News Corp launches literacy campaign, Dr Seuss book giveaway

News Corp Australia has launched a children’s literacy campaign that includes a giveaway of Dr Seuss books.

The month-long ‘Raise a Reader’ campaign, which begins on 13 February, ‘will reveal that Australia’s reading and writing levels are falling behind global standards and encourage parents and caregivers to take the time to read to their children’, reports Mumbrella.

The campaign will run across the company’s metropolitan mastheads, including the Daily Telegraph, the Herald Sun and the Courier-Mail, and will coincide with News Corp Australia’s annual book promotion, which this year features a collection of Dr Seuss books. In previous years News Corp has given away Disney books and Mr Men and Little Miss books.

Australian Children’s Laureate and author Jackie French will be an ambassador for the campaign.

News Corp Australia has also teamed up with online learning provider LiteracyPlanet to run a ‘Word Mania’ competition with daily prizes.

News Corp Australia managing director for metro and regional publishing, Damian Eales, told Mumbrella the company wanted the campaign to have ‘its own brand and identity so we can build a movement associated with this in coming years’.

‘This is the third iteration but the campaign builds every time. For us, we want to get the books, and quite frankly, our newspapers into the hands of more people. But at the same time this is trying to build a habit when kids are going back to school.’

Eales said the book promotions ‘absolutely increase circulation and unashamedly so’.

HarperCollins Australia, which is a subsidiary of News Corp, will publish Dr Seuss’s What Pet Should I Get? later this month.

Category: Local news