Ten days after McGraw-Hill Education’s acquisition by private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $2.5 billion, the company tells us it is “reimagining” its strategy and operations. As a result, 138 positions will be reduced.
Of the “big three” publishers—McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt—McGraw-Hill’s strategy to deal with the technological, financial, and political changes in education is the least clearly defined at the moment. Below, the full statement from McGraw-Hill School Education President Dan Caton clears things up a little bit. (The company’s School Education Group primarily encompasses its K-12 education business.)

As part of McGraw-Hill Education’s plan to accelerate its progress toward becoming the leader in digital learning, we are today announcing a number of changes across our K-12 division with the goal of becoming a faster, stronger and more responsive company. The changes—which include optimizing our product mix, improving our product development processes to increase collaboration and innovation, and reshaping our sales and marketing operations to be even more customer-focused—will impact nearly every facet of our business. As part of the changes, we are making 138 staff reductions across our operations.
These reductions are not tied to the sale of the company, which was announced last week, but are instead part of a new strategic mission that McGraw-Hill School Education has undertaken over the past few months. With this goal in mind, we intend to add a significant number of positions over the coming year to bolster our expertise and capabilities in digital operations. While these moves have been difficult to make, we firmly believe they are necessary for the company’s long-term success.

I interviewed Caton earlier this year as the company planned to split into two independent companies, one focused on its financial information properties and the other on education, which is now owned by Apollo.