Almost everyone remembers Highlights magazine, and how they remember is usually, “Oh, yeah, from the waiting room in the dentist’s office!” A little jolt of pleasure counterpointing the inevitable pain just a few beats down the road. You might have thought the brand was dormant. Perhaps even defunct. Well if that’s the case, your head is dormant and defunct. Highlights has always circulated (subscription only — no newsstand sales) far beyond the dentist’s office. Today it has has over two million subscribers and its parent company — corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, editorial offices in Honesdale, Pennsylvania — is riding high. A little over a year ago, in October of 2006, the magazine, which was begun in 1946 by husband-and-wife educators and child development experts Dr. Garry Cleveland Myers and Caroline Myers, published its one billionth copy.

I have known the folks at Highlights for a long time. Kent Brown, grandson of the company’s founders and the magazine’s editor-in-chief, has been a friend for over 20 years and advised me on the publication of GameChangers. I’ve met several times over the years with Kent and the Highlights editorial team headed by Christine French Clark, usually about expanding the brand into video. There was always a lot of interest from my Hollywood associates — at Disney, then Paramount, then New Line and Viacom. At one point, I pitched a Goofus and Gallant movie with Haley Joel Osment playing both roles. We discussed doing The Timbertoes as an animated series, and Find the Hidden Pictures as a videogame. We explored the possibility of a Highlights direct-to-video series, which Viacom execs assured me they could sell like eggs on Easter.

Not a ton of business came of it, but the process was always fun and instructive for everyone involved. (more…)