An online paper covering news in a fictitious world populated by penguins has become more widely read than New York’s Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, or the Dallas Morning News, reports the L.A. Times.
The Club Penguin Times is a weekly online-only publication with a readership of about 6.7 million monthly users of a Disney-owned social network and virtual, Club Penguin.
The popular site, which Disney purchased last August for a whopping $350 million, has been visited by more than 12 million kids ages 6-14.
While the news may be based in fantasy, their model is similar to what many real papers are using to attract more readers online, incorporating social networking devices and encouraging interactivity. And one of the more successful features on the site is their user-submitted content, which includes 30,000 daily submissions from the pre-teen demographic.
This sounds like the perfect little hot spot for advertisers, right?
Well, neither the site nor the paper have advertising, which rely solely on a premium service subscription fees and proceeds from an online store.
And of course the real question is whether or not these kids who care more about igloos and ice fishing will ultimately translate over into real-world newspaper readers interested in politics and the economy.
Fans flock to Disney's Club Penguin Times [L.A. Times]
Image: Disney
