Forever Young

What has Kamratposten – KP – meant for Sweden’s children during its long history – and now?

KP (and Folkskolans barntidning, which the magazine was called until 1950) meant a lot for children’s reading already from its beginnings in 1892. And that was founder Stina Quint’s goal, to get kids to read even outside of school. In more recent years, I hope we’ve meant a lot to kids with our messages “Dare to be yourself!” “Give your opinion!” and “Say No to Bullying!” Also I believe that KP has helped strengthen kids’ senses of theirselves and answered many questions that they don’t dare to ask anyone else. Last but not least, the magazine has been the source of a lot of laughs for generations of Swedish children.

How has KP managed to survive all these years?

First and foremost: quality. Also we get a lot of response from our readers and we use a lot of material that’s been sent to us, which really shows that we are putting out the readers’ magazine. These days it also has a lot to do with parents who grew up reading and liking the magazine and they want their children to experience the same thing. Another important factor could be that we dare to work with very ambitious illustrations. I believe that Swedish kids are really interested in high-quality illustrations.

What are your biggest challenges?

Keeping up! They day we start gathering moss, it’s over. It’s also a constant challenge with such a broad target audience – kids between 8 and 14 years old. We have to be really careful to offer broad content.

What are you most proud of?

I’m insanely proud to be editor-in-chief of KP. I read the magazine myself between 1987 and 1994 and know exactly how important it can be. But I’m most proud of my unstoppable editorial staff who deliver high quality month after month, year after year. It’s enormously impressive.

What is the most fun about working with KP?

That we get so much and such great response from readers. That’s something I reallyh missed at other magazines. And we can write about nearly anything. The job has so much variety in that way.