was 376,000. By 1931, there were four editions, with a combined circulation of 1,099,000.
The keys to its early success were the timely news articles that had a children's angle, and the Uncle Ben letters describing new inventions and discoveries that excited children's imaginations. For example, the second issue's lead article, "A Village Moves to the South Pole", was about Admiral Byrd's 75-man expedition, their sled dogs, and Paul Siple, a Boy Scout who was with them. Uncle Ben wrote about planned "Seadromes", floating airports that airplanes could use to hop across the Atlantic. The third issue, published on October 5, 1928, began with "How Mother Nature Prepares for Winter". Uncle Ben described seeing his "first radio television set", even though the paper itself had yet to print even a photograph—illustrations for the Reader having only been drawings to date. On October 12, he wrote about Zeppelins, and the first Reader photographs appeared. They depicted "Mr. and Mrs. Hoover" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Grandchildren".
Harrison Sayre, who became president of the American Education Press while remaining managing editor of My Weekly Reader, gave Martha Fulton the major credit for the newspaper's popularity. In his memoirs, Sayre quoted Gertrude Wolff, another editor who shared an office with Fulton: "As I had had some editorial experience, she at times sought my advice on minor details, but the conception and execution of those first issues were hers alone. With her imagination, enthusiasm, intuitive understanding of a child's world, she sensed what would appeal to her young readers. Her very personal stamp on the new publication distinguished the succeeding issues during her years as editor."
As the new editions for upper and lower grades were added, Fulton remained the principal writer, even after her marriage in 1930 (to Clarence L. Sager, a New York City lawyer) and her moves to New York City and Old Greenwich, Connecticut. Sayre remembered that Fulton wrote for the papers for twelve years, adding that "men of the composing room...testify that with her square, legible, longhand copy, she never missed a deadline".