Scholastic Inc.

What does it mean when a city of 230,000 loses its lone bookstore, as is happening to Laredo, Texas, in early 2010? With a world of books available to purchase online, is it merely a symbolic loss, or is there something more deep-rooted at work?

Today, the U.S. book industry passed a meaningful environmental threshold—approximately 50 percent of publishers now have environmental commitments in place–most with goals and timelines for vastly improving their environmental and climate performance

Former Barnes & Noble executive Thomas P. Burke has joined Scholastic Corp. as senior vice president, e-commerce. In his new role, Burke will be responsible for the strategic direction and growth of Scholastic’s e-commerce operation on Scholastic.com, according to a company press release.

Smart book production and manufacturing departments routinely evaluate their workflows and look for new and creative ways to streamline their processes, with a keen eye toward trimming both time and costs. Today, as the book publishing industry finds itself struggling in the same challenging economic environment as the rest of the United States, working efficiently is even more critical to preserving the bottom line.

Scholastic Makes Progress Toward Goals for FSC-Certified and Recycled Paper Use

When Shona Burns first entered college, she was unsure of what she wanted to study. “I started out doing a business studies degree,” she recalls. “I was bored rigid. … I had met a couple of fellow students who were getting a publishing degree and found what they were talking about a lot more interesting than what I was doing myself.”

Who hasn’t tried the excuse, “My dog ate my homework,” on a teacher? Success with that excuse now is nearly impossible, according to experts in educational book publishing. So much of what teachers currently do involves digital materials and tools that, short of a network failure or computer glitch, a student would be hard-pressed to come up with a similar excuse.

In the current economy, the book manufacturing industry appears to be caught square between the proverbial rock and a hard place: on the one side, a publishing business suffering from decreased consumer demand and on the other, suppliers destabilized by the credit crunch. The industry, however, is showing surprising resiliency, having been thrust into difficult times with eyes wide open. Printers are determined to meet the challenge of a new marketplace defined by multiplatform delivery systems, environmental awareness and niche distribution models in the hopes that the post-“great recession” economy will find a book manufacturing industry emerging leaner, “greener” and more focused on the place of books in a digital age.

Josalyn Moran will take over as children’s publishing director at San Francisco-based Chronicle Books effective June 10. In this position, she will oversee and spearhead the growth of the company’s entire children’s publishing program, encompassing both print books and other formats. Moran also will attend BookExpo America later this month on behalf of Chronicle.

Nominations for the Publishing Executive Hall of Fame are now being accepted. Each year, exceptional professionals from the production and manufacturing industry are inducted into the Publishing Executive Hall of Fame (formerly PrintMedia Hall of Fame). The inductees represent the best of the best, and are honored for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the publishing industry.