Scholastic develops a sense of community

Scholastic is continuing down a path of building more online communities for its core interactive customers: teachers, students and parents.

In 2007, Scholastic will be adding new interactive tools and subscription services that enable teachers to design digital lesson plans and then download and print the materials. Several new initiatives are being introduced in time for the back-to-school season.

For example, Scholastic is teaming with TEACHERSpayTEACHERS.com, an online marketplace that offers teachers the opportunity to sell their original course materials and provides educators with access to a repository of teacher-tested, original lessons and resources for purchase. TEACHERSpayTEACHERS.com was developed by former New York City public school teacher and entrepreneur Paul Edelman. TEACHERSpayTEACHERS.com will supply content and the online community while Scholastic will market the service to its base of 100,000 schools and 1.5 million teachers.

“Scholastic is continuing to invest in innovative resources that enable teachers to collaborate with colleagues and make their lives easier, while meeting the needs of their students,” says Seth Radwell, president of Scholastic at Home and eScholastic, the company’s online information and e-commerce division.

Scholastic, No. 42 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, in November introduced Clubs Ordering OnLine, or COOL, to bring the company’s longstanding catalog business to the Internet. COOL continues the tradition of Scholastic Book Clubs, with teachers handing out a catalog of books and making suggestions, followed by many students selecting books of interest to them and ordering the tomes with their parents. Clubs Ordering OnLine gives parents a fast and convenient tool that enables them to go online with their children and order books together.

The new web initiatives are paying off. In 2006, Scholastic posted e-commerce revenue of $342 million, an increase of 27% compared to web sales of $270 million in 2005. “We are embracing the web,” says Radwell.