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Grolier is one of the largest American publishers of general encyclopedias, including The Book of Knowledge (1910), The New Book of Knowledge (1966), The New Book of Popular Science (1972), Encyclopedia Americana (1945), Academic American Encyclopedia (1980), and numerous incarnations of a CD-ROM encyclopedia (1986–2003).
As an educational publishing company Grolier was known for its presence in school libraries and its in-home encyclopedia sales. It also had a strong presence among parents of children under six years old, the market for Grolier's direct mail-to-the-home business. "Acquisition activity in the education market heats up", Heller Report on Educational Technology Markets, Monday, May 1, 2000 (archived 2007).
In June 2000, Grolier became part of Scholastic Corporation, which now maintains Scholastic GO, formerly Grolier Online. Since 2007, the Grolier imprint Orchard Books has published the Rainbow Magic and Beast Quest series in the United Kingdom.
The Grolier Society specialized in publishing extra-fine editions of classics and rare literature. The Society was named after the Grolier Club, which had been founded in 1884 to advance the arts involved in making books and which was itself named after a well-known French bibliophile, Jean Grolier de Servières.
In 1910, Jackson purchased the rights to publish the British The Children's Encyclopædia under the name The Book of Knowledge.
In 1936, the company was acquired by its senior sales executive, Fred P. Murphy, who had joined the firm in 1912. Grolier's common stock began trading publicly in 1954, and it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1965.
Under Murphy's leadership, by the mid-1940s, Grolier became one of the largest publishers of general encyclopedias, including The Book of Knowledge and the Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier also published the Grolier Encyclopedia (based on the Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopedia and the Doubleday's Encyclopedia) (1941),Masood Ali Khan (2025). 818543168X, Sarup & Sons. 818543168X American Peoples Encyclopedia (1962), The New Book of Knowledge (1966), the Academic American Encyclopedia (1980), The New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia (1985 CD-ROM), and the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia (1995).
Grolier conducted its encyclopedia sales through subsidiaries Americana Corporation; The Grolier Society; Inc.; R.H. Hinckley Company; Spencer International Press, Inc.; and The Richards Company, Inc. Each subsidiary distributed publications as designated by Grolier.Federal Trade Commission ftc_volume_decision_91_january_-_june_1978pages_315-503.pdf page 362 Murphy encouraged a productive rivalry among the subsidiaries, giving their executives broad authority and profit-sharing incentives.
In 1959, Murphy hired John G. Ryan, formerly president of competitor P.F. Collier & Son, as president of The Richards Company. By 1968, Richards' sales, distributing the American Peoples Encyclopedia, exceeded that of the other Grolier encyclopedia subsidiaries.Federal Trade Commission ftc_volume_decision_91_january_-_june_1978pages_315-503.pdf page 338.
In 1968, Grolier's annual sales were over $181 million, and the company held a 30 percent market share as the leading publisher of encyclopedias in the United States.Egelhof, Joseph (7 December 1970). "Sales Force Finds Rising Buying Spirit". Chicago Tribune. p. 81. Retrieved 28 March 2022. Grolier also established a successful mail order subsidiary.
In the 1970s, Grolier declined financially. Fred Murphy retired, and the company merged the sales subsidiaries into what became a less profitable unitary sales force. Grolier also made ill-fated investments in non-publishing ventures, including mobile homes. In 1976, Grolier lost $77 million on sales of $247 million. It threatened to file for bankruptcy if its creditors did not agree to restructure its debts. In the 1980s, with its mail order business expanding, Grolier returned to profitability.
On August 8, 1986, Grolier announced a joint venture partnership with Hal Roach Studios and Halcyon Studios (both of these companies were later known as Qintex Entertainment) to set up a joint venture, Grolier Home Video, which was designed to set up adaptations of the Grolier book properties.
In 1988 Grolier was purchased by the French media company Hachette, which owned a well-known French-language encyclopedia, the Hachette Encyclopedia. The sale price was $450 million. Hachette was later absorbed by the French conglomerate, the Lagardère Group.
In 1995, Grolier acquired Children's Press, moving its operations from Chicago to New York City and Danbury, Connecticut.
In 1999, Grolier had revenues of $450 million and earnings of approximately $45 million, with $4.5 million in Internet revenues. It had a US$100 million international business, primarily located in the UK, Canada and Asia.
Grolier was purchased by Scholastic for US$400 million in June 2000. The new owners projected a 30% increase in operating income, although historically Grolier had experienced earnings of 7% to 8% on income."French Plan to Sell Grolier," PublishersWeekly.com, 11/29/1999; "Scholastic to Acquire Grolier," press release, Scholastic Inc., 4/13/2000.
Staff reductions as a means of controlling costs followed soon thereafter, even while an effort was made to augment the sales force. Cuts occurred every year between 2000 and 2007, leaving a much-depleted work force to carry out the duties of maintaining a large encyclopedia database."Scholastic Has Record Year and Begins Grolier Integration," PublishersWeekly.com, 7/24/00; "Scholastic Sales Surge Continues," PublishersWeekly.com, 1/01/01; "Robinson: Scholastic's Business Remains Strong," PublishersWeekly.com, 10/01/01; "Sales Dip, Earnings Rise at Scholastic," PublishersWeekly.com, 7/29/02; "Scholastic Cuts 400 from Global Workforce," PublishersWeekly.com, 6/02/03; "Scholastic Takes a Charge," PublishersWeekly.com, 7/19/04; "Scholastic Cuts 30 Spots in Library Unit," PublishersWeekly.com, 6/02/05; "Scholastic to Cut Costs as Profits Fall," PublishersWeekly.com, 12/16/05; "Weak Results Prompt Closings, Layoffs at Scholastic," PublishersWeekly.com, 3/23/06. Scholastic, which specializes in works for the K-8 market (Kindergarten-to-8th grade), has sought to position the Encyclopedia Americana as a reference resource for schools. It remains to be seen whether that strategy, applied to a venerable upper-level (even adult-level) publication, will work in the long run.
The name Grolier is retained as the Scholastic website Scholastic GO. The company exists as Grolier Incorporated.
When Grolier acquired Children's Press in 1995, much of Franklin Watts were published under the Children's Press imprint. When Hachette sold Grolier to Scholastic Corporation in 2000, Scholastic took U.S. rights to Children's Press and Franklin Watts as well. The UK branch exists today as an imprint of Hachette UK's Hachette Children's Books.
Publications by Orchard UK include the Rainbow Magic and Beast Quest series, as well as titles by Lauren Child, Giles Andreae, Catherine and Laurence Anholt, Cressida Cowell, James Mayhew, Anthony Horowitz, Shoo Rayner, Saviour Pirotta and Michael Lawrence.
Publications by Orchard US include titles by Jenny Nimmo, P. B. Kerr and Patrick Carman.
Grolier published the encyclopedia with numerous name variations: The Electronic Encyclopedia (1986), The Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia (1987), The New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia (1988–91), The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia (1992). Kenneth Kister's Best Encyclopedias, 1994. The 1990 edition was the first to feature pictures, and the 1992 edition was the first to deliver video and sound. The last CD-ROM edition published was the 2003 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia.
The video games they released include: GameSpot MobyGames/
| Wyatt Earp's Old West | Windows, Mac | October 1994 |
| Golden Gate Killer | Windows, Mac | 1995 |
| Terror TRAX: Track Of The Vampire | MS-DOS | 1995 |
| SFPD Homicide Case File: The Body in the Bay | Windows | 1995 |
| Greg Norman Ultimate Challenge Golf | Windows | January 31, 1996 |
| Time Warriors | MS-DOS, Windows | 1997 |
| Banzai Bug | Windows | 1997 |
| Perfect Assassin | Windows, PlayStation | November 1997 |
| Xenocracy | Windows, PlayStation | 1998 |
| V2000 (Also known as Virus 2000) | Windows, PlayStation | October 1998 |
| Windows | December 1998 | |
| Tank Racer | Windows, PlayStation | March 26, 1999 |
Grolier Interactive ceased releasing video games when Grolier was bought by Scholastic.
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