MHC Education Group Sales, Earnings Jump

Total revenue at the McGraw-Hill Cos.' education group rose 14.9%, to $2 billion, in 2000 with operating profits up 12.5%, to $307.8 million. Within the education group, MHC's school education group, which serves the elhi market, had the strongest gain in the year, with revenues up 14.3%, to just over $1 billion, and margins topping 20%. All of the education group's units posted increases in the year, led by the Macmillan/McGraw-Hill elementary school division, which had double-digit sales gains.

In the higher education, professional and international group, revenues increased 5%, to $863.1 million. Approximately half of the group's sales came from the higher education division's relatively good year. The professional book division had only a modest gain in sales as all three division areas--computer books, STM and general reference--reported soft sales. The international division had a mixed year with solid gains in the Latin America and Asia/Pacific markets offset by disappointing results in Canada and the Ibero group. The education group also benefited from $60.8 million in revenues from the Tribune Education acquisition.

MHC chairman Terry McGraw said the company is forecasting double-digit growth for both the education group's top and bottom lines. In addition to pursuing a large number of adoption opportunities, MHC continues to invest in technology for the school and professional markets. McGraw said the "pace of change in the education market has picked up" regarding the implementation of technology, and more funds are being earmarked for the purchase of digital goods. McGraw observed that although the day may still be several years out, at some point education will move to an online learning environment and MHC is preparing for that time through such initiatives as the McGraw-Hill Learning Network, PageOut (which now has 50,000 users operating the system to design course-specific Web sites) and the release of about 200 e-books.

Expanding in Children's
MHC's recently formed Columbus, Ohio, children's publishing group is looking to extend its reach in the children's picture-book market. Six new titles are set to be released under the Cricket/McGraw-Hill joint venture and MHC is looking for additional partnerships, said Tracey Dils, newly appointed trade publisher for MHCP. "We want to prove you can be a major children's publisher and be outside of New York City," Dils told PW.