Her Mini Page makes news kid-friendly to millions

RALEIGH -- Granted face time with Supreme Court justices, first ladies and a U.S. senator, Betty Debnam Hunt has enjoyed the kind of access that inspires the respect, if not outright envy, of other journalists.

Debnam Hunt managed to build a certain cachet inside Washington not as a major player in the mainstream media but as the creator, reporter, editor, artist, saleswoman and guiding spirit of a four-page weekly newspaper that is delivered inside other papers.

What The Mini Page has lacked in traditional name value, it has gained over 37 years with its ability to reach a maximum audience, mostly children and educators, that has grown to include grandparents, parents, prisoners, really anyone learning to read.

It is syndicated in about 500 papers with a combined readership of about 13 million. It is used in school libraries. It is "one of the major phenomena in newspaper publishing over the last 35 years," says Dave Jones, the retired newspaper executive who helped Debnam Hunt launch it in Raleigh.

Finally, Debnam Hunt, 78, is stepping aside as the full-time editor and publisher. The official word came Tuesday, although she sold The Mini Page to Universal Press Syndicate, which has distributed the feature for 30 years, in May 2007.

"Don't use that word," she says. "Don't say I'm retired. Say I'm moving on to other things."

She wants to paint more. She wants to write children's books. She wants to visit schools to see firsthand what's being taught and how. She wants to spend more time working with the Debnam Hunt Literacy Resource Center at East Carolina University. She wants to spend more time with family and friends. She wants a dog.

But she cannot break free entirely. She will continue to write occasionally for The Mini Page and to offer suggestions. It's in her blood.

A journalistic family

Her grandparents ran the weekly Standard Laconic in Snow Hill. Her grandmother, Birdie Speight Debnam, put it out into her 80s, by which time her sight was failing and she used magic markers to better see what she had written in longhand. Debnam Hunt's father, W.E. Debnam, became popular in North Carolina for his radio program, "Debnam Views The News."

With a political science degree from UNC-Chapel Hill, though, Betty Debnam dreamed of being named an ambassador somewhere. She first tried other lines, such as writing advertising copy for a department store and doing public relations work, before settling into a career as a second-grade teacher in Raleigh.

The Mini Page evolved from an idea she had for a curriculum tool, called The Mini Unit, that was intended to make it simpler for teachers to quickly grasp different topics. The Raleigh schools weren't interested, so she began to think she could apply the same concept of digestible chunks of information for teachers and students to newspapers.

She pitched the idea of a tabloid-size paper for children to Jones, then the advertising director at The News & Observer, who liked it but told her she'd have to sell 12 ads before the paper would run it. Done. In keeping with the educational bent, she invented characters for the ads that would teach something about the products and services. For Jesse Jones Hot Dogs, Frankie and Frances Furter would do the selling. For North Hills Shopping Center, the task went to Paul and Polly Politely, who taught good manners.

She would invent other regulars as well -- Polly Ticks, Alpha Betty, Mini Spy and Mighty Funny, for example.

The first Mini Page, a back-to-school issue, appeared on a Sunday, Aug. 31, 1969. (The Mini Page now goes into Monday's N&O.) The first one included a "Who Am I" segment (Spiro Agnew, spelled backward), an "Animal of the Week" (the walking catfish) and a "Let's Take A Trip" (to Research Triangle Park) feature.