Scholastic Inc. is developing an aggressive plan to become a bigger publisher of digital media.
In January, Scholastic, No. 41 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, launched Scholastic.com/StudyJams, a new digital community for students studying math and science, and Teacher Book Wizard, a new web site that enables teachers, librarians and parents to search a database of over 50,000 books to find the right match for students based on reading level, interest, subject and genre.
Scholastic spent six months working with panels of teachers and others to design StudyJams as a digital learning community. The site takes students in grades 3-6 through challenging math and science topics and explains them through animated videos, Karaoke songs, interactive tutorials and quizzes.
The site also contains an interactive feature where subscribers can customize and download digital songs. Subscribers, who pay an annual fee of $99 or a monthly fee of $9.95, also will be able to earn virtual points that can be redeemed at the StudyJams online music studio, where they can create their own downloadable MP3 music mixes.
With Teacher Book Wizard, teachers and librarians can download free lesson plans related to specific books and purchase many books at teacher-discounted prices through Scholastic.com.
Both the StudyJams microsite and the new book wizard are part of a broader initiative to generate more digital publishing business for Scholastic, says eScholastic president Seth Radwell. “We’re putting things online more and more,” he says. “As part of our recent web site redesign, we made it easier for users to move from catalog to catalog.”
The push to more digital publishing is drawing more subscribers. For example, Scholastic in July developed Printables, an online library of more than 10,000 items such as student practice pages, awards, flash cards and learning games from more than 600 different sources. Subscribers have options to customize content, make and label digital files, and search by different combinations such as by quick find, grade, or subject and keyword. Since the Printables microsite went live in mid-October, Scholastic has signed up about 20,000 subscribers, Radwell says.
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