Story House Egmont expands its children’s magazine business in Poland

Story House Egmont expands its children’s magazine business in Poland

(PRESS RELEASE) COPENHAGEN, 1-Dec-2022 — /EuropaWire/ — Egmont Group, a Nordic media group based in Denmark, has announced that its Polish subsidiary Story House Egmont will expand its children’s magazine business in the country with the acquisition of children’s magazine rights in Poland from Media Service Zawada, a leading publisher of children’s books and press on the Polish market. Following the deal, Story House Egmont will add 7 beloved titles like Peppa Pig, Scooby Doo, Cartoon Network, LOL Surprise, Mini Mini+, Cry Babies and Dino Ranch to its strong magazine portfolio and will become the largest publisher of children’s magazines in the country. Furthermore, the company will continue to develop its market-leading comic book business and its strong board games portfolio. 

“With this exciting rights acquisition we are further strengthening our Polish children’s magazine business as part of our overall strategy. Story House Egmont is publishing children’s magazines in 25 countries across Europe, and it is our vision to work with market-leading brands and to develop our portfolio of content rights”, said Marika Bark, Business Area Director Kids in Story House Egmont.

Story House Egmont has market-leading children’s magazine positions throughout Central and Eastern Europe, UK and the Nordics, and it is a strategic partner for capturing young audiences and producing content that recruit and engage readers in popular brands from well-known global companies. Story House Egmont – a part of media group Egmont – has activities in three business areas, multimedia publishing, e-commerce and digital agencies, with a total revenue of EUR 851m in 2021.

“In Story House Egmont, we already publish most of the titles, that we are now taking over in Poland, in other countries across Europe. The licensors involved in the deal, that we announce today, are Hasbro, MGA, Warner, Boat Rocker Media, Plus Licens and Canal+, all strong companies behind popular brands that we have a close and long-term collaboration with. I am glad, that we with this deal will be able to bring even more great and engaging stories to life”, said Marika Bark.

Effective today, Story House Egmont will be the publisher of the above seven magazines in Poland. Media Service Zawada will support with services connected to the publishing of children’s magazines during a transitional period.

Media Service Zawada will continue to be among the leading Polish publishers and will remain a strong player in children’s books publishing with many well-known brands in their portfolio.

“I am very pleased that we have managed to work out an agreement that opens up new opportunities for each of the parties to develop in the direction of their choice. I am proud of the dynamic development of our company in the children’s book market, and I am convinced that thanks to this transaction from next year we will be able to fully focus both strategically and operationally on this market segment, which will further expand our strong position built over the last years and facilitate further expansion”, commented Zdzisław Zawada, President of Media Service Zawada.

About Story House Egmont

Story House Egmont is behind strong media brands, e-commerce companies and digital agencies. We are publishers at heart, present in 25 countries, and a part of the leading Nordic media group Egmont, together with Nordisk Film, TV 2 Norway, Lindhardt og Ringhof and Cappelen Damm. Egmont is a foundation, and all profits are used to develop media and to support children and young people at risk. Story House Egmont Poland is part of Story House Egmont. The Polish branch of the publishing house was established in 1990, debuting with a comic book featuring the famous Donald Duck character. Currently, Story House Egmont Poland is the largest publisher of magazines, comic books and board games for children and teenagers on the Polish market and a winner of numerous industry awards. We specialize in publishing magazines for children and our offer includes several dozen press titles for young readers – including both magazines with favorite characters known from movies, cartoons and TV series, as well as magazines for fans of toys and games.

About Media Service Zawada

Media Service Zawada has been operating in Poland since 1994, and its first venture was to manage the sale of advertising space for the Bauer publishing house. Over time, the portfolio of clients expanded to Wrocław based publishing house Phoenix Press Media. In the years 1997-2002, Marshall Cavendish, a partwork publisher, became a big partner. Together with them, Media Service Zawada published ten partwork collections in Poland. Among them was the “Tree of Knowledge” series, whose total sales over several years amounted to over 200 million copies. This project opened the way for the company to independent publishing activity. Since then, the company has become the leading publishing house in the sector, with experience, an excellent team of specialists, an impressive publishing portfolio, contacts and partners around the world. Media Service Zawada’s specialty and at the same time a competitive advantage is attractive publications created on the basis of the most popular licenses for children, the fruits of many years of cooperation with global leaders such as Hasbro, Paramount, MGAE, Canal+ or Warner Bros. In the last few years, Media Service Zawada has focused on building a strong portfolio, thanks to which it has recorded dynamic growth on the children’s book market and plans further dynamic development in this area.

Media contact:

Jesper Eising
Head of Press, Egmont Communications & Public Affairs
jesper.eising@egmont.com
+45 29 60 30 19

SOURCE: Egmont