Founding CEO Vince Commisso & 9 Story leadership team to join with Scholastic and continue leading state-of-the-art, premium children’s content production facilities in Toronto, Dublin & Bali, and global distribution and licensing teams.
Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, announced it has signed a definitive agreement to invest in 9 Story Media Group.
Through the investment, Scholastic will acquire 100% of the economic interest in and a minority of voting rights in 9 Story Media Group (9 Story), a leading independent creator, producer and distributor of premium children’s content, for approximately USD $186 million, subject to customary closing adjustments.
The strategic investment in 9 Story’s team and best-in-class production, sales and licensing capabilities significantly expands Scholastic’s opportunities to leverage its trusted brand, best-selling publishing and beloved global children’s franchises across print, screens and merchandising. The announcement solidifies a long-time collaboration between Scholastic Entertainment, the company’s successful and award-winning media development and production division, and 9 Story, which includes the animated series reboot of Clifford the Big Red Dog on PBS Kids and Amazon Prime Video and production of Eva the OwletTM on Apple TV+.
“This highly strategic combination, adding 9 Story’s industry-leading capabilities with Scholastic’s trusted brand and proven ability to create iconic children’s series and franchises, has tremendous potential to build deeper connections with young people through our stories, as the pages of our books come to life on screens and through merchandising. At its core, Scholastic’s 360° content creation strategy is about engaging children with reading, and we have introduced our stories to generations of kids by reaching them where they are,” said Peter Warwick, Scholastic President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are thrilled to build upon our more than 20-year relationship with 9 Story’s exceptional management team and employees, whose culture and values could not be better aligned with our own.”
Iole Lucchese, Scholastic Board Chair and President, Scholastic Entertainment, added: “By bringing together Scholastic’s knowledge of what kids love and our proven track record of successful media development with 9 Story’s top-rated global production, distribution and licensing capabilities, I am confident we can meet the continued, strong demand for high-quality kids and family entertainment. Today’s announcement presents a huge opportunity to expand the footprint of Scholastic’s authors and illustrators and to build global franchises on every platform, creating more value for the creators and for our shareholders.”
9 Story’s business divisions include Brown Bag Films, the award-winning animation studio, which has won 21 Emmy Awards and two Oscar nominations; 9 Story Distribution International, the global distribution division, which represents more than 5,000 half-hour episodes of 2-D and 3-D animated and live action programming for kids, including Clifford the Big Red Dog and A Kind of SparkTM; and 9 Story Brands, the consumer products division, which builds global kids’ brands both on- and off-screen, including Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Karma’s World and Super Why. 9 Story has strong momentum, recently announcing a significant deal with Crayola Studios to handle production and distribution on all new, original projects, as well as the acquisition of Portfolio Entertainment’s library, production slate, and development projects, which added more than 550 half-hours of content.
Vince Commisso, President and Chief Executive Officer, 9 Story, said, “We’ve been fortunate to work with Scholastic for decades, going back to my own start with the family-favorite production, ‘The Magic School Bus.’ The combination of our global studios, sales and distribution capabilities with Scholastic’s existing media business, iconic name and unique capabilities opens even more opportunities to deliver compelling stories and build impactful brands for audiences worldwide. We’re eager to begin bringing together our complementary talents to enhance Scholastic’s position as a top developer, producer and distributor of kids and family content.”
Scholastic Entertainment was rebooted under Lucchese’s leadership in 2017, recognizing the untapped potential of Scholastic’s engaging children’s content. Since then, the development and production division has rapidly become an award-winning and highly profitable business, most recently announcing production of a second season of the live-action Goosebumps series for Disney+ and Hulu.
