McGraw Hill Education

McGraw Hill
Company type	Private
Industry	Educational publishing
Predecessor	The McGraw Hill Companies (division)
Founded	1888
Founder	James H. McGraw, John A. Hill
Fate	Spun off from The McGraw Hill Companies in 2013; acquired by Platinum Equity in 2021
Headquarters	New York City, United States
Area served	Worldwide (K-12, higher education, professional sectors)
Key people	Simon Allen (CEO)
Products	Textbooks, digital learning platforms, adaptive technologies, reference materials, trade publications
Owner	Platinum Equity (since 2021)
Number of employees	3,900 (2020)

McGraw Hill stands as a prominent American company specializing in educational science, delivering a broad array of content, software solutions, and services tailored for K-12, higher education, and professional sectors. Its extensive range of offerings encompasses textbooks, digital learning platforms, adaptive technologies, and service-oriented platforms aimed at enhancing educational outcomes. Recognized as one of the "big three" publishers in the education industry alongside Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Pearson Education, McGraw Hill also produces reference materials and trade publications catering to fields such as medicine, business, and engineering.

Originally a division within The McGraw Hill Companies—later renamed McGraw Hill Financial and currently part of S&P Global—McGraw Hill Education was separated in 2013 when it was purchased by Apollo Global Management for $2.4 billion. Subsequently, in 2021, the company changed hands again when Platinum Equity acquired it for $4.5 billion. Based in New York City, McGraw Hill reported revenues of $1.72 billion in 2017 and had a workforce nearing 3,900 employees by 2020. Simon Allen serves as CEO, spearheading the company’s strategic initiatives and expansion within international education markets.

History

The origins of McGraw Hill date back to 1888 when co-founder James H. McGraw acquired the American Journal of Railway Appliances, leading to the establishment of The McGraw Publishing Company in 1899. Meanwhile, his partner John A. Hill founded The Hill Publishing Company in 1902. Their collaboration began in 1909 with the merging of their book divisions into The McGraw-Hill Book Company, appointing Hill as president and McGraw as vice-president. This partnership culminated in the full merger forming The McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Inc in 1917.

International expansion commenced in 1946, followed by acquisitions including Contemporary Films (1972) and CRM (1975), which consolidated its film-related assets until their sale in 1987. In 1979, McGraw-Hill acquired Byte magazine and strengthened its educational publishing dominance by purchasing The Economy Company—the largest U.S. educational publisher at that time—in 1986.

Harold McGraw assumed the role of chairman emeritus in 1988. A joint venture formed with Robert Maxwell in 1989 elevated McGraw-Hill to become the second-largest textbook publisher in the United States; by 1993, it had secured full ownership of this venture.

During the early 2000s, McGraw-Hill divested its children’s book division (2004) and launched GradeGuru.com (2007), an online platform for student study support that ceased operations in 2012. The company exited broadcasting by selling its television stations to Scripps for $212 million in 2011 to concentrate on its core publishing business.

In 2012, the education segment was sold to Apollo Global Management for $2.5 billion, a deal finalized in 2013. Prior to this transaction, McGraw Hill enhanced its digital learning capabilities through acquisitions such as Redbird Learning (2012) and ALEKS (2013). Further strategic purchases included Engrade (2014), Everyday Mathematics (2016), My Math (2017), and Kidaptive (2021), underscoring a clear focus on expanding digital education offerings.

The company sold its Canadian K-12 division to Nelson in 2017 and introduced a textbook rental service in 2018 aimed at improving affordability for college students. In 2019, new K–12 curricula titled Reveal Math and Inspire Science were launched.

A proposed merger with Cengage Group announced in May 2019 was ultimately called off in May 2020. More recently, McGraw Hill broadened its portfolio by acquiring Core-Plus Mathematics Project (2019) and took on distribution responsibilities for Illustrative Mathematics (2020).

The acquisition by Platinum Equity in 2021 for $4.5 billion marked a pivotal transaction that highlights the company’s sustained value and strategic importance within the global education sector.

Acquisitions

The McGraw Hill Companies experienced substantial growth through a series of acquisitions spanning financial services, publishing, and broadcasting sectors, a trend that persisted following their 2013 purchase by Apollo Global Management.

2021 |Achieve3000 |Provider of educational software 2022 |Boards & Beyond |Platform for medical education

Acquisition Date	Acquired Company	Sector
1920	Newton Falls Paper Company	Paper manufacturing
1928	A.W. Shaw Company	Publishing of magazines and textbooks
1950s	Gregg Company	Vocational textbook publishing
1953	Warren C Platts entities including Platts	Publishing of petroleum industry information
1954	Blakiston (acquired from Doubleday)	Medical textbook publishing
1961	F.W. Dodge Corporation	Information services for construction industry
1965	California Test Bureau	Development of educational testing systems
1966	Standard & Poor's	Financial services sector
1966	Shepard's Citations	Legal publishing industry
1968	'National Radio Institute'	Distance education provider
1970	'The Ryerson Press'	Trade and educational publishing
1972	'Time Life Broadcasting television stations'	Broadcast media
1979	'Osborne Books'	Trade and educational publishing
1986	'Economy Company'	Educational publishing sector
1988	'Random House Schools and Colleges'	Educational publishing
1993	'Macmillan/McGraw-Hill School Publishing Company' including Glencoe and SRA	Educational publishing
1996	'Times Mirror Higher Education' including William C Brown and Irwin Professional	Higher education publishing
1997	'Micropal Group Limited'	Provider of financial services data
1999	'Appleton & Lange' (from Pearson plc)	Publisher of medical information
2000	'Tribune Company Education' including NTC/Contemporary and Instructional Fair	Publisher of supplementary educational materials
2000	'Mayfield Publishing Company'	Publisher specializing in humanities and social sciences textbooks
2002	'Open University Press'	Academic publisher
2005	'J.D. Power & Associates'	Provider of marketing information
2013	'Key Curriculum'	'Math technology' company
2013	'ALEKS'	'Adaptive learning' technology firm
2014	'Area9 Aps'	'Adaptive learning' enterprise
2014	'Engrade'	'Learning management system' provider
2016	'Redbird Advanced Learning' (formerly Education Program for Gifted Youth)	'Adaptive learning' organization
2021	'Kidaptive'	'Adaptive learning' company
2021	'Triad Interactive'	'Developer of educational software'

Presidents

John A. Hill (1909–1917)
James H. McGraw (1917–1928)
Johnathan Heflin (1928–1948)
James McGraw Jr. (1948–1950)
Curtis W. McGraw (1950–1953)
Donald C. McGraw (1953–1968)
Shelton Fisher (1968–1974)
Harold McGraw Jr. (1974–1983)
Joseph Dionne (1983–1998)
Harold W. McGraw III (1998–2013)
Buzz Waterhouse (2013–2014, 2017–2018)
David Levin (2014–2017)
Nana Banerjee (2018–2019)
Simon Allen (2019–)

Controversies

In 1980, McGraw Hill provided an advance of $200,000 to African American author and civil rights figure James Baldwin for his incomplete memoir Remember This House, which detailed influential leaders such as Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr.. Following Baldwin’s passing, the publisher initiated legal action against his estate to reclaim the advance but ultimately withdrew the suit in 1990 to spare his family additional hardship.

In October 2015, McGraw-Hill Education was met with backlash over a geography textbook caption that referred to American slaves merely as "workers." The company issued an apology, revised the digital content, and offered replacement copies to affected schools free of charge. This episode was part of wider disputes involving the Texas Education Agency concerning textbook portrayals of sensitive historical subjects.

Pricing

McGraw Hill has been criticized for incorporating online access codes with textbooks, a practice that restricts the resale market for used books. Additionally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company faced accusations of price gouging due to charging considerably higher prices for ebooks relative to their printed counterparts.

Works

Films:

Maintaining Classroom Discipline (1947)

External links

No More Pencils, No More Books – Slate
McGraw Hill says digital sales beat print for the first time – Chicago Sun Times