10 years on - a new era
This summer, we at Newsround are working out how to mark the end of a memorable and at times controversial decade, the like of which we may never see again.
After 10 years at the very top of his game - during which he's dominated all those around him and arguably changed the landscape forever - he's finally stepping down. Many people can barely believe that this moment is here, but yes, after this summer there will be no more.
He started way back in the summer of 1997. No one quite knew what to expect, but within a few years it was clear that nothing would be the same again. And not only did he conquer Britain; he wowed millions of fans in America, the Far East and Europe too.
So we're working out how to look back over the past 10 years, and we're also embarking on the search for his successor. Someone needs to take over where Harry Potter has left off, but the problem is - no one knows who.
In June 1997, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published - just a month after Tony Blair came to power. Ten years later, on 21 July 2007, the seventh and final book in the instalment will be published, having sold a staggering 225 million copies in 64 languages worldwide.
Admittedly, there are still three more movies to come. But really, this is the end of the line for the Harry Potter story - something which, on the Newsround website at least, has consistently provided far and away the most popular stories we've ever published.
And this actually provides us with a serious dilemma. Gordon Brown may be Tony Blair's heir apparent. But for Harry Potter, it's nowhere near so clear. In , Tracey Beaker was number one to take over, followed by the Alex Rider series. But none of those have had quite the cultural crossover which JK Rowling's creation has enjoyed.
In today's atomised environment, where kids download hundreds of different bands, there seem to be very few breakthrough pop-cultural phenomenons. The era of the rock-solid showbiz stories about Take That, Busted or Britney has long gone.
Harry Potter was a good banker. Come the end of the summer, who will take his place?
Comments
I think that perhaps this article is missing the point. Harry Potter was an amazing one off pretty much. There will always be popular series but nothing to compare. Its true that reading may be losing part of its popularity but the important thing is that there will always be popular series but they are unlikely to match Harry Potter. For example, if you look at the time before Harry Potter there was not a comparable series and though I'm sure authors will aspire to it that is likely to be it. It is more important to give children a wide range of fiction to give them more of a perspective than to turn the book industry into one similar to the film industry with summer blockbusters.
we're also embarking on the search for his successor
I can't tell if you're serious there. If there is a successor, it'll be obvious, and no one person or organisation will be able to influence it.
All Newsround can do is pray that it won't be an ITV show.
Who will replace Harry Potter? It's an odd question. Who replaced Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, Roger Hargreaves? The answer is, no-one. They are all standalone unique heroes of [my!] childhood reading. Sure, others replace their popularity and trends come and go - what you're really asking, it seems, is "what is the next big author for kids going to be".
And to answer that properly requires a long-term finger on the pulse, not just a sudden "oh bugger, potter's gone, how are we gonna fill all that airtime" approach.
when did Newsround /±«Óătv first run a Harry Potter story anyway? I'll wager it wasn't when Rowling was slaving over the first draft. Nor even when it was first published. Probably only when it became a best seller.
go on Tim, be bold and interview some starving novelists who are as yet unpublished, go to the Hay festival and report on the book business and just forget Rowling for now. No-one's gonna criticise you if they fade into obscurity or fail to even get a book deal, it's the story that counts. although please don't take the angle "is this the next harry potter?" - it's what's making Britain miserable, this chasing the dream. Report on writers who love writing, rather than dreaming of success and fame, and you'll be onto a winner even if they bomb cos kids love to hear about people who love their jobs. The popularity/blockbuster side is just one tiny angle. \
dunno just my thoughts and i cannot remember a single newsround story, just John Craven! (that's not a criticism of a show i loved, more a function of my crappy getting-old memory!)
Tim,
I'd take a leaf out the Daily Express playbook. Did they get all despondent after Princess Diana died?
Of course not. They simply ignored the fact that she wasn't around anymore and kept running stories about her pretty much regardless.
Genius!
So why not get your team to work up some angles around whether J.K. Rowling will be writing any more (how many authors have said they won't be writing any more books only to change their minds...must be a few, surely?)
Incidentally, I read 'The Editors' for a take on what's going on in politics coverage - but your posts are unexpectedly interesting and show the potential of the tool when used well.
The His Dark Materials Trilogy began in 1995 and is in a different league to Harry Potter - both in narrative skill and depth of ideas. No other 'children's' book series come close.
Watch out for Lyra-mania this christmas with the first film adaptation.
This does seem to trivialise as seemingly the point here is âwhat are we going to write popular articles on now as the Harry Potter phenomenon will be over after Julyâ so better âembark on the searchâ for a replacement news worth item. Also the idea that it is all over for Harry Potter and J. K. Rowling after July seems to be somewhat of a presumption.
The Harry Potter series took the nation by storm and captured the imagination and attention of many and it is unlikely that something or someone will fortuitously come along in August to take its place. There are many other superb childrenâs series of books such as the Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart & Chris Ridell but they have not achieved the same overwhelming mass popularity. The Harry Potter books will probably stand in a position to childrenâs fantasy writing as J.R.R.Tolkeins Lord of the Rings does to its genre of fantasy writing and Tolkein can hardly be deemed to have disappeared off the popularity radar.
I am sure that at some point the âeditorial voidâfor Newsround so cruelly created by âthe end of the lineâ of J.K.Rowlingâs Harry Potter will be filled by some new phenomenon although probably with a shorter longevity, but at least there will be something else to be make popular articles until of course they reach the end of the line!
William Morland is right, Newsround was around for 25 years before Harry Potter came around, so why is there even an issue?