subsidiary of disney consumer products and interactive media industry publishing founder michael lynton headquarters glendale califorina 1 number of locations 2 creative centers 000000002009 01 01 00002009 area served worldwide key people andrew sugerman evp jeff sellinger svp learning jeanne mosure raj murari svps group publishers lyle underkoffler vp digital parent disney consumer products and interactive media the walt disney company divisions core publishing digital publishing subsidiaries disney book group llc disney learning disney magazine publishing inc. website books.disney.com official website disney publishing worldwide dpw formerly the disney publishing group and buena vista publishing group is the publishing subsidiary of disney consumer products and interactive media a division of the walt disney company . 2 its imprints include disney editions hyperion books for children disney press 3 kingswell 4 and freeform . it has creative centers in glendale california and in milan italy . 3 contents 1 history 1.1 incorporated 1.2 disney publishing worldwide 2 franchises 2.1 waterfire saga 2.1.1 waterfire history 2.1.2 plot 2.1.3 additional media 2.2 zodiac legacy 2.3 star darlings 2.3.1 star darlings history 3 units 3.1 hyperion books for children 4 references 5 external links history edit in 1990 disney consumer products discontinued its license for topolino an italian mickey mouse magazine . this led michael lynton the disney consumer products business development director to start up its own magazine group with the similarly outlaid disney adventures . 5 through walt disney publications inc. disney publishing launched disney comics in the united states . 6 that same year disney began publishing disney adventures . in 1991 disney publishing purchased discover magazine from family media placing it within its magazine group and purchased the family fun magazine after its second issue from jake winebaum . 5 7 incorporated edit the disney publishing group dpg was incorporated in january 1992 8 and included the already formed hyperion books hyperion books for children disney press and its units . 9 in 1994 dpg launched the mouse works and fun works divisions in february and november respectively in order to publish interactive children books . 10 by april the magazine group agreed with ziff davis publishing company to a joint venture publication family pc to be launched in september . 5 in june lynton left his position as senior vice president of dpg to become president of disney s hollywood pictures . 11 in march 1995 with the market too crowded with disney books dpg merged hyperion books for children with the disney press units . 9 in august disney magazine publishing was reorganized into three divisions each headed by a vice president group publisher disney family magazines disney kids magazines and disney special interest magazines . family magazines and special interest magazines were expected to acquire additional publications beyond their single titles family fun and discover respectively . special interest magazines publisher was assigned responsibility for the discovery channel tv show discover magazine . kids magazines included the newly developed big time weekly newspaper supplement to have a fall 1996 launch . magazine president jake winebaum was transferred to head up disney online . 12 on may 11 1998 disney publishing was renamed buena vista publishing group . 8 disney publishing worldwide edit in april 1999 buena vista publishing group changed its name to disney publishing worldwide inc. dpw with hyperion books transferred to disney s abc television group . 13 disney publishing launched its first original comic book w.i.t.c.h. in 2001 . it was successful selling one million copies per month by august 2004 and was adapted into an animated series . 14 in mid 2001 dpw and baby einstein agreed to publish a baby book line to introduce fine art foreign languages poetry and classical music . 15 gemstone publishing licensed the rights to publish disney comics from dpw beginning in june 2003 . 16 following its collapse in june 2004 the crossgen trademark and properties were purchased by dpw s educational publishing division that november for its reading aids with additional publications based on crossgen books . 17 wondertime magazine november 2008 the disney consumer products disney fairies franchise debuted in september 2005 when disney publishing unveiled the novel fairy dust and the quest for the egg paired with a virtual world . 18 in 2005 discover magazine was sold to bob guccione jr. and the disney magazine was shut down . in february 2006 wondertime magazine which focused on mothers of children up to age six was launched . 19 dpw licensed out crossgen to checker publishing group to reprint comic book series as trade paperback editions starting in february 2007 . 20 in february 2007 disney merged its kids and family focused television online radio and publishing businesses advertising sales and promotion teams into disney media advertising sales and marketing group all of which were overseen by the presidents of disney channels worldwide walt disney internet group and dpw . 21 dpw canceled disney adventure with its november 2007 issue . 22 by 2009 disney publishing worldwide was organized into three divisions global book group disney english and global magazines with four revenue areas global magazines global books u.s. magazines and disney english . 3 disney publishing worldwide india a division of walt disney company india announced a licensing agreement in april 2009 with local publisher junior diamond to publish disney comic books in both english and hindi . 23 disney publishing launched disney digital books on september 29 with five hundred books online . 24 on december 8 2010 dpw s india unit signed a multi year contract with india today group to print and distribute disney comics in india . 25 with few books issued under the imprint marvel worldwide and disney books group relaunched the marvel press imprint in 2011 with the marvel origin storybooks line . 26 in november dpw announced a new publication familyfun kids a bi monthly magazine with kids craft games puzzles and recipes . 27 in january 2012 dpw agreed to sell family fun magazine to the meredith corporation . 28 by september 2012 the white plains new york office was closed with staff being moved to glendale ; fifty sales and marketing staff moved to new york city to join editors there . 29 in january 2013 dpw launched the never girls book series an extension of the disney fairies franchise with publishing partner random house . 18 with the june 2013 announcement of the hyperion books sale hyperion s adult trade book division was moved to hachette book group . books related to existing disney abc television group properties young adult titles and disney hyperion imprint and titles were transferred to dpw . 30 by january 2014 the kingswell name was selected as a placeholder imprint name for the hyperion titles withheld from the hyperion division sale ; kingwell avenue was disney s location before moving to hyperion avenue . 4 disney publishing worldwide transferred the disney fairies franchise main publishing license to little brown books for young readers in january 2014 except for the never girls series . 18 dpw announced in april 2014 that del rey books would publish a new line of canon star wars books under the lucasfilm story group from september onward on a bi monthly schedule 31 while previous non canon expanded universe material would be reprinted under the star wars legends banner . 32 33 disney publishing has been a focus for disney consumer products to launch new franchises . in may 2014 dpw released the first book in the waterfire saga mermaid book series along with a song and music videos . disney s first deal with stan lee s pow entertainment resulted in the zodiac legacy book series with the first novel released in january 2015 through dpw . 34 the never girls chapter series reached the new york times best sellers list children s series on the week of august 10 . 35 disney learning launched its disney imagicademy program on december 11 . 36 37 at that time dpw was organized into three main units core publishing digital publishing and disney learning . 38 disney consumer products and interactive media dcpi was formed in 000000002015 06 01 0000june 2015 as merger of disney consumer products and disney interactive with disney publishing worldwide reporting to the co chairs of dcpi . 2 dpw launched star darlings its first franchise under dcpi on september 15 2015 with two books . 39 in october 2015 disney publishing announced the launch of the freeform imprint to coincide with the relaunch of abc family as freeform . this imprint was to be headed up by editor in chief and associate publisher emily thomas meehan and would focus on young adult and teen crossover fiction and nonfiction working with freeform channel partners to develop new intellectual property from both developing and bestselling authors . the first book from freeform was two truths and a lie written by melissa de la cruz and margaret stohl and was the first in a trilogy . 40 franchises edit disney publishing launched unplanned franchises starting with w.i.t.c.h. in 2001 . 14 dpw s educational division purchased the crossgen comic book assets in november 2004 . 17 dpw was then drafted as an outlet for disney consumer products planned franchises disney fairies 18 disney bunnies 41 and their extensions the never girls book series 18 and disney princess palace pets apps . 42 dpw started to originate planned franchises with the waterfire saga in 2014 and the zodiac legacy and star darlings in 2015 . 34 39 crossgen purchased franchise in november 2004 for reading aids plus development of other assets by hyperion books for children . 17 its abadazad fantasy series was reworked as a prose comic hybrid format releasing two volumes in june 2006 of a planned series of eight volumes up from the original four . 43 the franchise was restarted as an imprint by marvel comics in march 2011 . 44 star darlings launched with two chapter books in 000000002015 09 01 0000september 2015 . 39 w.i.t.c.h. launched as a comic book in 2001 and expanded with an animated series in 2004 . 14 waterfire saga launched with the first novel of a tetralogy in may 2014 . 34 the zodiac legacy expected franchise launched as a book series in january 2015 . 34 waterfire saga edit waterfire saga creator disney publishing staff jennifer donnelly original work novel print publications novels deep blue rogue wave dark tide sea spell audio original music open your eyes hollywood records 45 waterfire saga is a disney publishing franchise based on mermaids launched in may 2014 as a multimedia release around a core book series . 34 46 waterfire history edit the waterfire saga was developed by disney publishing s various departments after some years of considering doing a mermaid mythology project . a 200 page franchise bible was compiled that included cultures story arcs images of the undersea world and its inhabitants and main character profiles . in the summer of 2011 global books publisher suzanne murphy approached jennifer donnelly to write the book series . donnelly agreed . 47 in early 2014 disney publishing worldwide announced the launch of the waterfire saga . 45 by march 2014 donnelly had already finished work on the first two books and had started on the third . 48 the first novel deep blue was released under the disney hyperion imprint on may 6 2014 with a print run of 250 000 copies and a national book tour . the novel s marketing plan included advertising in print tv and in theater ; abc family and hollywood records would run additional promotions as well as a retail floor display with riser . a song and music videos were included in the simultaneous e book edition release . 34 47 the book was released simultaneously in the u.k. italy and spain . other foreign editions were to be released in late 2014 and early 2015 . the