As Chief Impact Officer, Judy Newman leads Scholastic’s efforts to amplify its mission and expand its reach to ensure equal access to book choice and literacy for all children through partnerships with non-profits and other organizations. She drives The United States of Readers, Scholastic’s national literacy program, to activate private philanthropy and alternative sources of funding to leverage Scholastic’s strengths and partner with teachers in under-resourced schools to reach students with the greatest need of literacy support. Since joining the company in 1993, Judy has worked to champion teachers and position Scholastic as a trusted literacy partner to meet their students’ evolving needs.
John Shegerian: Hit the latest Impact Podcast right into your inbox each week. Subscribe by entering your email address at impactpodcast.com to make sure you never miss an interview. This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet, and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States, and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com. This episode of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Closed Loop Partners. Closed Loop Partners is a leading circular economy investor in the United States, with an extensive network of Fortune 500 corporate investors, family offices, institutional investors, industry experts, and impact partners. Closed Loop’s platform spans the arc of capital from venture capital to private equity, bridging gaps and fostering synergies to scale the circular economy. To find Closed Loop Partners, please go to www.closedlooppartners.com.
John: Welcome to another edition of the Impact Podcast. I’m John Shegerian, and I’m so honored to have with us today Judy Newman. She’s the Chief Impact Officer at Scholastic. Welcome, Judy, to the Impact Podcast.
Judy Newman: Thanks so much for having me, John. I’m happy to be here.
John: A fellow NYU grad and a fellow New York, New Jersey, and it’s always fun to have some of my fraternity mates on the show. Thanks for joining today and the generosity of your time. Judy, before we get talking about all the impactful work you and your colleagues are doing at Scholastic, can you get into a little bit of the Judy Newman story? Where’d you grow up and how’d you get on this journey?
Judy: Yeah, well, I grew up outside of Boston. We had a thing, needless to say, Yankees, Red Sox, in a town called Newton, Mass[?], which is still there and doing well. I grew up there, and one of the foundational aspects of my childhood was the Newton Free Library, where I went. I rode my banana bike. I don’t know if you remember them with the big handlebars.
John: [inaudible]I had to swim[?]. I had the banana seat. Come on.
Judy: It was great, and we were free then. We could ride there by ourselves, and I would ride to the library and check out books, and there was a summer reading program, and I needed to read the most books. Really, beginning in fourth or fifth grade, I just discovered whole new worlds of books and reading. It sounds corny because I wasn’t the nerdiest kid in the world, but I loved reading. That was the beginning, I think, of my career, which has been entirely in publishing. My parents were big readers, and we could only watch half an hour of TV a night back in the day. I grew up there, and then I was supposed to go to law school. That was the thing. I went to Connecticut College undergrad in New London with the eye of- ear[?] to going to law school. I had a great time at Conn College, learned a lot, met a lot of people, and then said, wait a minute. I don’t really want to go to law school. I didn’t do so well on the LSATs. I found this publishing course then called the Radcliffe Publishing Course, now the NYU Publishing Course. I just got into that and started my career in publishing. I interviewed with you as a networking opportunity. I met with the president of then Avon Books. He said, “What do you like to do?” I said, “I’d love to throw parties.” He said, “Well, publicity is a great publishing career.” I started in publicity, which is essentially promoting authors’ books on the adult side. My dad’s like, “This isn’t a career.” He was still back in the law school track. He said, “You should get an MBA.” That’s when I went to NYU. I got an MBA at night. I tell lots of my colleagues, particularly younger people, if you can get a graduate degree while you’re working, it’s great. You stay in the game at work, but then you [crosstalk]. I got an MBA. Then they said to me, okay, we’re starting this book club to compete with Scholastic. It was at Dell Publishing, which is now part of Random House. “Do you want to run it? You have an MBA. You must know how to run a P&L.” I’m like, okay. I did. I’m 26 years old at the time. We started a book club called the Trumpet Club, a classroom book club to compete with Scholastic. I know this business from the ground up. Eventually, Scholastic recruited me to come over. Just to put a pin in it, I had publishing experience and I had an MBA, but I really wanted to go back to school. A few years ago, just after the pandemic, I went back to the Harvard Graduate School of Education and got a master’s of Ed working at the same time[?].
John: Congratulations. What a story. You got your MBA while working. You went to Harvard while working. That’s impressive. That is impressive. I’ll just go to show you, like you said before we went on the air, you got to always stay curious and just keep… There’s no end. It’s just like sustainability and impact. There’s no finish line in our education. Who said there’s a finish line?
Judy: Absolutely. You want to stay hungry and curious and interested and surround yourself with young people because they have real[?][inaudible] ideas. When I came over to children’s publishing in 19, a long time ago, kids are inspiring. I am much more comfortable with children around me than I am with most grownups because they’re so pure and they have so many beautiful things to say. Very few grownups actually listen to children. If you really pay attention, they talk over them. I really just love chatting with all of them.
John: So nice. For our listeners and viewers, can you share a little bit about Scholastic? What is Scholastic so people understand? I know it does about over 1.6 billion in sales and you have over 9,000 employees in over 165 countries with 45 books in 45 different languages, but explain the day-to-day of what Scholastic really is.
Judy: It was founded over 100 years, 140- Not all companies, most companies never have that kind of longevity[?]. It was founded by someone named Robbie Robinson, who believed that he created a sports magazine for coaches and schools because he knew that teachers in schools had opportunities to get to kids. Then over the years, it evolved and his son, Dick Robinson, was the CEO for decades at Scholastic. He just recently passed away. It was a family-run company with a family-focused mission, if you will, but a public corporation. It had that combination of mission and business drive. It’s a combination of things. The book club division, which I ran for 30 years, was founded in 1948. It was there before me, just for the record.
John: Wow.
Judy: And that was the flyers that I’m sure you remember getting as a kid.
John: Yeah. Those were big. We were kids. It was huge.
Judy: Exactly. It’s still huge. Then book fairs came along a little bit later, which are those pop-up stores that go into the gyms. Those are Scholastic proprietary distribution channels. Then I’d say in the mid, I don’t know the exact date, but in the 90s, Scholastic really beefed up its trade publishing, meaning books like Harry Potter and Captain Underpants and Dogmen and, of course, Clifford, who’s been around forever, and Who Would Win?, a nonfiction series. All these iconic babysitters’ clubs, Goosebumps, were published by Scholastic and also distributed by Scholastic through the book clubs and book fairs, but then also to bookstores and independent stores like Watch Young Bookseller, which is my local bookstore in Montclair, and Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Books A Million and ReaderLink. We’re a bona fide publisher and a distributor. Then as you said, around the world, we have various activity in all kinds of different countries, mostly English-speaking, but also a lot throughout the world.
John: That’s so exciting. And so as you…
Judy: Sorry, I forgot something. I forgot a very important new addition, which is that we have recently acquired Nine Story Media, which is a media company based in Canada, now in the US and Canada, who produces TV and movies. The strategy is to take our IP and our beautiful series that we create and produce in book format and have them go through all different media. Really, all kids in all different kinds of ways can experience the gorgeous books and IP that we create.
John: That’s so nice. Is the idea to take some of the books and put them into movie media or TV media?
Judy: Exactly the idea. If you look at the history of children’s books and media, some of the most classic media productions, Harry Potter movies, or the Goosebumps television show, or Magic School Bus[crosstalk], those are all originating with books. Books are such perfect opportunities to then expand into shows and other kinds of media. Clifford, the Big Red Dog movie, those are key.
John: That was great. When you and I started our careers, Judy, there wasn’t such thing as chief sustainability or impact officers. You’re the chief impact officer now at Scholastic. What does chief impact officer mean at Scholastic? I know some companies read it narrowly, some companies read it widely. How is it read at your company? What’s your mission as the chief impact officer?
Judy: It’s a great question. My husband’s like, “What’s a chief impact officer?” We’ve been married a very long time. I was president of Scholastic Book Clubs for a long time. And then ran other divisions as well. They decided that- Scholastic is a mission-driven company. We have a credo. It’s actually written on the carpeting going up the stairs. We take our mission very seriously, which is to help all kids read, discover books and media to help them make sense of the world. It was a great opportunity for me at this stage of the game to move out of the division of book clubs and become chief impact officer for the company to help drive and help ensure and help promulgate across the company opportunities for us to exercise our mission and deliver on the promise of reaching all kids. The economics of the world has changed. Teachers have changed. There’s a lot of kids who currently live in book deserts, who don’t have opportunities to choose and own their own books. As chief impact officer, my goal is to activate new sources of interest, new sources of funding, new sources of involvement to bring the tried-and-true Scholastic programs to kids who really need it. Then there are grown-ups, teachers, families and caregivers.
John: Do you have one or two of your favorite success stories on how your work in action really looks like and feels like with tangible results?
Judy: We’ve launched a new program called the United States of Readers. You can see behind me these flags[?]. I put them up there because I have to work [inaudible]them. They’re really the book club flyers, but with no prices on them. They’re the same top quality books. They go to kids among the 10 million kids who essentially have no current access in schools with teachers supporting the parents and families. All the best books, all the regular books, it’s not gently used stuff or worn out stuff. They choose. It’s all about choice because I’m all about developing kids choosing muscles. If you live in poverty or very challenging circumstances, you don’t have an opportunity to choose. As you know from your memories or from your children’s, going to the book fair, going to a bookstore or library, it’s all about expressing your self-confidence and your self-efficacy. If you don’t have that opportunity to do that, your literacy is compromised and really your mental health and all kinds of things. This United States of Readers program, we’re very proud of. We founded it with a $3.5 million grant from James Patterson. Now we’re rolling it out with state funding and all kinds of other fun events. That’s one huge successful program enabled by this impact office that we’re expanding and growing. Then we have amazing partnerships. We just came back from Indianapolis and Des Moines with the Caitlin Clark Foundation. She’s a WNBA player, as you probably know. We did a book donation there in the gyms to go along with her pillar of her foundation, which is education. We work with Save the Children, Reaching Kids. Impact, we can leverage all the books and the materials and the programs to reach kids who otherwise wouldn’t be able to have access.
John: You’re trying to democratize the same great experience that you had and I had growing up to be surrounded by books and get them access to books that the rest of the children in the United States have.
Judy: That’s exactly right. The pendulum is swinging, so the kids don’t have access. Those numbers are growing. You said it quite presciently. The democratization, that’s what this whole Scholastic was built on, was democratizing access to paperback books for all kids. It’s exactly coming full circle. Teachers can’t shoulder the burden of using their own household money to buy books for their students.
John: It truly is so fascinating. Prior to this conversation, my bet- my money would have been on that more children have access because of the democratization of technology and the technology boom that we lived through, that we didn’t have as kids. You thought what technology would help democratize all information, including the opportunity to access the knowledge in books, but I guess I’m totally wrong on that. That’s really a shame and it’s really great that you’re doing what the important great work that you’re doing. My gosh.
Judy: You’re not wrong in thinking about it that way, but many of these schools don’t have access to high-speed internet[crosstalk]just digital products. Also, you need to have a context in order to consume and you need to build in choices. The stakes are high for books. They’re expensive and what if it’s not right for you? How do you know how to match the right book to the right kid? If you go on Netflix or Spotify or something, you choose with abandon. You don’t like a song, you go to the next one. And that’s [inaudible]with books. We have to create that facility. For little children, I believe at least through eighth grade, you need physical books. For lap time, if you’re reading with your own grandchildren, you’re probably not sitting in front of a phone, you’re reading a copy [crosstalk] with them.
John: I love that. It’s one of my favorite things to do with my grandchildren. Were you able to pass the mantle to your children? Growing up with your parents both really into books, my mom was really into books as well, still is. Were you able to then pass your love of books down to your children as well?
Judy: Yes. They now have children of their own, unbelievably. My daughter’s little girls are almost five and two and they’re huge readers.
John: That’s great.
Judy: I had [inaudible]Amelia Bedelia to my granddaughter last night. My four-month-old granddaughter, her family and her babysitter, they all read with her. I was reading her Jimmy Fallon’s board book, Mama. I don’t know if you’ve seen that one.
John: I’ve seen it. It’s great.
Judy: It’s just familiarity, turning the pages, having your own books. It’s huge.
John: What’s your best advice? We have a lot of moms and parents that listen to this show, not only in the United States, around the world. What’s the best advice to help their kids not become technological junkies and to really get into the beauty and the feeling and the texture and the tangibility of real books?
Judy: I think doing it together is great. Kids need to see their family members, their parents reading. You [inaudible] to be an expert to read. It’s hard. It’s hard to turn off your phone and put it down. Parents just have to be disciplined. It doesn’t have to be long, 10 minutes, read one book, or have the child read to you. Make it up. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You can look at the pictures. Just because it’s a book doesn’t mean it’s a Harvard class. It’s just a beautiful, fun bonding experience. It gives the child an opportunity to speak and engage with their own voices.
John: Books and storytelling can change people’s lives. What is your vision on that in terms of using books and the beautiful ability to storytell through books as an agent for change?
Judy: We have dismal statistics about reading proficiency. 70% of kids in this country are not reading proficiently by third grade. It’s a downer, but it’s a reality. If you can’t read, you can’t get a job, you can’t do well in school, there’s a prison pipeline, getting ready for illiterate people. It’s terrible. Mental health is challenged. We have to deal with this collectively. We have to make it joyful and fun. Our United States Readers Program was named a big bet for America by the Rockefeller Foundation because we’re just not taking any prisoners here. I think we just have to all be in it together and have fun role models like B. John Robinson. He plays for the Falcons in Atlanta. He’s doing a big reading event. We don’t have to take it so seriously. We have to make it enjoyable and fun and give teachers the opportunity to help and just get everybody in the pool one way or another.
John: It’s true. For our listeners and viewers who’ve just joined us, we’ve got Judy Newman with us today. She’s the Chief Impact Officer at Scholastic. To find Judy and her colleagues and all the great things they’re doing at Scholastic, go to www.scholastic.com. The publishing world during your career has changed unbelievably. Can you share the changes that you got to see, got out of the front row seat at, and how the changes happened, and how challenged publishers are today, especially comparatively speaking to 20 years ago, 30 years ago, etcetera?
Judy: I always tell the story that I’m looking at the Devil Wears Prada movie. You know that movie. I was thinking about it. I remember that scene where Meryl Streep got her assistant, Andy, to go get her a copy of the yet-unpublished Harry Potter book. Having sat at the table where that series was being published and designed and talked about and marketed. There’s no way that was ever going to happen. No copy of Harry Potter was getting out to Miranda Priestly or anybody for that matter. I was in those rooms when Harry Potter was acquired and then developed. It was seismic. I mean, it was amazing to see that. Then to our earlier point, those became movies and expanded the home market. Some kids would just buy Harry Potter and maybe not read it, but carry it around as a pride object.
John: I remember standing on lines in the middle of the night with my 10-year-old, 9-year-old son waiting for the Harry Potter book and then the reading. It was like a social-cultural happening. It was a happening.
Judy: Exactly, and midnight parties with bookstores…
John: Oh, so much fun.
Judy: And it went on for all those years. So anyway, there was no way they were getting into them. But in any case, so that was one. But then something like Clifford the Big Red Dog, published- Norman Bridwell. That was before Scholastic really became a trade publisher, was just publishing for book clubs. He’s iconic and he keeps reinventing himself. And his books and his television show and the feature movie that came out about Clifford, why? Because he’s big and he’s red and he’s comforting. And Emily Elizabeth gets to be with him. And then Goosebumps, and like I said, Babysitter’s Club, Dog Man, which is a huge hit right now by Dave Pilkey. So those big mega series, that doesn’t change. That’s timeless in the publishing industry, like the massive series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, etcetera. So what has changed is there’s so many other options and so many different kinds of publishing, little publishers, bigger publishers. There’s a lot of self-publishing going on right now. It’s hard for them to find a market. How do you discover new titles? How do kids find them? Back to that choosing question. And even a parent, it’s 20 and it’s a lot of money to buy a hardcover book. So how do you decide? So we need to adopt more of what the adult market does, book clubs and review, just a little bit more energy. There’s some of it, but it in my opinion, it’s still missing a little bit, which is why book fairs and the United States of Readers, those programs are so important. And we also, one more thing, we need different languages in Spanish in particular for so many families, Haitian Creole. There’s a lot of different needs in families and not all families are proficient themselves in reading. So we need to be able to find ways to get our books to the kids. I think the books are there, we just got to connect them.
John: That’s right. What’s next? You’re doing this great, great work at Scholastic. What’s your and Scholastic’s goals in the years ahead?
Judy: Yeah, so we want to keep developing this program called United States of Readers. They’re developing a standalone 501c3 nonprofit organization called Impact Reading, which will eventually be the spun-off version who- because private philanthropists and people aren’t going to give money to a public corporation. So, but Scholastic has a service agreement. And so the development of these new programs to reach kids who do not currently have access is a big part of our nonprofit side of the mission. On the regular company side, it is developing these new IP, these new books, this new series, this new content that can then be in books and in classroom magazines and in movies and in television and audio across all media, because that’s where a lot of kids do want to be.
John: Are some countries over-performing on others? Like, do some countries have a better system to encourage reading and to democratize the beauty of books and storytelling better than others? Because you have this fascinating visibility to not only just the United States, Judy, but around the world. Do you have anecdotal stories and evidence that you’ve witnessed over the years to say, man, they’re really getting it right over there? I wish we could do more of that over here.
Judy: Yeah, it’s anecdotal, but when I go to London or to the UK, like the Bookstore Energy and Reader, there’s a lot more readers there, it seems to me in general…
John: That’s so interesting.
Judy: …which I love. And walk by a bookstore and there’s some new release coming out. So there’s a huge tradition there. And then education systems around the world, I’m loathe[?] to quote them exactly, but Scandinavian countries or Denmark, but the populations are different. The challenges are different. But I think if you have a good education system with teachers in place, you can introduce books and reading in school very early. And then that carries over to home and you have that school to home connection. So I do think there are other countries. India is very interested in literacy. And so Canada…
John: And so I’m going to ask you some personal questions, I’m going to bifurcate this question, though, your favorite classic book that you ever read, number one, that you can recommend? And number two, your favorite book that was written within the last five years?
Judy: Well, my favorite book of all time is Charlotte’s Web.
John: Oh, that’s beautiful.
Judy: It’s truly a perfect book.
John: Can’t beat that.
Judy: And my favorite book that’s been published, a children’s book in the past five years.
John: Or could be any book, it could be any book.
Judy: Oh, man, that’s like asking which are your favorite children[?}.
John: I know I gave you the I gave you the I gave you the ultimate selfish[?] choice.
Judy: Oh, I can’t possibly. But I will say that there is a series and it called Who Would Win? Right. It’s about creatures that sort of face off against each other.
John: Oh, cool. And it’s a bunch of facts and learning.
Judy: And there’s 40 million copies of these books in print by Jerry Pilata. And what makes it special to me is that it was homegrown. We started in the clubs and the fairs.
John: Oh, wow.
Judy: He does school visits and it’s nonfiction and it’s learning and it’s boys and girls and everyone. So as a publishing phenomenon, I have to vote for Who Would Win.
John: Who Would Win, how many how many face offs are there in that series?
Judy: I think there’s like- well you can see the back.
John: Holy [inaudible]
Judy: I mean[inaudible]35, you know[inaudible]a lot.
John: It’s four across and five, six. Wow, that’s a lot.
Judy: And there’s like killer whale versus great white shark and what the kids do in the classrooms, which is the other half of it is they do their own. So they write all their own face offs and they share them with the author and send them in. And it’s magical to see that inspiration triggered by these books.
John: That is so cool. That is just really wonderful[?]. And so your favorite recommendation is Charlotte’s Web for us to read to our children and our grandchildren, I take it.
Judy: Well, when they’re a little bit older.
John: Yeah.
Judy: I mean, children’s books. Okay. Half a Day is a beautiful children’s book. I love the Llama Llama books. That is really such a tough question. I need a better answer.
John: That’s so great.
Judy: And then my new favorite is The Fly Who Flew to Space by Lauren Sanchez, which is a wonderful book about dreaming big.
John: I’ve seen that.
Judy: So we have so many…
John: And you get to share your love of books with your granddaughters. What a blessing. What a wonderful full circle experience in life.
Judy: Exactly. And real kids tell you a lot, if you’re boring or you’re falling asleep when you’re reading to them[inaudible]you’ve got to be present for them and there’s no faking it. But let them finish the story the way they want to. Sometimes the sky’s the limit.
John: Judy, this has been great. Thank you so much for the generosity of your time. The only thing I realize when I have these wonderful conversations with special people like you is that the world really needs more Judy Newman. So, Judy, she’s the chief impact officer of Scholastic. To find Judy and her colleagues and all the impactful and wonderful book work they’re doing in the reading world to democratize books and the storytelling experience, please go to www.scholastic.com. Like I said, Judy, I wish there were more of you, but I’m glad you were with us today. You’re always welcome back here and just continued good health and success so you can keep doing the important and impactful work that you’re doing. Thanks again for being with us.
Judy: Thank you. Such a pleasure. So nice to see you.
John: This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Engage. Engage is a digital booking platform revolutionizing the talent booking industry. With thousands of athletes, celebrities, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, Engage is the go-to spot for booking talent, for speeches, custom experiences, live streams, and much more. For more information on Engage or to book talent today, visit LetsEngage.com. This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet, and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com.
The Scholastic Philanthropic Impact Report: https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/scholastic/site/AboutUs/philanthropic-impact-report.pdf