Scholastic Corporation

Scholastic Corporation is an American multinational publishing, education, and media company that publishes and distributes books, comics, and educational materials for schools, teachers, parents, children, and other educational institutions. Products are distributed via retail and online sales and through schools via reading clubs and book fairs. Clifford the Big Red Dog, a character created by Norman Bridwell in 1963, is the mascot of Scholastic.

Company history

Scholastic was founded in 1920 by Maurice R. Robinson near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to be a publisher of youth magazines. The first publication was The Western Pennsylvania Scholastic. It covered high school sports and social activities; the four-page magazine debuted on October 22, 1920, and was distributed in 50 high schools.[3] More magazines followed for Scholastic Magazines.[3][4] In 1948, Scholastic entered the book club business.[5] In 1957, Scholastic incorporated their first international subsidiary in Canada, Scholastic Canada.[6] In the 1960s, other international publishing locations were established in England (1964), New Zealand (1964), and Sydney (1968).[7] Also in the 1960s, Scholastic entered the book publishing business. In the 1970s, Scholastic created its TV entertainment division.[3] From 1975 until his death in 2021, Richard Robinson, son of the corporation's founder, was CEO and president.[8]

Scholastic began trading on the Nasdaq on May 12, 1987.

In 2000, Scholastic purchased Grolier for US$400 million.[9][10] Scholastic became involved in a video collection in 2001. In February 2012, Scholastic bought Weekly Reader Publishing from Reader's Digest Association, and announced in July 2012 that it planned to discontinue separate issues of Weekly Reader magazines after more than a century of publication, and co-branded the magazines as Scholastic News/Weekly Reader.[11] Scholastic sold READ 180 to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2015. In December 2015, Scholastic launched the Scholastic Reads Podcasts. On October 22, 2020, Scholastic celebrated its 100th anniversary. In 2005, Scholastic developed FASTT Math with Tom Snyder to help students with their proficiency with math skills, specifically being multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction through a series of games and memorization quizzes gauging the student's progress.[12] In 2013, Scholastic developed System 44 with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to help students encourage reading skills. In 2011, Scholastic developed READ 180 with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to help students understand their reading skills.[13]

Company structure

The business has three segments: Children's Book Publishing and Distribution, Education Solutions, and International. Scholastic holds the perpetual US publishing rights to the Harry Potter and Hunger Games book series.[14][15] Scholastic is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and print and digital educational materials for pre-K to grade 12.[16] In addition to Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, Scholastic is known for its school book clubs and book fairs, classroom magazines such as Scholastic News and Science World, and popular book series: Clifford the Big Red Dog, The Magic School Bus, Goosebumps, Horrible Histories, Captain Underpants, Animorphs, The Baby-Sitters Club, and I Spy. Scholastic also publishes instructional reading and writing programs, and offers professional learning and consultancy services for school improvement. Clifford the Big Red Dog is the official mascot of Scholastic.[17]

Marketing initiatives

Founded in 1923 by Maurice R. Robinson, The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards,[18] administered by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, is a competition which recognizes talented young artists and writers from across the United States.[19]

Imprints and corporate divisions

In 2005, Scholastic developed FASTT Math with Tom Snyder to help students with their proficiency with math skills, specifically being multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction through a series of games and memorization quizzes gauging the student's progress.[31] In 2013, Scholastic developed System 44 with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to help students encourage reading skills. In 2011, Scholastic developed READ 180 with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to help students understand their reading skills. Scholastic Reference publishes reference books.[32][33]

• Trade Publishing Imprints include:
• Arthur A. Levine Books, which specializes in fiction and non-fiction books for young readers. The imprint was founded at Scholastic in 1996 by Arthur Levine in New York City. The first book published by Arthur A. Levine Books was When She Was Good by Norma Fox Mazer in autumn 1997. The imprint is most notable as the publisher of the American editions of the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling.[20][21][22] In March 2019, Levine left Scholastic to form his own new publisher. Scholastic will retain Levine's back catalogue.[23]
• The Chicken House
• Graphix, a graphic novel imprint started in 2005.[24]
• Klutz Press
• Orchard Books
• Scholastic Australia – made up of Koala Books, Margaret Hamilton Books, Omnibus Books, and Scholastic Corporation.[25]
• Children's Press (spelled "Childrens Press [sic]" from 1945 to 1996) – founded in 1945,[26] and formerly headquartered in 1224 West Van Buren Street, Chicago, Illinois until it was acquired by Grolier in 1995 moving and separating its operations to New York City New York and Danbury, Connecticut, and which then became part of Scholastic Corporation in 2000.[27] This press published various publications such as the Rookie Read-About series, A True Book series, Young People's series (Young People's Science Encyclopedia (underwent 10 editions during its 31-year printing from 1962 to 1993 which are 1962, 1964–1966, 1970, 1978, 1982, 1987, 1991, and 1993), and New Frontiers in Science and Young People's Science Dictionary (1964) by the staff of National College of Education (now National Louis University), Young People's World (1966), Young People's Illustrated Encyclopedia (1972), and Young People's Animal Encyclopedia (1980) by Maurice Burton), and the Getting to Know series, and it also has a secondary imprint, Franklin Watts.
• 9 Story Media Group – founded in 2002, is a media company in Canada. In March 2024, Scholastic announced it would acquire complete economic interest and minority voting rights in the company for $186 million; the transaction closed on June 21 of that year.[28][29][30]

Scholastic Entertainment

Scholastic Entertainment (formerly Scholastic Productions and Scholastic Media) is a corporate division[34] led by Deborah Forte since 1995. It covers "all forms of media and consumer products, and is comprisedof [sic] four main groups – Productions, Marketing & Consumer Products, Interactive, and Audio." Weston Woods is its production studio, acquired in 1996, as was Soup2Nuts (best known for Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, Science Court, Home Movies and WordGirl) from 2001 to 2015 before shutting down.[35]

Scholastic has produced audiobooks such as the Caldecott/Newbery Collection;[36] Scholastic has been involved with several television programs and feature films based on its books. In 1985, Scholastic Productions teamed up with Karl-Lorimar Home Video, a home video unit of Lorimar Productions, to form the line Scholastic-Lorimar Home Video, whereas Scholastic would produce made-for-video programming, and became a best-selling video line for kids, and the pact expired for two years, whereas Scholastic would team up with leading independent family video distributor and a label of International Video Entertainment, Family Home Entertainment, to distribute made-for-video programming for the next three years.[37]

Book fairs

Scholastic Book Fairs began in 1981. Scholastic provides book fair products to schools, which then conduct the book fairs. Schools can elect to receive books, supplies and equipment or a portion of the proceeds from the book fair.[39]

In the United States, during fiscal 2024, revenue from the book fairs channel ($541.6 million) accounted for more than half of the company's revenue in the "Total Children's Book Publishing and Distribution" segment ($955.2 million),[40] and schools earned over $200 million in proceeds in cash and incentive credits.[41]

In October 2023, Scholastic created a separate category for books dealing with "race, LGBTQ and other issues related to diversity", allowing schools to opt out of carrying these types of books. Scholastic defended the move, citing legislation in multiple states seeking to ban books dealing with LGBTQ issues or race.[42] After public backlash from educators, authors, and free speech advocacy groups, Scholastic reversed course, saying the new category will be discontinued, writing: "It is unsettling that the current divisive landscape in the U.S. is creating an environment that could deny any child access to books, or that teachers could be penalized for creating access to all stories for their students".[43][44]

Scholastic Book Fairs have been criticized for spurring unnecessary purchases, highlighting economic inequality among students, and disruption of school activities and facilities.[45][46]

Book clubs

Scholastic book clubs are offered at schools in many countries. Typically, teachers administer the program to the students in their own classes, but in some cases, the program is administered by a central contact for the entire school. Within Scholastic, Reading Clubs is a separate unit (compared to, e.g., Education). Reading clubs are arranged by age/grade.[47] Book club operators receive "Classroom Funds" redeemable only for Scholastic Corporation products.[48][49][50]

2025 data breach

In January 2025, claims of a data breach affecting Scholastic came from a "furry" hacker identified as "Parasocial."[51] The breach affected an estimated 8 million customers consisting of names, email addresses, phone numbers, and home addresses. The breach was provided to Have I Been Pwned? in an effort to inform customers.[52]

See also

• Books in the United States
• List of English-language book publishing companies

External links