Inside the Succession Drama at Scholastic

March 16, 2022 12:30 AM

When the CEO of Scholastic died suddenly last year, he left control of the family empire to a former colleague—his ex-girlfriend. Now there may be a showdown brewing over billions of dollars in kids’ fare.
posted by 47WaysToLeaveYourLover (44 comments total)

This is a fascinating story; I am glad that Scholastic keeps on entertaining me long after grade school!

This is the NYT article from October: Inside the Real-Life Succession Battle at Scholastic
And the WSJ's from August: Succession Drama Grips Scholastic: CEO’s Sudden Death, an Office Romance and a Surprise Will [may be paywalled]
posted by chavenet at 2:48 AM on March 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

Had to give up on the Vanity Fair article, talk about long winded. An iron frame building you say?
posted by biffa at 4:36 AM on March 16, 2022 [4 favorites]

"...and I remember just thinking, This is a family company that produces stuff for children?” Kravitz recalls"

Funny thing... the one thing that's never family-friendly is how families get made. I wonder why that is.
posted by clawsoon at 4:48 AM on March 16, 2022 [9 favorites]

"One of the main things at Scholastic was the carpet,” says a former executive. Printed over and over on it was Scholastic’s credo and editorial platform, penned by founder Maurice Robinson, which in part declared the company’s belief in “the worth and dignity of each individual,” “respect for the diverse groups in our multicultural society,” and “high moral and spiritual values.” The executive recalls, “Most of us who worked there, we stayed there, in spite of what went on, because we believed in the carpet.”

This is so funny and also so messed up.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 5:25 AM on March 16, 2022 [24 favorites]

Funny thing... the one thing that's never family-friendly is how families get made.

Never look inside the sausage factory.
posted by biffa at 5:26 AM on March 16, 2022 [5 favorites]

Scholastic is one of those companies that I almost never think of, but when I do, I always wondered ever since I was a kid what kind of treachery it took to get a stranglehold on the school market the way it has. Perhaps not very relevant to this juicy story, just one of those scammy capitalist ventures that somehow managed to produce a whole lotta really cool stuff we all couldn't stop spending money on.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:52 AM on March 16, 2022 [14 favorites]

I haven't clicked the article yet--always a great commenting strategy--but I just want to say that sometime in the 2018-19 pre-corona times I went into my kids' elementary school Scholastic book fair and was pretty disappointed by the low literary quality of the books and the high quotient of marketing tie-ins, crass pink and cammo gender dimorphism, and in general how much less appealing the books were than what the school library had on its shelves or what we get from the local public library. So rooting for the injuries in the succession drama I guess?
posted by sy at 6:11 AM on March 16, 2022 [16 favorites]

I went to read the article but got distracted and ended up buying a spy kit in a box the shape of a book, two novelty pencils, and a bouncy ball. The magnifying glass on the spy kit has already broken.
posted by sol at 6:34 AM on March 16, 2022 [58 favorites]

This is so funny and also so messed up.

That particular detail is much more Severance than Succession imho.
posted by mykescipark at 8:16 AM on March 16, 2022 [3 favorites]

I went into my kids' elementary school Scholastic book fair and was pretty disappointed by the low literary quality of the books and the high quotient of marketing tie-ins, crass pink and cammo gender dimorphism, and in general how much less appealing the books were than what the school library had on its shelves or what we get from the local public library.

I might be wrong about this, but I strongly suspect that the Scholastic book fairs of my youth were the same way, and kid-me just didn't notice.
posted by box at 8:20 AM on March 16, 2022 [11 favorites]

When Scholastic took over/absorbed the Weekly Reader I died a little inside.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:21 AM on March 16, 2022 [4 favorites]

The article is kind of dully written, so I've only gotten part way through, but I have to say leaving all his personal possessions to the ex-girlfriend seems like a real fuck-you to his family, and kind of weird given they don't seem to have been estranged. In a different way than leaving the control of the company, very personal. Is there any explanation further along?
posted by tavella at 8:44 AM on March 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

Let’s hope it’ll all end book fair.
posted by BlunderingArtist at 8:48 AM on March 16, 2022

Scholastic Book Fairs were one of the most exciting parts of elementary school for me, because my folks would buy however many books I wanted. As an adult now I see that, for kids whose parents don't have extra money to spend, they are shitty ways to highlight inequality and limited access to opportunity. Scholastic just conditions consumerism into young children.

Anyone who says they want to "help children" or "inspire the kids" and then follows with how to make money doing so, is not really interested in helping children; they are primarily interested in making money (why else start a business, QED). The whole thing is gross, just fund libraries better, because the library should buy the books, not the kids. I know that's a cynical perspective, but Dolly Parton does books right: if you want kids to own books, just give them away. At the very least, let's keep the capitalist, consumerist conditioning out of elementary schools.
posted by LooseFilter at 9:07 AM on March 16, 2022 [15 favorites]

Oh yeah.

When I was in elementary school (late 1980s/early 1990s) the Scholastic Book Fair would come in with large metal display cabinets that would be set up in the library so that they blocked all the shelves. And then for that week our normal class trip to the library would consist of everyone picking three books from the fair and effectively putting them in layaway. We'd get a slip of paper with our selections and a bill to take home to our parents. Next trip to the library (most) everyone would come in with their parental money to get the books out of hock.

My earliest introduction to writing personal checks came when my third grade teacher described how a student in a previous year once tried to add an extra zero in the amount field without realizing that the amount is also written out in words. I still think about that anecdote every time I write out a check.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 9:20 AM on March 16, 2022 [5 favorites]

I kept wanting to get to the part of the story where the father is reunited with his son who’s been raised for decades as one of Santa’s elves.
posted by sjswitzer at 9:49 AM on March 16, 2022 [3 favorites]

... we believed in the carpet.

I would so very much like this to become the new "drank the kool-aid"
posted by treepour at 10:13 AM on March 16, 2022 [8 favorites]

The ex-girlfriend looks more formidable than the two sons and the ex-wife all added together.

Whether that bodes well or ill for Scholastic, I couldn’t say.

I remember a couple of book fairs where the books were on long tables and happy looking kids were walking out with shopping bags of books with parents in tow. The kids were mainly girls, as I recall.

I was reading tons of SFF at the time, and as I looked over the tables, I remember thinking 'these aren’t even real books!', I guess because they all felt like the further adventures of Dick and Jane, written by a company to sell books to school kids rather than an inspired author who was reaching out to an audience.
posted by jamjam at 10:14 AM on March 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

Scholastic book fairs were always a wonderment and a pain to me. I love me some books (mom and wife are English teachers, grams was a librarian... it's true to the blood), but yeah... as much as I was always excited by more things to look through, we had no money. But my mom always made sure I had enough to be able to buy one thing if I wanted.
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:36 AM on March 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

I might be wrong about this, but I strongly suspect that the Scholastic book fairs of my youth were the same way, and kid-me just didn't notice.

Kid me noticed, but on the other hand I was reading some really adult themed books at a young age. I got into some small amount of trouble for bringing books like 1984 and Brave New World to school when I was in the 3rd grade. When my classmates were reading Goosebumps in about the 5th grade I was reading Stephen King's IT, the full length uncensored version.

In hindsight there's probably a reason why I'm so cynical, especially about authoritarianism.

Also I didn't have any money for shopping the book fairs, but I definitely remember wanting to buy stickers, novelty pencils and toys and stuff, but the books at the fairs were mostly boring to me.
posted by loquacious at 10:48 AM on March 16, 2022 [3 favorites]

So wild to see the exact plot of the first Clifford book get played out by the very company that first published it!
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 10:57 AM on March 16, 2022 [3 favorites]

I'm kind of split between "it sounds like a lot of current employees are just afraid of change" and "the status quo didn't sound that great either, with the guy apparently having a history of promoting and/or marrying his latest girlfriend"; his heiress does sound like she's good at her job, probably, and I'm not a big fan of nepotism--the sons, for all their good intentions, could have ended up running the place into the ground. (Neither of them have gone into publishing already, notably.) Capitalism sucks, no matter what?

And I'm embarrassed now to think about how I got all those books from Scholastic, back in the day--in the seventies, there were books for kids that displayed a new social consciousness, especially WRT kids growing up in poverty (Where the Lilies Bloom and The Planet of Junior Brown come to mind), and I didn't even think about the kids who couldn't afford the books about people like them.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:24 AM on March 16, 2022

My household just experienced its first Scholastic Book Fair; the kids are in K and 1st. I'm ambivalent. Yes, the school hosting a commercial event targeted at kids is extremely icky. But somehow it has them excited about books, which is good. They bought some overpriced cute pencils and a few books and I guess we'll find out if a book is better when you own it, instead borrowing it from the library.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 11:51 AM on March 16, 2022 [3 favorites]

I used to work there and yes, the carpet thing is real. They talk it up when you start there. “How many companies actually have the credo woven into the carpet?”
posted by bookmammal at 11:59 AM on March 16, 2022 [14 favorites]

Ms Random writes children's books, including some published by Scholastic, plus she's had books with other publishers in the book club. Attending the book fair at local schools was a big part of her local author presence, before she aged up to writing for teens.

Now that we have the Randomlet, who loves book fair season, we've both been seeing the book fair with new eyes. We can't tell whether the vast array of things-that-aren't-books is new or just previously unnoticed. (The media/franchise tie-ins, that was the same back in 1990s -- and just as bemoaned then as now.) How families of students of different income levels handle this is also, erm, of concern.
posted by Quasirandom at 12:34 PM on March 16, 2022

I was just happy to see the Vanity Fair article mention Animorphs.
posted by doctornemo at 12:42 PM on March 16, 2022 [2 favorites]

Can I offer one point about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library? It’s not as generous as everyone thinks. Basically, the IL’s two jobs are to find Local Affiliates and negotiate cheap prices for specific books from publishers. Each month they mail a list of the cheap titles to affiliates across the country and each affiliate can buy as many books as they can afford directly from the publisher. To be an Affiliate, you sign up, and agree find the money to buy a book and mail them to a kid in your geographic area. Some Affiliates service just 5 kids, others service thousands, and typically, they obtain grant funding from other sources to fund their missions. But at no point is Dolly or the main IL group paying for the books. The costs are 100% borne by local partners.
posted by holyrood at 12:56 PM on March 16, 2022 [7 favorites]

I'm ... kind of confused. So, someone left a business to an ex-girlfriend rather than to family members?

I mean, that's it?
posted by kyrademon at 2:12 PM on March 16, 2022 [4 favorites]

I mean, that's it?

Yeah. And the ex-girlfriend happened to also be the company’s chief strategy officer and head of Scholastic Entertainment. So... pretty well qualified. But it sounds more scandalous if we all just call her an ex-girlfriend.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 2:26 PM on March 16, 2022 [19 favorites]

I like the take that the guy was mostly married to the company and his three human wives were chosen because of what they could do for the company. (Have known someone in real life who seemed to be marrying like that. Detractors thought it was conscious advantage-seeking, but it kept on when the person was the more powerful in the couple; I think maybe the person was so completely inside their job that only someone equally devoted could be a mate, at any given time, and the job kept changing.)
posted by clew at 2:26 PM on March 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

Can I just be a voice of dissent here about Scholastic's catalog? They've published some crap, sure, but most publishers have. Even if Scholastic is known for publishing just-good-enough titles (which might be what people most remember them for at book fairs) they've also published the Larry Cobbler series by Terfy Cowering (referred to by some other name in TFA) as well as the Dog Man series, the I Survived series, and most (all?) of Raina Telgemeier's books. In our library system, at least, if you look at the 10 most-popular books in children's fiction over the last year, literally seven of them were Dog Man titles (and one of the others was a Wings of Fire book--another Scholastic title), and Raina Telgemeier's books are easily among the most popular juvenile biographies/memoirs. If you look at PW's bestseller lists, it's not uncommon to see Nate the Great, Tui Sutherland, and Lauren Tarshis on there, with several slots for Dog Man and periodic returns by Larry Cobbler and Hunger Games. Scholastic clearly publishes a number of series which genuinely excite a huge number of young readers, and I'm not really seeing a downside to that.

They also, unlike Hachette and Simon & Schuster, have reasonable ebook pricing and audiobook terms in OverDrive.

I'm sorry the company is facing this problem, but I'm sure that they and Lucchese will both get through it somehow; Lucchese sounds quite competent and the company has a strong catalog.
posted by johnofjack at 2:53 PM on March 16, 2022 [18 favorites]

Anyone who says they want to "help children" or "inspire the kids" and then follows with how to make money doing so, is not really interested in helping children; they are primarily interested in making money (why else start a business, QED). The whole thing is gross, just fund libraries better, because the library should buy the books, not the kids. I know that's a cynical perspective, but Dolly Parton does books right: if you want kids to own books, just give them away. At the very least, let's keep the capitalist, consumerist conditioning out of elementary schools.

I think this is pretty poorly thought out. One of the biggest problems we have is that generous, altruistic minded people who think this way have set the stage for their own exploitation and abuse. Anyone who wants to "help children" or "inspire the kids" without being primarily interested in making money in exchange contributes to the devaluation of the activities and jobs that actually do those things. It especially hurts those who cannot afford to do those things without compensation. So, yeah, it's great if you're Oprah. Not so great if you're from a working class background and want to go into, say, teaching. The result is that there is poor monetary incentive to do such things professionally. In the worst case, these things get done inadequately by people with good intentions, but lacking in skill. And nobody want to pay for better skills, because they're supposed to do it without expecting to take good money in exchange. Because that is just so gross, right?

The story is kind of overblown, imo. I mean, it sounds like this was kind of a weird head of the family/company, but I have no fucks to give about large, successful businesses being handed down to heirs because they feel that's how it should be done. And Scholastic itself, for whatever ickyness you might think of it, has sold and produced some pretty good books. And most importantly, books that kids actually like to read. Which is capitalist, yes, and the better for it.
posted by 2N2222 at 4:18 PM on March 16, 2022 [6 favorites]

And nobody want to pay for better skills, because they're supposed to do it without expecting to take good money in exchange. Because that is just so gross, right?

That's a poor reading of my comment. Of course people can and should make money doing things, I just don't think that young children should be marketed to and sold things in public schools during school time, that specifically is extremely problematic. And libraries should still buy books, of course, and provide them to students (it's what they're primarily for), and authors, illustrators and publishers can keep on making money selling books online and in all kinds of stores; but maybe not by using our schools as proxy storefronts, for goodness sake.
posted by LooseFilter at 5:08 PM on March 16, 2022 [4 favorites]

I just don't think that young children should be marketed to and sold things in public schools during school time, that specifically is extremely problematic.

There is also the classism issue.

Even though I didn't really want any of the books being offered I still had all kinds of weird, bad feelings about the really obvious differences between the kids who could afford to get whatever they wanted and those, like myself, who could not.

Like I really didn't objectively care about the books on offer but it still felt shitty to watch some total jerk of a rich kid going through the order sheet and basically marking off everything and making a production out of it specifically to needle their less well off classmates.

And I clearly remember the kids from well off families totally being weird and shitty about it and flaunting it, much as they did the same about other signifiers of economic disparity, like clothing choices or the kinds of toys or bikes they got.
posted by loquacious at 6:10 PM on March 16, 2022 [2 favorites]

Like I really didn't objectively care about the books on offer but it still felt shitty to watch some total jerk of a rich kid going through the order sheet and basically marking off everything and making a production out of it specifically to needle their less well off classmates.

I didn't think I'd become an advocate of bullying, but, here we are
posted by Merus at 6:49 PM on March 16, 2022

I didn't think I'd become an advocate of bullying, but, here we are

With all gentleness and the distance of hindsight I don't think these kids/peers had a great home life, either, considering the values they were being taught or how they felt the need to lash out like they did likely due to being in emotionally unavailable families and turning to consumerism to ameliorate those needs.

They were also just kids and even well adjusted kids can be weird and shitty. I don't think bullying them would help them much.
posted by loquacious at 7:58 PM on March 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

The framing of this article is offensive. Did the "ex-girlfriend" break-up her way to the top? Maybe he left the company to her because she is a professional he had worked closely with, and felt strongly about her professional background and vision. And oh yeah, they dated once, which would be the first time co-workers have ever done that. Gasp, where ever are my pearls.
posted by Toddles at 11:07 PM on March 16, 2022 [4 favorites]

My earliest introduction to writing personal checks came when my third grade teacher described how a student in a previous year once tried to add an extra zero in the amount field without realizing that the amount is also written out in words. I still think about that anecdote every time I write out a check.

Tangentially.

(...this is now what I think of every time I write out a check.)
posted by fairmettle at 12:14 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]

I wondered if the decisions in the will were being interpreted by his sons as their father caring much more about the business than about them. On top of which, they may well have been expecting to not *really* have to work for money and that may also have changed.
posted by plonkee at 12:17 AM on March 17, 2022

Noted in passing: Scholastic is the publisher of Alex Gino's Melissa, a book about a trans girl that has repeatedly topped the American Library Association's list of most-frequently challenged books.
posted by box at 5:13 AM on March 17, 2022 [5 favorites]

It’s true that the children’s books ecosystem was disproportionately populated by women—partly because it was the less prestigious end of publishing and partly because educating and entertaining children traditionally have been seen as women’s work.

It is striking to me that the author thinks these are distinct phenomena.
posted by solotoro at 6:17 AM on March 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

Sons who thought they might want to maaaaybe get into the family business one day vs a woman who has worked for the company for decades and happens to have slept with him at one point.

Sounds like Robinson went with what's best for the company. Good for him and for Lucchese.
posted by mikesch at 8:09 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]

Scholastic has a fine list. That said, the school book fair thing is problematic and it seemed awful to me back in the ... 1960s. Yeah, it's been going on for a long time. I couldn't tell if my mother wouldn't let me buy much because she thought what was on offer was trashy or because we couldn't afford it. Probably both. But I clearly recall the whole thing making me incredibly anxious. (And even then, a lot of it wasn't actually books at all.)
posted by zenzenobia at 9:16 AM on March 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

So, 20 year vet teacher here (confession: I have a ridiculous number of books in my classroom.) Those are very good points above about turning kids into consumers, at least the middle and upper class, that is … but the sad fact is that classrooms and schools do not get in enough revenue to modernize their libraries as frequently as kids’ tastes change. So Scholastic Book Clubs and Book Fairs bring titles kids really want closer to them, and the adults in the room can honor the kids’ requests with bonus points / book credits due to the sales.

Many kids do not get to bookstores or even to the library these days. They learned a lot of online reading skills during Covid and I don’t see that changing. Book fairs may literally be the only place they can browse books. Yes, a lot at the fair is junk, but a lot is books too.

A boatload of marketing is aimed at kids - every school fundraiser from Girl Scout cookies, Boy Scout Popcorn to wrapping paper to magazines to candy bars. One way to fix all this is to more adequately fund public schools, especially those serving Title 1 and special needs students.

One concern I do have is that Scholastic bought out all the other little guys like Troll and others who may have pushed their corporate envelope. I’m guessing there are great books out there no longer finding a publisher.
posted by beckybakeroo at 11:09 PM on March 19, 2022 [5 favorites]