UMass Magazine Online

Spring 2005

Departments

Features

There Goes the Neighborhood

Fab Four

The Gravest Danger

The Wonderful World of Disney

Cooking Lessons

Feature

The Happiest Magazines on Earth
As editorial director for Disney mag's, Alix Kennedy takes family fun to heart

—Marietta Pritchard




	Alix Kennedy ’88G (photo by Ben Barnhart)

ALIX KENNEDY LOOKS CASUALLY CHIC in jeans, boots, and a long-sleeved black T-shirt with a dark brown velvet scarf. As usual, she is keeping a lot of balls in the air in her job as editorial director for Disney’s magazines, yet, as she sits cross-legged on her desk chair, she manages not to seem overwhelmed—talking on the phone while working on her computer, writing e-mails and making lists for the day, meeting with her colleagues, and talking with her bosses in New York and California. She even fields a congratulatory call from her father: On this late November day, Alix announced the launch of Wondertime, the next Disney magazine to be based in Northampton. Scheduled to debut next winter, Wondertime is aimed at parents of newborns to six-year-olds, and will fill a readership gap in Disney’s market that Alix has been eager to serve.

With the launch public, Kennedy has three major meetings scheduled today to plan budgets, staffing, equipment needs, possibly a new venue. In between, she is just as attentive to the finer points of threading laces through colorful foam skate cutouts. These are needed for a preperformance project for families attending the upcoming St. Petersburg Ice Ballet’s Nutcracker at UMass Amherst’s Fine Arts Center. FamilyFun, Disney’s flagship magazine, is a sponsor of the event. From high-powered conference calls to hands-on crafts, Alix is clearly on top of things, and what’s more, she seems to be having fun.

Kennedy’s official title is vice president, editorial director of family and children’s magazines, Disney Publishing Worldwide. In addition to the magazines, she also manages FamilyFun’s books division, Web site, and TV publicity.

Kennedy, 44, is a high-energy person, to put it mildly. She started this brisk fall day with a walk along the Mill River with her new puppy. Son Jack, 9, stayed home sick with her husband, poet James Haug ’88G, while she dropped seven-year-old Nicky at the Smith College Campus School. She will pick him up at lunchtime, making the quick switch, as she puts it, “from being a Disney executive to being a regular local mom.”

And quickly back again: Alix is responsible for the long-range growth of the magazines she oversees. She took over Disney Magazine* in 1995, with Disney Adventures added in October of 2004. Disney Magazine, edited in Northampton, is a quarterly with a circulation of 500,000. It’s mainly aimed at adults interested in getting a behind-the-scenes look at the Walt Disney Corporation—the history, the animation, and the services, including the parks and the people behind them.

Disney Adventures, by contrast, is aimed straight at children, with an emphasis on comics, jokes, puzzles, and games. “It’s perfect for my nine-year-old,” says Alix. This magazine is edited in New York. So, two or three times a month, she drives to the city, leaving at 6 a.m. to meet with her Disney colleagues. She tries to make it a day trip, returning the same night, if not in time to see her boys off to bed, then at least to be there when they get up in the morning. Three or four times a year she visits other Disney locations—in Burbank, Calif., and Orlando, Fla. She has appeared on the Today show, on Oprah, and on CNN and has been a guest several times for briefings on women’s issues at the White House. A couple of years ago she made the list of “People to Watch in the Industry” by Media Industry Newsletter.

In contrast to Kennedy’s executive persona, in her domain—the magazine offices in Northampton’s Roundhouse where she and a few others started up FamilyFun 14 years ago—the three-letter “f-word” appropriately gets used a lot, and with no hint of irony. Ann Hallock, creative director of family and children’s magazines for Disney, describes an easy-going, non-corporate atmosphere where you’re likely to encounter both kids and dogs. There are no power suits here.

The casual atmosphere extends beyond the workweek. Friday night family cookouts on the back deck were a tradition for a while, says Hallock. And in a characteristic mix of work and pleasure, editorial staffers make a point of testing all the crafts recommended in the magazine, to anticipate problems with the directions or missing materials. They seem genuinely to be enjoying themselves and one another.

Today, however, staff members have something extra to enjoy. Their magazines are a success. With a circulation of 1.9 million readers, FamilyFun is the nation’s largest magazine aimed at families with children 3 to 12 years old. With a circulation of one million, Disney Adventures is the largest children’s magazine in the United States. Not only have editors been able to keep their jobs unlike many in the magazine trade during these same years, but with Wondertime in the wings, their ranks are due to expand.

A mock magazine cover in Alix’s office sports the headline: “How to turn an MFA into an MBA.” No question, moving from writing poetry to running a major corporate publishing venture is headline-worthy. Alix graduated as an English major from Colgate University in 1982, then spent a couple of years trying out alternative lifestyles, working on a dairy farm, organic gardening, living in a teepee. In 1984, she came to UMass Amherst to work on an MFA in poetry while teaching freshman composition and poetry classes. Last spring, the English Department presented her with a Distinguished Alumni Award.

“Those were four of my best years,” she says of her UMass Amherst days, “an incredible opportunity to focus on writing and reading.” She names faculty members James Tate, Dara Wier, and Paul Mariani in particular for feeding her passion for poetry. Another happy outcome of those years was meeting the poet she was to marry. These days, as a successful publishing executive and parent, she doesn’t write poetry, she says. “It’s just too hard to switch gears.” The brain doesn’t make space for it, she muses, but maybe someday.

While working on her MFA, Alix took a job as fact-checker at New England Monthly, a regional magazine based in an old factory in nearby Haydenville. As she was applying to the next round of graduate schools, she was offered and took an editor’s job at that magazine. When New England Monthly folded in 1990, Dan Okrent, the magazine’s founding editor, was contacted by Jake Winebaum, who was looking to start a magazine for families. Okrent described a ready-made group of magazine people looking for work in Northampton. Winebaum hired Alix as the new magazine’s managing editor. Soon afterwards, she ran into former New England Monthly colleague, Ann Hallock, in the Northampton post office. Alix invited Ann to join in the new venture. “We stood in the post office, laughing,” says Ann, who served as editor of FamilyFun until recently. “Neither of us had kids. We didn’t know the first thing about what we were getting into.” Hallock now has two children of her own.

Disney acquired FamilyFun in 1992. The magazines, Kennedy says, are well supported, and she likes and respects the people she works with in the corporate publishing sector. “Disney’s been a great owner. They’ve made a long-term investment.” It’s quite a contrast to the days at New England Monthly, where “there was always that question: Are we going to get paid?”

In spite of the media’s fascination with the magic kingdom’s top brass (“Mickey’s Fight Club,” reads a typical headline about the lawsuits between terminated president Michael Ovitz and Disney chief Michael Eisner), the infighting no more darkens the skies above Northampton’s Roundhouse than would the squabbles of the gods on Mount Olympus.
Kennedy’s convinced that Disney is an “honestly run company.”FamilyFun, which is aimed at making everyday life fulfilling for parents and kids, has successfully distinguished itself from other parenting magazines, which tend to focus on solving family problems. But it must also distinguish itself from other aspects of the Disney aura, even as the other magazines she directs embrace it: FamilyFun “isn’t about pixie dust or cartoon characters,” says Alix. But there’s room for everyone in this big organization. “It’s like a marriage. We can maintain our individuality, yet be connected.”

Ann Hallock says, that success is due largely to Alix. “She is a quick editor, good at seeing what makes a great story, but she’s also really adaptable, a relationship builder,” says Hallock. “Even in stressful situations, she manages to find connections. The result is that the corporate people see us as an agreeable group.”

Families Who Have Fun Together…

FamilyFun is Alix Kennedy’s baby; after all, it’s the magazine she helped found in 1991. So although she oversees Wondertime and Disney Adventures, FamilyFun is a star, “a powerhouse,” says Kennedy, generating a Web site, a series of books, and perhaps someday its own TV show.

FamilyFun is an upbeat magazine geared to helping parents make the best of their time with their children. The average reader is a 38-year-old woman with a college education, an annual family income of $74,239, and 2.09 children with an average age of eight. Its nearly two million readers are about evenly divided between working and stay-at-home moms.

The magazine has a full complement of reader-generated material, including a feature called “My Great Idea.” Readers keep the magazine on its toes, says Kennedy, laughing as she remembers one of the first recipes. It involved boiling acorns to make a pioneer-style bread. The problem? It dyed pots a permanent black. “Our readers sure let us know,” she says. These days, for the healthy, kid-friendly recipes, the magazine has its own test kitchen just a few blocks away.

FamilyFun also publishes over a dozen books: several cookbooks, including FamilyFun’s Fast Family Dinners and Cookies for Christmas; craft books, including Boredom Busters and Tricks and Treats; and a series of regional vacation guides.

There is also a radio program and a “PTO Fun and Games Night” program packet, the holiday gift workshop kit, and the annual Toy of the Year (T.O.Y.) awards. A new feature called “Healthy Fun,” for vigorous outdoor and indoor activities, will appear in the magazine soon.

[top of page]

The Happiest Magazines on Earth

The Happiest Magazines on Earth: more images

Live! At Disney

Live! At Disney: larger image

Everyday Heroes

Everyday Heroes: larger image