Reflecting on our impact in 2024

At First News, the UK’s only newspaper for young people, our mission has always been clear: to inform, inspire, and empower the next generation. We believe that if the world is to become a better place, the next generation needs to be better informed than the last. That’s why we work tirelessly to deliver age-appropriate, engaging, and trustworthy news every week – because children make up 27% of the world’s population, but 100% of its future.

As we look back at 2024, we’re proud to celebrate the milestones we’ve achieved with our readers, schools, and partners – from publishing impactful stories and championing young voices, to sparking curiosity through our newspaper, app, partner news show (FYI) and more. Here’s a snapshot of an incredible year, made possible by our brilliant readers. We can’t wait to spend 2025 with you!

The newspaper

• We sent out 52 issues of First News
• We printed 1,353,351 copies of the newspaper on recycled paper
• We published 1,456 pages of educational and fun content
• We had 44 competitions for readers to win exciting prizes

On the First News app

• Readers and schools answered quiz questions 23,580 times on our new interactive quiz launched in July!
• Children read stories 542,401 times on the app
• The most popular app puzzle was wordsearch – you played it 88,004 times
• Our puzzles were played a grand total of 262,206 times across the year
• Our most popular app story was…‘Pooping clay figures of famous people!’

On FYI (our Sky Kids partner news show)

• We released 191 FYI news videos – including some of our First News readers and FYI News Clubs
• We released 5 episodes of FYI Investigates – taking a look at important topics such as addiction to gaming, children with disability and nature loss

Supporting our mission

• In our polls, readers cast 1,094,257 votes – at First News we want to know what young people have to say!
• We championed young voices with 10 First News Children’s Party manifesto topics for the general election
• We sent 9 First News competition winners to speak in parliament to share what matters to them most
• We helped break 2 Guinness World Records!
• We celebrated 4 brilliant young entrepreneurs in our competition in partnership with the British Chambers of Commerce
• First News featured 191 junior journalist reports (that’s our readers getting their work published!)
• We provided free summer reading to 3,814 families, across 699 schools to keep kids learning through the holidays
• In our 2024 Look Up campaign 4,143 of you pledged to Look Up from your devices when crossing the road

First News in school

• We held 4 free webinars for 1,232 teachers, supporting readers’ learning
• We’ve supported our 351 First News FYI News Clubs to boost extracurricular learning
• We gifted £34,100 worth of free book vouchers to schools

Find out more!

To read more insightful pieces that could be discussed with children, visit the Talking Points section of our website.

Find out all the ways you can access First News at home and at school!