Amid money troubles, Scholastic is seeking its next chapter on YouTube

If you went to middle school in the United States in the 80s to early 2000s and are somewhat of a nerd, the name Scholastic probably evokes fond memories of towering wire shelves stocked with glossy new books. There were few things more exciting to our 10-year-old selves than getting a fresh new Scholastic Book Club order form, or coming into the classroom and seeing a box of delivered books waiting to be unwrapped.

But that was decades ago, in an age where people bought books from sellers other than Amazon.

Now, Scholastic–who’s not one of publishing’s Big Five, but is perhaps the most prominent publisher of children’s and YA books–is undergoing a major restrategizing. Despite publishing prominent IPs like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, its stock has dropped 40% over the past year, and its cash resources are slimming, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Scholastic’s plan to drag itself back includes typical moves like layoffs and cutting down on brick-and-mortar assets.

It also includes YouTube.

As part of the restructuring, and amid all these money troubles, Scholastic is taking a gamble: spending $182 million to acquire 9 Story Media Group, a Toronto-based animation studio it hopes can help turn its most popular books into view-raking YouTube content.

Peter Warwick, Scholastic’s CEO and President, described the acquisition as a “key turning point” for the company’s future.

Scholastic already has a YouTube channel, but it doesn’t post frequently and its video library is populated mostly with book trailers. Its traffic pales in comparison to digital native animated kids’ IPs like Cocomelon, with around ~220,000 subscribers and 2.5 million views per month.

It’s clearly hoping to revamp the channel with 9 Story Media Group’s animated content, meeting Gen Z and Gen Alpha readers where they hang out most–but that won’t be easy. On YouTube, there is an enormous amount of competition for kids’ attention. Companies like Moonbug and Pinkfong are well-oiled machines with years of experience in pumping out loud, bright videos kids can’t help but watch.

One thing this initiative does have going for it is the tie to beloved stories. Scholastic publishes some of the world’s top children’s and YA books, and if its new subsidiary can make attractive content that adapts or adds to these IPs, it could find fresh revenue on YouTube.

At least Amazon, which has gutted the bookselling industry, doesn’t seem interested in dominating kids’ animated content.

Yet.