When Dr. Ruth Westheimer's new children's books hit the store shelves this summer, joining fellow celebrity author Deborah Norville's "I Can Fly!" and "I Don't Want to Sleep Tonight" under the Golden Books banner — they will share that banner with a series of new books featuring such lucrative kiddie corps properties as the Powerpuff Girls, Scooby-Doo, Barbie and Nickelodeon's SpongeBob Squarepants.
New commercial licenses and pop-up books by star-caliber authors mark a fresh direction for Golden Books Family Entertainment. And not a moment too soon.
"Last decade they sort of bit off more than they could handle financially," says Jim Milliot, news editor of the trade magazine Publishers Weekly, of the venerable publishing house.
After a failed expansion into a more traditional publisher's model in the 1990s, Golden Books has pulled back its adult book projects and stationery operations, refocusing its energies in children's books.
"Having gone through all that, they are back where they belong in a market that certainly has room for them with a refurbished franchise," Milliot says. "They've proved that they have a great brand franchise, there is no arguing that."
Golden Books reorganized under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1999, although the company has been clear of that status for more than a year. Executives are hoping to return to the publisher's roots by relaunching classic Little Golden Books, activity books with new properties and a mass marketing campaign aimed at outlets like grocery stores, Target and K-Mart.
"In a sense, we're not as strong with the current generation as we were the generation before," says Rich Maryyanek, senior vice president of marketing at Golden Books. "It's simple growth of competition. There are more characters, more television and movies for kids."
While Golden Books forged strategic alliances with the Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Barbie to produce books spotlighting their catalog of star-powered characters, the publisher did not renew its long-standing license with Disney this year.
"Disney was a license that really was geared around movies," says Rob Goodwin, Golden Books' senior vice president of sales. "We feel that the future with kids is not built on theatrical releases, it's really built around what they see everyday, what they see on TV."
"It's a great combination of today's contemporary hottest hits, like Powerpuff Girls, along with the time-tested stuff," adds Maryyanek. " 'Pat the Bunny' is 60 years old, it's this amazing entity unto itself. It sells 240,000 units a year without a big buzz behind it."
Golden Book author Norville, best known for her work on television's "Inside Edition," raised her kids on Little Golden Books.
"The 'Pat the Bunny' book — I don't think you're allowed to give birth in America unless you have at least three copies," Norville says. "Because they just get eaten. They were always mangled and destroyed, long before the kids outgrew them."
Norville adds: "Golden Books are serious publishers, they really know their audience. For me to be published by Golden Books . . . I take it as a very welcome endorsement of my work as a kids' writer."
Little Golden Books, once sold in the checkout lines of grocery stores for a quarter, now range from $2.29 to $2.99. In its history, the publisher has sold more than 2 billion copies of its Little Golden Books with the gold foil spine.
"This is probably a make-or-break year for them," says PW's Milliot. 'The new direction gives them a better chance; it was certainly something that needed to be done."
Maryyanek remains upbeat about the company's future, saying: "Golden Books has had a lot of lives. It's one of the last great American brands."