The Mini Page was a
syndicated newspaper supplement for children, created by Betty Debnam in 1969 and authored by her and two other writers.
History
The Mini Page began in August 1969 and appears weekly in hundreds of newspapers in the United States as an offering of
Andrews McMeel Syndication.
Its regular features include short articles, puzzles, jokes, and recipes. Andrews McMeel has also published several Mini Page spinoff books covering subjects such as the U.S. military, science, the states, history, geography and the environment.
The supplement was conceived as a cross between the ''
Weekly Reader
''Weekly Reader'' was a weekly educational classroom magazine designed for children. It began in 1928 as ''My Weekly Reader''. Editions covered curriculum themes in the younger grade levels and news-based, current events and curriculum themed- ...
'' and a newspaper
comics
a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...
section, with an underlying mission of encouraging family-centered reading and
literacy
Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...
.
It was the first supplement of its kind when it debuted in August 1969 in the
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...
''
News & Observer
''The News & Observer'' is an American regional daily newspaper that serves the greater Triangle area based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The paper is the largest in circulation in the state (second is the '' Charlotte Observer''). The paper has be ...
''.
The Mini Page's first issue had a "Back to School" theme and included a mini-profile of
Los Angeles Rams
The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West ...
quarterback
Roman Gabriel and a "Faces in the News" section asking readers to identify a picture of
Spiro Agnew
Spiro Theodore Agnew (; November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) was the 39th vice president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973. He is the second of two vice presidents to resign, the first being John C. ...
.
When Debnam created the Mini Page, she had been an
elementary school
A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
teacher for twelve years and had never drawn before.
Initially, she handled all tasks involved in the Mini Page's production, including researching, producing, laying out and editing all the content.
She was also responsible for selling advertising, which is no longer included in the supplement. Debnam sold The Mini Page to Andrews McMeel in 2007 but continued to consult on the feature.
Awards
In 1999, as the Mini Page celebrated its thirtieth anniversary, Debnam was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame and received the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Newspaper Association of America
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports, ar ...
. Debnam was inducted into the
Association of Educational Publishers' hall of fame in 2001, and the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2013. She won a 2007 Distinguished Achievement Award from the AEP for ''The Mini Page Guide to the Constitution'', a nine-part series that was released as a book by
Andrews McMeel after appearing in newspapers.
Betty Debnam
Debnam credited her inspiration for the Mini Page to her family, especially her grandmother, who ran a small weekly newspaper in
Snow Hill, North Carolina.
Her grandfather was a school superintendent and edited the newspaper; her father was a newspaper reporter in
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city ...
.
Debnam was married to Richard Hunt, a former
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.
Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
reporter and military adviser to
Hubert Humphrey and died on November 1, 2020.
References
Further reading
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External links
Universal Press SyndicateThe Mini Page Archive (1969-2007) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library
Current Mini Page (includes outdated information but updated weekly)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mini Page, The
American children's literature
Newspaper supplements
1969 introductions