Home > Newsroom >

Highlights Newsroom

Download Word Document

Contact: Lisa C. Hahn
201-251-7778; lisa.hahn@chcomm.com

Remarks by Kent S. Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of Highlights for Children

Printing of the One-Billionth Copy of Highlights at Quebecor World's Plant
Clarksville, Tenn., June 14, 2006

Kent Johnson, CEO of Highlights for Children remarks on the printing of the one-billionth copy of Highlights Magazine.Thank you, Ed (Sheehan, SVP, Sales, Quebecor World, Inc.), and thank you, Wes (Lucas, President & CEO, Quebecor World, Inc.).

All of us in the extended Highlights family are excited to be here today to celebrate two wonderful milestones. We are celebrating our 60th anniversary, and today we print the one-billionth copy of Highlights® magazine. We certainly have come a long way since 1946, when two lifelong educators had a dream of creating a magazine entirely dedicated to helping children become their best selves.

I think my great-grandparents, who founded Highlights, would be proud of all that has come from their dream and that first humble print run of just 20,000 copies.

By sticking to their mission, we have expanded our service to children and families both through our flagship Highlights for Children magazine and through the creation of many other "Fun with a Purpose" products over the years.

These milestones are even more sweet because they allow us to celebrate the long and successful relationship between Highlights for Children and Quebecor World. Forty-nine years working together as true partners! Wow! This is the kind of partnership that doesn't happen very often in the business world these days.

I can tell you that such a partnership doesn't happen without the dedication and hard work of generations of employees committed to their missions and committed to working together. It is truly a team effort. Today, I would particularly like to thank all the Quebecor World and Highlights employees who have worked together so successfully over all the years. Your efforts have been critical to our ability to achieve the mission of our Founders and bring Highlights to so many children and families over the years. It is great to think of what we have accomplished together. Wes, on behalf of all Highlights, I thank you for all that you and your team has done over all these years.

This is a truly tremendous day in the history of Highlights for Children - I want to thank all of you: Wes (Lucas), Chuck (Miotke, president US Magazine/Directory), Ken (Thomas, SVP, Manufacturing), Greg (Bumb, Clarksville Plant Manager), Ed (Sheehan, SVP, Sales), Patrick (Kaiser, VP, Sales), Ron (Williams, Sales Representative), and the whole Quebecor team for your commitment to and partnership with Highlights. A few minutes ago you presented to us the one-billionth copy of Highlights magazine! In 1946, Garry and Caroline Myers created that first issue of Highlights for Children driven by their commitment to serving children. That first issue had an initial print run of just 20,000 copies. Sixty years later, to reach the milestone of one billion copies here today is incredible.

While it is exciting to hold a copy of this magazine in my hands as I reflect on this milestone, it isn't the magazine itself, or even the notion of one billion copies, that makes me so proud.

Think about the number one billion. It is a big number.

Let me paint a picture of how I think about such a big number today. I think about a United States Postal Service letter carrier placing a copy of Highlights magazine printed right here in Clarksville, Tennessee, into a family's mailbox. I imagine a child coming to that mailbox and finding a copy of Highlights for Children with his or her name printed on the label. I think of the excitement that child experiences seeing what's inside that particular issue:

  • The fun she has finding the objects in the "Hidden Pictures."
  • What he learns about right and wrong from talking with his parents about "Goofus and Gallant."
  • I think about how she might be inspired to create by seeing another child's drawing or story or how she might gather the materials to make one of the craft projects.
  • I think about that child developing a love of reading and, we hope, a lasting love of learning, through our stories and articles.
  • I think about him or her as a budding artist appreciating a poem or illustration and as a "scientist to be" whose curiosity grows through the pages of Highlights.
  • I imagine that child going back and forth between Highlights magazine and the interactive features on www.HighlightsKids.com, which extends "Fun with a Purpose" onto the Internet.
  • I think about that child telling one of the jokes to a younger sibling or thinking through open-ended questions found in our feature "BrainPlay."
  • I think about that child becoming his or her best self.

I invite you to hold the image of a single child in your mind. Now, multiply the image of the experience of that one child times a number as big as One Billion. Wow. That is why we do what we do.

That's why I am proud today - that is why this milestone is so meaningful to me. While we mark milestones in the history of a magazine and a company as well as celebrate the long and successful partnership between Highlights and Quebecor World, we celebrate today the positive effect that we have had on generations of children.

Of course, these milestones provide an opportunity to look backward. We celebrate and mark that which we have accomplished together. I also believe it is important to look forward and think about what more we can accomplish. Today is the right time to think about our next sixty years and our next billion copies, and, most importantly, to think of the millions of children and families we will serve together in the future. Working together, we will continue to do great things. And we will continue to succeed in our efforts to expand and extend our positive impact on children and families by sticking to the mission of our Founders.

I want to close by thanking Quebecor World once again:

  • I thank all of you on behalf of the employees of Highlights for Children - working with you all these years has been a pleasure.
  • I thank all of you on behalf of all the descendents of Garry and Caroline Myers - your efforts help fulfill the dream of our Founders: a mission we remain committed to today.
  • Finally, as a child who grew up reading Highlights, I thank you on behalf of all the children past and present who have experienced Highlights for Children. Your efforts bring these children "Fun with a Purpose" each month, helping children everywhere become their best selves.

Quebecor, thank you for being part of our team.

Now, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Chris Clark, the editor of Highlights, whose vision and leadership embody the essence of Highlights for Children. Chris, would you say a few words?

# # #

Highlights for Children, Inc. (www.Highlights.com) has focused on helping children become their best selves for generations. Highlights magazine celebrates the one-billionth copy of the magazine and its 60th anniversary in June 2006. On the Web, www.HighlightsKids.com offers interactive content related to each issue of the magazine, as well as independent activities such as "Click-and-Play Hidden Pictures®," e-cards, games, craft activities, "Mystery Messages," jokes, and riddles. Devoted to "Fun with a Purpose®," Highlights for Children also offers children, parents, grandparents, and educators a broad range of products including the Highlights for Children Book Clubs (Puzzlemania®, Mathmania®, Which Way USA?®, Top Secret Adventures™, and Hidden Pictures Playground®). Highlights Catalog (www.Highlights.com) selects quality toys, games, craft activities, puzzles, and other products that children will love and parents can trust. Corporate offices are in Columbus, Ohio, and the editorial offices are in Honesdale, Pa.

For more information or to arrange an interview with a Highlights for Children spokesperson, please contact Lisa Hahn at lisa.hahn@chcomm.com or 201-251-7778.

Contact Highlights for Children