grolier disambiguation . grolier parent company scholastic founded c. 1909 founder walter m. jackson country of origin united states headquarters location new york city publication types books official website listbuilder.scholastic.com grolier is one of the largest u.s. 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 . grolier is an educational publishing company 1 known for its presence in school libraries . it has a strong presence among parents of children under six years old the target of grolier s direct mail to the home business . 2 in june 2000 grolier became part of scholastic corporation which now maintains grolier online . contents 1 history 2 imprints 2.1 franklin watts 2.2 orchard books 3 grolier collectibles 4 grolier on cd rom 5 video games 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit grolier s academic american encyclopedia on viewtron 1983 walter m. jackson 1863 1923 was the founder of encyclopedia publisher grolier inc. and he was the partner of horace everett hooper in publishing the 10th edition of the encyclop dia britannica and in developing its 11th edition . he split with hooper in 1908 1909 in a nasty legal fight after failing to wrest control of the britannica from hooper . jackson had founded the grolier society which specialized in making 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 named after a well known french bibliophile jean grolier de servi res . after the split with hooper he acquired the rights to publish the british the children s encyclop dia under the name the book of knowledge . grolier inc. subsequently became a large publisher of general encyclopaedias including the book of knowledge 1910 the new book of knowledge 1966 the encyclopedia americana 1945 the academic american encyclopedia 1980 the new grolier electronic encyclopedia 1985 cd rom and the grolier multimedia encyclopedia 1995 . grolier had a us 100 million international business primarily located in the uk canada and asia . it had 1999 revenues of 450 million and earnings of approximately 45 million with 4.5 million in internet revenues . by the late 1970s grolier has moved its operations to danbury connecticut . in 1988 grolier was purchased by the french media company hachette which owned a well known french language encyclopedia the hachette encyclopedia . hachette was later absorbed by the french conglomerate the lagard re group . in 1996 grolier acquired the chicago based children s press . grolier was then purchased by scholastic for us 400 million in 2000 . the new owners projected a 30 % increase in operating income although historically grolier had experienced earnings of 7 % to 8 % on income . 3 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 . 4 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 grolier online . the company exists as grolier incorporated . imprints edit franklin watts edit franklin watts redirects here . the uk branch of franklin watts is maintained by hachette uk and is not a part of the sale to scholastic corporation . franklin watts inc. was formed in 1942 . the company was sold to grolier in 1957 . when the namesake founder retired in 1967 he moved to london to start franklin watts ltd. in 1969 . franklin watts retired again in 1976 . when grolier acquired children s press in 1996 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 . orchard books edit orchard books redirects here . the uk branch of orchard books is maintained by hachette uk and is not a part of the sale to scholastic corporation . orchard books was founded in 1986 by grolier as a children s publisher . hachette which acquired grolier in 1988 sold grolier to scholastic corporation in 2000 along with the u.s. branch of orchard books while retaining the uk branch . grolier collectibles edit the company produced the disney christmas magic collection a popular christmas ornament line for disney consumer products . this part of the business was sold to early moments . grolier on cd rom edit grolier s first cd rom publication was the text only academic american encyclopedia on cd rom in 1985 and was one of the first commercial cd rom titles . the text was based on the academic american encyclopedia which comprised 30 000 entries and 9 million words . 5 the editions were updated quarterly a rate which outpaced the print edition . eventually the cd rom edition was quite different from the print edition . 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 . 6 the 1990 edition was the first to feature pictures and the 1992 edition was the first to deliver video and sound . 6 the last cd rom edition published was the 2003 grolier multimedia encyclopedia . video games edit in 1982 grolier formed a subsidiary called grolier electronic publishing inc. grolier electronic publishing inc was renamed grolier interactive inc in february 1996 . 7 they made electronic encyclopedias for the amiga and video games for dos windows macintosh and the playstation . the video games they released include 8 9 10 name platform s release date wyatt earp s old west windows macintosh october 1994 golden gate killer windows macintosh 1995 terror trax track of the vampire dos 1995 sfpd homicide case file the body in the bay windows 1995 greg norman ultimate challenge golf windows january 31 1996 time warriors 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 asghan the dragon slayer windows december 1998 tank racer windows playstation march 26 1999 grolier interactive stopped releasing video games when grolier was bought by scholastic . see also edit list of online encyclopedias references edit jacketflap acquisition activity in the education market heats up heller report on educational technology markets monday may 1 2000 archived 2007 french plan to sell grolier publishersweekly.com 11 29 1999 ; scholastic to acquire grolier press release scholastic inc. 4 13 2000 . 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 . lewis peter h. personal computers ; cd rom for the common man the new york times november 28 1989 . a b kister s best encyclopedias 1994 . mobygames gamespot gi s game page mobygames external links edit grolier s official homepage grolier interactive s official homepage old no longer in use grolier interactive s official games page dead link retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title grolier & oldid 740337094 franklin watts categories american encyclopediasinternet encyclopediascompanies established in 1909publishing companies of the united states navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage 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