Scholastic Corp. has closed a call center and laid off 75 outbound telemarketers for its continuity clubs and has outsourced their positions as part of a company-wide plan to reduce overhead and save more than $40 million over the next year.
The children’s book publisher and direct marketer reported a net loss of $15.5 million for the third quarter, compared to a net loss of $800,000 last year. The New York company reported revenue of $487.7 million for the quarter ended Feb. 28, up 1% from $480.8 million last year.
“Promotion expenses in School Book Clubs continued to be higher due to the volume of direct mailings required as more customers than anticipated migrated to the core clubs in response to promotions,” said CEO Richard Robinson in a statement. “In School Book Fairs, staffing expenses increased during the quarter, in anticipation of fourth quarter fair bookings. Lastly, results in Educational Publishing were affected by lower educational technology revenues, reflecting greater seasonality in that business and a large district sale in the prior-year period.”
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