Scholastic Corporation Publisher Profile
World’s Largest Children’s Book Publisher and Distributor
Sep 27, 2009
Today, Scholastic has offices in 15 countries with almost 10,000 employees. The company’s 2008 revenue was almost $2 billion and its 2007 net income more than 60 million. Millions of book copies of popular series like Clifford, Harry Potter, I Spy, Goosebumps and others have been distributed in the United States alone.
History of Scholastic
What is remarkable about Scholastic is that as one of the biggest publishing companies in the world, the publicly traded company has remained independent. In the 89 years since its creation, it has changed CEOs only one – namely in 1974 from father to son. Here are other milestones of Scholastic’s 89-year history:
- 1920: Maurice R. “Robbie” Robinson founds the Scholastic Publishing Company in Pittsburgh, PA. A magazine covering high-school sports is the first publication.
- 1922: The Scholastic is launched – a national magazine designed to bring world news into classrooms.
- 1923: The Scholastic Writing Awards (SWA) program for high school students is launched.
- 1926: Scholastic publishes its first book, a compilation of the best writing by SWA winners.
- 1948: Scholastic starts its school book club program with the "Teen Age Book Club".
- 1974: M.R. Robinson’s son Richard becomes President of Scholastic Inc.
- 1978: Scholastic Productions for movie, video, TV and multimedia tie-ins is established.
- 1981: The company enters the school book fair market.
- 1989: Scholastic establishes its Professional Publishing division with books for child educators and professional development.
- 1996: The company acquires Lectorum, a Spanish-language book distributor in the U.S. and Red House Ltd., a children’s book distributor in the U.K.
- 2000: Scholastic acquires education publisher Grolier Inc.
- 2002: The company acquires children’s publisher Klutz and forges an alliance with DreamWorks for their animated feature films.
- 2004: Scholastic announces a publishing deal with the Danish LEGO company.
Scholastic’s Most Successful Books
Over the course of the decades, Scholastic has published many successful book series that are well loved by children around the world. Taking an interest in all young readers, Scholastic has also come up with solutions for those struggling with reading, for example with the Scholastic Scope magazine, published since 1964. Here are more highlights of Scholastic’s publishing program:
- 1962: Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell makes a first appearance.
- 1986: The Magic School Bus book series, written by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen, and The Baby-sitters Club book series by Ann Martin debut.
- 1992: The first book in the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine comes out and the first book in the I Spy series, written by Jean Marzollo and based on photographs by Walter Wick.
- 1994: David Kirk introduces Miss Spider in the series’ first title, Miss Spider's Tea Party.
- 1997: The first book in the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey comes out.
- 1998: The first Harry Potter book by J.K. Rowling is published by Scholastic in the U.S.
How Scholastic Has Remained Independent
Unusual for a publisher of this size are the few acquisitions undertaken. From the 1960s onward, many other publishing houses merged with and acquired each other heavily. Scholastic’s early branches worldwide helped the company’s growth and its global market presence.
Wholly owned Scholastic subsidiaries:
- 1957: Canada
- 1964: United Kingdom and New Zealand
- 1968: Australia
- 1994: Mexico
- 1997: India
- 1998: Hong Kong
Being focused on penetrating the school market from the very beginning, Scholastic could concentrate on broadening its publishing range into the library market, teacher’s education, movie and TV tie-ins and merchandising. Being broad yet focused on one thing – children’s books and education through reading – helped Scholastic grow and become a market leader.
An excellent resource for more about the company’s history, people and job opportunities is the official Scholastic website. Readers may also be interested in publisher profiles of Random House, HarperCollins and others.
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