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National Magazine Day 2026
Discover how the first ever National Magazine Day aims to boost the number of children reading for pleasure.
Given the fact that magazines have been around for hundreds of years and have entertained and informed billions of people around the world, it’s surprising that there’s never been a National Magazine Day. But in the 2026 National Year of Reading, this cornerstone of print publishing is finally being celebrated, with leading publishers such as Immediate, Egmont and Future working alongside the National Literacy Trust and charities such as The Children’s Book Project to deliver a day wholly dedicated to magazines.
Happening on October 14, National Magazine Day aims to encourage more children to discover the pleasure of reading by handing out more than 60,000 magazines across the country. Widely seen as a way for young people to get into reading, leading them on to books and helping with their learning, magazine have a key role in the long-term education of children.
“At the heart of this campaign is a simple aim: to help children discover the joy of reading,” said Sean Cornwell, CEO at Immediate. “Magazines offer a uniquely engaging entry point for young readers, especially powerful for reluctant or less confident readers. It’s fantastic to work on such an important project with our partners from across the industry to demonstrate the impact we can have when publishers, partners and charities work together to help inspire more children to enjoy reading.”
Bridging The Reading Gap
The campaign to increase magazine reading among children is aimed at tackling a well-documented decrease in children’s enthusiasm for reading. Research from the National Literacy Trust found that reading enjoyment among 8-18 year-olds has begun to move upwards after four consecutive years of decline, with just over a third of young people now saying they enjoy reading in their free time.
However, overall engagement remains low, and the research highlights a widening gap for children receiving means‑tested support, who are less likely to have books, magazines or other reading materials at home. This matters because reading for enjoyment is strongly linked to educational attainment, wellbeing, future life chances and economic growth.
“Our research has shown that reading plays a key role in building empathy in children, which is associated with greater engagement in reading for pleasure,” said Professor Banerjee, Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Sussex. “In our latest study with 8-10 year-olds, a significant proportion of children were reading magazines at least on occasion. This is just one part of the ‘literacy menu’ that can foster a culture of reading amongst children, drawing them in with content they find most fun and engaging.”
Win Win Win!
A key part of National Magazine Day is a national school competition, which runs until September 1. The competition invite parents and carers to enter for the chance to win bundles of children’s magazines for their child’s school by answering a simple multiple choice question. Twenty schools across the UK will each receive 250 magazines, with prizes delivered in time for National Magazine Day.
In addition, families who nominate a winning school will also receive a £100 Amazon voucher as a thank you, while one school will be awarded a special £1,000 ‘Golden Ticket’ to spend on new books, magazines and other reading resources.
With reading for pleasure widely recognised as a highly effective way to relax and learn throughout an entire lifetime, magazines have a key role in encouraging the habit of reading, and anything that can be done to spark that habit has got to be applauded.
“We created National Magazine Day to help make reading accessible, inclusive and genuinely enjoyable for children across the country,” said Ali Foster-Grose, Director of Community & Events at Immediate. “Our hope is that this becomes the start of something with real and lasting impact.”
To find out more about National Magazine Day, go to bit.ly/National-Magazine-Day
To enter the national school competition, go to bit.ly/Magazine-Competition
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