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Radwell Named e-Scholastic President

Veteran e-commerce and publishing exec Seth D. Radwell joins Scholastic as evp and president of e-Scholastic, the online information and e-commerce division.

Radwell was president, marketing and editorial group for Bookspan, the premier direct marketer of general interest and specialty book clubs, where he was responsible for all editorial, marketing, media and Internet functions, as well as new business and product development.

"I am pleased to welcome Seth Radwell to our management team, said Richard Robinson, chairman/president/ceo of Scholastic, to whom Radwell will report. Seth is an e-commerce leader who has an impressive track record building new businesses and attracting new customers through the online space. Scholastic's strategy is to provide book content and commerce to our parent, teacher and child customers. Seth will leverage our powerful brand to further expand our strong, multi-faceted content and commerce site and enable our business divisions to grow through the online channel.

In keeping with our tradition of outstanding customer service, Seth will also continue to improve our Internet service for the millions of teachers, children and parents who regularly visit Scholastic.com," continued Robinson.

In his new role, Radwell will guide the growth of e-Scholastic, tapping into the potential of the Internet as a significant channel of distribution and e-commerce to expand the company's core businesses. He will be responsible for the growing online school book club ordering area, COOL (Club Ordering Online), that currently processes about 40% of Scholastic's U.S. school book club orders as well as orders from overseas teachers processed through International COOL; The Scholastic Store, an e-commerce site serving families; and The Teacher Store, selling Scholastic teaching resources, paperbacks and other products to both individual teachers and to school districts. These e-commerce centers generate about $250 million in annual revenues.

Additionally, Radwell will oversee the development of new interactive products and services on the site, continually refreshing Scholastic.com's rich content and network of information and activities for teacher, parents and children. Last year, Scholastic.com page views grew to 530 million, approximately 10 million page views per week. The website draws about 1.5 million unique visits per month from teachers and 1.6 million unique visits from kids and families.

Radwell brings more than 15 years experience with Internet and direct marketing and technology to his position at Scholastic. Before his stint at Bookspan, he was ceo/president of Doubleday Interactive and booksonline.com where he transformed the book clubs business from a paper-based to an online enterprise, attracting new, younger audiences to book clubs and establishing new business opportunities. He created many new book clubs using this multi-channel approach "Black Expressions," a club targeted to the African American community as well as Mosaico and Circulo de Lectores, Spanish-language book clubs. More recently, he spearheaded the development of Zooba, an entirely new type of book club, which allows members to pick monthly selections themselves, using a queue technology online.

He also was vp/gm of the U.S. market for Bertelsmann Online. Prior to joining Bertelsmann, Radwell had been svp, content and product design for Prodigy Services Company. At Prodigy, he led the development of many new e-commerce applications on the Internet that have become commonplace today Prodigy Shopping Network, and online trading, banking and travel applications.

Before his online business development career, he spent six years with management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where, as a leading member of McKinsey's telecommunications and media practice, he managed client relationships over a wide range of industrial and consumer companies.

Scholastic Corp. is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and a leader in educational technology. Scholastic creates quality educational and entertaining materials and products for use in school and at home, including children's books, magazines, technology-based products, teacher materials, television programming, film, videos and toys. Scholastic distributes its products and services through a variety of channels, including proprietary school-based book clubs, school-based book fairs, and school-based and direct-to-home continuity programs; retail stores, schools, libraries and television networks; and the company's site, www.scholastic.com.

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