Since news of Scholastic’s US$186 million investment in 9 Story broke last week, SVP & GM of Scholastic Entertainment Caitlin Friedman and 9 Story Media Group’s chief strategy officer, Natalie Osborne, have been busy poring over their development slates and prepping projects. 

At a top level, the deal means the companies are working closely together to produce more content and drive up Scholastic’s bottom line by leveraging 9 Story’s experienced production, distribution and licensing teams. There’s also plenty of potential for the pair to develop new properties together—especially those that take new IP from page to screen and products—and ultimately bring kids back to books, in keeping with Scholastic’s core philosophy, says Friedman (pictured left). 

The two companies have enjoyed a 20-year relationship, during which they’ve co-created or co-produced projects including The Magic School Bus Rides Again for Netflix and Eva the Owlet for Apple TV+ (via Brown Bag Films). And 9 Story Distribution International reps Scholastic’s full catalogue, which includes titles like Clifford the Big Red Dog (65 x 26 minutes) and The Baby-Sitters Club (13 x 28 minutes). 

It may have taken six months to put the deal together, but the companies are moving full-steam ahead. One new project in the early stages of development is a CG-animated iteration of The Magic School Bus (the first time the popular series has been done in CG). And another is live-action series Sixteen Souls, which plays into both companies’ aim to do more live action. The adaptation of Rosie Talbot’s spooky 2022 YA novel follows a teen’s efforts to uncover who’s making England’s ghosts disappear, with help from human and spirit friends. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Kidscreen: Why are these two companies a good fit? What are the business synergies? 

Caitlin Friedman: Scholastic Entertainment has a really successful track record of developing content. So we can get a show set up, and we have great creative executives here. But we’re not a distribution company. We’re not an animation studio. We’re not a lot of things. So, for us, it’s just a natural fit because it’s the holes that we need to fill.

Natalie Osborne: Exactly. There’s not a lot of overlap. I think we can become a much stronger team together. In production, we have Brown Bag Films, which has been working with Scholastic on shows, but also there’s an opportunity on the live action side. [So the deal is also] very additive in terms of who we’re also pitching, and who we’ve got relationships with. 

KS: Why was now the right time? 

Osborne: It’s been kind of a rocky recent past, and we feel that what we bring to the table together is just a lot more opportunity to tell stories. I almost feel like: Why didn’t it happen sooner? In terms of our mission, our vision and our purpose, [it’s all] so aligned. 

Friedman: It also closes that loop on the 360 brand-building that we’ve been talking about. We want to go from page to screen, to product, to around the world, and back to page. So, for us to get into business in this way, and really reach our readers in more places and then bring them back to books, is so important to Scholastic. 

Osborne: For us, it’s so important to build global franchises. So this just makes a lot of sense that way.

KS: Will 9 Story still be doing its own original and third-party work? Do you have an idea of what the future looks like? 

Osborne: On the distribution side, [it’s] absolutely business as usual. On the original side, we have some amazing partnerships, and we are going to continue on with that. Part of the reason that we’re able to move forward is because Scholastic is totally aware of our partnerships, and they partner with other people, too. So that is not changing. In terms of the nitty gritty of the details, we still have a lot of work to do, and that is going to happen once we close. But right now, it’s business as usual. 

Friedman: We already have things in the pipeline together. So there are some things on our slate that we already know we’re going to jump in on. We’re looking at new Clifford episodes. We’re working on a project called Sixteen Souls, a live-action series based on a book out of Scholastic UK. We need to really dive into our development slate because we have about 89 projects together. So we’re going to have to set some priorities and really figure out what we want to do first. But at the very top of that list is that new Magic School Bus. 

KS: In terms of the bigger picture, what’s your plan for how much you’re looking to produce? 

Friedman: Right now, we’re trying to figure out how much we can handle because, even though we’re two companies, putting 89 things into production is going to be a bit of a stretch. So part of the work we’re doing is really looking at the list. And then we also want to lean heavily into our live action slate because we have a lot of projects we want to get off the ground. 

And we can also create things together. We can work with [9 Story] to create original IP that goes book first, and then develop it as a series, feature or whatever we want. So it could start with a book, or it could start with an idea for a book. 

Osborne: Scholastic has such an insight into kids and what kids want right now. They have their finger on the pulse with schools. We do a lot of research at 9 Story, but it’s very different. It’s very much formative research, sort of ground-up on the content. But that, combined with the tremendous insights that Scholastic has, [gives us] a really big opportunity to be engaging with our audience in a meaningful way.