Magazine Publishers of America - The Four Questions-Dan Sullivan, Nickelodeon Magazine Group

The Four Questions-Dan Sullivan, Nickelodeon Magazine Group

July 6, 2006

Dan Sullivan, SVP-Group Publisher, Nickelodeon Magazine Group

As New York-based SVP-Group Publisher of Nickelodeon Magazine Group, Dan Sullivan directs all magazine publishing operations for the unit, including Nickelodeon magazine and Nick Jr. Family, both bimonthlies. The former, which launched in June 1993 with a 150,000 rate base, has grown to a rate base of 1,075,000, while Nick Jr., begun in October 1999 with a 300,000 rate base, has since risen to 1,150,000. Nickelodeon's primary audience are kids aged 6-14, and Nick Jr.'s are mothers with kids up to 11 years old. Sullivan also led MTV Networks' entry into the online arena with the "Nickelodeon" and "Nick at Nite" sites on AOL and the Internet. Earlier in his career, he was General Manager of Us Weekly and VP of Manufacturing and Distribution for Rolling Stone.

Q. The Nickelodeon brand's on everything from toys and theme parks to hotels and your spin-off Nick Jr. What's next?A. Digital content continues to get bigger. The philosophy behind Nickelodeon is that we want to be everything for kids, to be in all aspects of their lives. In magazines, we do personalized digital magazines, as well as a couple of special issues for sale at newsstand and through kids' club memberships that feature "SpongeBob SquarePants," "The Fairly Odd Parents," and "Blue's Clues."

Q. Nickelodeon and MTV were among the cable networks that originated back in the day—circa 1977—on Time Warner's Qube cable system in Columbus, Ohio. Did you think that experiment would have resulted in Nick's becoming the multi-platform empire it is today?
A. What's always driven Nickelodeon fundamentally is that we try to be incredibly creative and keep our finger on the pulse of what our audience cares about. We do research almost every day, whether it's focus groups or school visits by our editors. That's helped us stay current with what kids care about. And we're always coming up with new ideas—3-D covers, lenticular covers and different paper stocks like comic book paper for our "Comic Book" section.

Q. Comic books occasionally have published match-ups like "Superman versus Spider-Man," a DC Comics/Marvel Comics project back in the '70s. And in recent years there was talk at Warner Bros. about a Superman vs. Batman flick. Might you in the comic section of Nickelodeon magazine do, say, SpongeBob versus Renny & Stimpy or Jimmy Neutron vs. Jonny Quest?
A. We already do a very successful matchup in our "Power Hour" comic feature, with genius Jimmy Neutron paired with Timmy Turner from "The Fairly Odd Parents" [a smart 10-year-old with fairy godparents]. We did the second one last February and the next one is coming soon. (Click here to view a video version.)

Q. Have you published an expose yet on the secret ingredients in the "green slime" so prominent at your theme parks and at the Kids' Choice Awards?
A. It wasn't an expose, but we actually did publish that in one of our earlier issues, probably five years ago. It was a pull-out card containing the recipe for slime cake and that was one of our most popular features.

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