Your once-a-month recap for trends in the kids & YA sectors, with news recaps, interviews, analysis & more.
ScreenMDM Kids/YA
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What's Inside:
- Summit Shock & A Shuttered Magazine: A Transformative Week
- YA Trends with Finding Her Edge's Jeff Norton
- Tracking Netflix Kids' Engagement with Emily Horgan
- Saving Jobs—Magic Light Pictures' Scottish Investment
- Data & AI Futures—Animaj's Google Alliance & CAKE's Insights Move
- Channel Surfing—The Latest in FAST & Digital Channels
- Known IP—Books, Gods & More
- Future Today’s David Di Lorenzo
- ICYMI: Gen A to Z—The February Edition (Pitch Us Now for the April Edition!)
March 31 felt like an earth-shattering day for the content production and distribution landscape as two “legacy” publishing companies made announcements that sent shockwaves across the industry—particularly in the kids’ segment.
Finding Her Edge’s Jeff Norton
Jeff Norton shares his process for adapting Jennifer Iacopelli’s best-selling novel Finding Her Edge into a hit Netflix YA series that was quickly renewed for a second season after its launch in January. "I don’t really think of YA as a genre. I think of it more as a point of view—I think of it as writing for anyone age 8 to 88. "
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On the heels of releasing the latest edition of her data-rich Netflix Kids Content Performance Report, Emily Horgan, media consultant and author of The Kids StreamerSphere newsletter, joins ScreenMDM Talks to kick off the April edition of our Gen A to Z strand.
Magic Light Pictures acquired the assets and production pipeline of Wild Child Animation, the Scottish studio that went into administration at the end of February, unveiling Stirling Animation Studio (SAS). Martin Pope and Michael Rose, co-founders of Magic Light Pictures, said: “We’ve acted quickly to protect something valuable—a brilliant team, a major production, and a key part of Scotland’s animation capability. It’s been important to provide stability and renewed confidence for the crew at a critical time. The formation of Stirling Animation Studio will ensure the completion of our Zog series, and we hope it can also be a platform for future productions. We are already exploring ideas about the future so we can support the next generation of world-class animation talent in Scotland.”
Google’s AI Futures Fund is investing in the next-generation kids’ media company Animaj to help power its AI animation capabilities. “This partnership marks a key milestone in our mission to build a next-generation media company—one where AI, creativity, and IP ownership reinforce each other,” said Sixte de Vauplane, CEO of Animaj. “With Google’s support, we’re accelerating our ability to create premium kids content faster, smarter, and more responsibly.”
CAKE picked up a minority stake in KidsKnowBest, the data-driven insights and influencer strategy agency founded by Joel Silverman. “This is far more than an investment; it’s a strategic collaboration built on shared ambition,” Silverman said. “We’ve spent the last eight years building direct, meaningful relationships with young audiences. Our global community gives us real-time visibility into what kids care about, how they engage, and where culture is heading. Partnering with CAKE allows us to connect that intelligence directly into the IP ecosystem. Together, we can move seamlessly from insight to influencer to global distribution, building brands with young people at the heart.”
David Di Lorenzo, SVP for kids and family at Future Today, discusses how HappyKids is serving audiences with both "traditional" content and creator economy titles.
Our inaugural Gen A to Z strand delivered insights from a range of kids’ media producers, distributors, brand-builders, creative consultants, monetization experts, and YouTube engagement pros on navigating the industry’s pain points.
