Following on his recent seven-figure donations to independent bookstores in the US and UK, James Patterson announced a $1.25 million donation to fund grants of $1,000 to $10,000 to school libraries. To be awarded on a rolling basis throughout 2015, the funds can be used for a variety of purposes, including, for example, repairs to a computer system or a school project focused on books and reading.Scholastic Reading Club will administer funding applications to its network of 62,000 schools and 800,000 teachers, and Scholastic will match Patterson’s donation with “bonus points” that teachers can use to acquire books and materials for classroom use. […]
Education
Trade Rebounds In Houghton’s Fourth Quarter
Helped by publication of bestselling What If, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s modest trade division saw sales rise in the fourth quarter to $48 million, up $2 million from a year ago, as the unit recorded a small net gain for the period ($500,000), compared to a small net loss a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA of $4.8 million also rose slightly, up from $4.5 million a year ago. For the full year, however, sales of $163 million were down $8 million, and the trade unit recorded a net loss of $3 million, down from net income of $6.6 million a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA of $12.7 […]
Chegg to Outsource Print Textbook Business to Ingram
Building substantially on an initiative that began last August, Chegg.com will transition the handling of all print textbook inventory over to Ingram under a renewable, five-year agreement as the company that started as a textbook rental play moves towards becoming an all-digital “student hub.” (Digital textbook rentals will become Chegg’s biggest business, in which they compete directly with Ingram’s CourseSmart, among many other players.) Chegg is positioning the move as a full reboot of the company, whose stock has languished since it went public in late 2013 — in part because Chegg has lost money since launching in 2007, and those […]
Corporate: Reviving Scribner’s Magazine Online, Open Road Espanol, and Courier’s Brazilian Buy
The latest consumer-facing website launched by Simon & Schuster revives an old magazine name: Scribner Magazine, inspired by (but dropping the apostrophe of) the publisher’s long-ago sister publication Scribner’s Magazine, which published from 1887 through 1939. The new site will act as a general-interest literary magazine featuring “contributions from Scribner authors, editors, fellow S&S imprints, and other voices in the literary community.” Pieces already online includes an essay from Anthony Doerr on his new novel ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, up for a National Book Award Wednesday night; rare Hemingway photos from the publication of Ernest Hemingway’s THE SUN […]
Bertelsmann Makes Big Educational/Training Software Purchase
Bertelsmann has agreed to acquire North Carolina-based educational software firm Relias Learning, paying in the “mid-hundreds of millions” of dollars to buyout firm Vista Equity Partners. Two sources tell Reuters that translates into roughly $540 million. Relias produces employee training software that is used by over 4,000 organizations, primarily in health care and human services (but also including such sectors as law enforcement and correctional facilities). Bertelsmann ceo Thomas Rabe notes in a statement, “Relias is the leading e-learning provider in the healthcare and compliance sectors, and the company profits from the three global megatrends of education, health and digitization.” Reuters quotes Rabe […]
Scholastic Takes $21.4 Charge, Mostly on Storia, Which Will Switch to School Licensing Model
Scholastic reported fourth quarter and full fiscal year earnings on Thursday morning, with sales rising 8 percent to $549 million and operating income increasing more, at $48.6 million. The stock rose in early morning trading on the improved results and positive guidance for next year. But the company disclosed a variety of charges, including a mostly non-cash, pre-tax charge of $21.4 million primarily due to a shift in their Storia ereading platform. Scholastic intends to move the service to a “streaming model,” and as a result they will not support various operating-specific Storia apps. That change and a “settlement charge” […]