What Does Scholastic's YouTube Growth Mean for Its Digital Strategy?

Scholastic Corporation SCHL is expanding its business beyond traditional publishing into a broader digital content ecosystem, and its latest YouTube metrics highlight that shift. In the third quarter of fiscal 2026, the company said that its branded YouTube channels generated more than 85 million views, up more than 200% year over year, with audiences spending more than 21 million hours watching content. Management stated that the expansion was supported by two new curated hubs, Scholastic STEAM and Scholastic International.

This momentum appears to support a digital strategy centered on using YouTube to expand reach and keep Scholastic characters visible across formats. The company said that growing audiences across its digital platforms are creating new opportunities to extend stories and characters across books, digital platforms, television and consumer products. It specifically cited Clifford the Big Red Dog, noting that stronger digital engagement is helping introduce the character to a new generation and reinforcing demand for the books.

The strategy also relies on strategic partnerships with digital creators, most notably YouTube personality Mark Rober. By integrating Rober’s CrunchLabs brand into its publishing and school channels, Scholastic is successfully capturing the attention of Rober’s 70 million subscribers. This approach transforms YouTube from a mere marketing social channel into a primary pipeline for product development and global audience expansion, positioning Scholastic to sustain its franchise depth in an increasingly crowded digital landscape.

What the Latest Metrics Say About Scholastic

Scholastic, which operates in the broader educational publishing and media space alongside companies such as Pearson plc PSO and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. WLY, has seen its shares surge 106.1% in the past year against the industry’s decline of 3.6%. Shares of Pearson and John Wiley & Sons have declined 20.3% and 15.8%, respectively, in the aforementioned period.

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From a valuation standpoint, Scholastic's forward 12-month price-to-sales ratio stands at 0.50, lower than the industry’s ratio of 0.81. SCHL carries a Value Score of C. Scholastic Corporation is trading at a discount to Pearson (with a forward 12-month P/S ratio of 1.59) and John Wiley & Sons (1.14).

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Scholastic's current fiscal-year sales implies a year-over-year decline of 0.1%, while the consensus EPS estimate calls for growth of 291.7%.

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Scholastic currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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