Mutant Ninja Turtles coming to play with SpongeBob and Dora at Nickelodeon

Move over SpongeBob SquarePants, some mutant ninja turtles are headed your way.

Viacom Inc.'s kids cable network Nickelodeon has struck a $60 million deal with The Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment to acquire the rights to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," which was one of the biggest kids shows of the 1980s and even spawned a successful movie franchise. Nickeloden will produce a new cartoon series that it hopes to premier in 2012 and sister studio Paramount Pictures will release a new feature based on the series as well.

For Nickelodeon, the move is part of an ongoing strategy to to attract more boys to the channel. Over the past five years, Nickelodeon's reach among boys 6-11 has fallen by almost 10%, and by 6% in the  9-14 category. Rivals including Walt Disney Co., new cable network Disney XD and Time Warner's Cartoon Network, both have programming that is aimed directly at boys and young teens.

Nickelodeon, on the other hand, has often tried to make shows that appeal to both boys and girls, such as its cartoon shows "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Dora the Explorer," or primarily girls such as is the case with its live action shows "iCarly" and "True Jackson, VP."

The deal is also a change in direction in the type of programming Nickelodeon typically carries, where cartoons tend to be soft and cerebral. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" follows the adventures of four mutant turtles who fight evil from their home base in the New York City sewer system and are guided by their leader, a rat named Master Splinter.

SpongeBob's still a hit on the screen but a dud on the newsstand

Even SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer are getting squeezed by the economy.

Viacom is shutting down Nickelodeon Magazine this week and will lay off about 30 staffers. Launched in 1993, the magazine, with a circulation of more than 1 million and a total audience of more than 6 million, was for many years an important promotional platform for the children's cable network and provided a steady stream of cash. The magazine even once was a National Magazine Award finalist and also led to a few spin-off products.

But like other magazines, Nickelodeon has suffered from the double whammy of more of its audience going to the Internet (darn those early adapters) and a prolonged advertising slump. Although the cable network remains dominant, the value the magazine provided as a marketing tool for it had faded over the last few years.

So remember, next time you take your kids to the doctor's office, bring reading material with you.

-- Joe Flint