Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Scholastic Reports Q2 Fiscal Year 2021 Results Call. [Operator Instructions] After the speaker presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]
It is now my pleasure to introduce Senior Vice President, Treasurer, Head of Investor Relations, Gil Dickoff.
Gil Dickoff
Senior Vice President, Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations
Thank you, Andrew and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Scholastic s fiscal 2021 second quarter earnings call. Joining me on the call today are Dick Robinson, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Ken Cleary, the company s Chief Financial Officer. We have posted an investor presentation on our IR website at investor.scholastic.com, which we encourage you to download if you haven t already done so.
Book Fair Sales Plunge at Scholastic By Jim Milliot | Dec 18, 2020
The loss of 79% of its domestic book fair revenue was the major factor in dropping sales and earnings at Scholastic in its second quarter ended November 31. Total revenue declined 32%, to $406.2 million, in the quarter, and operating income fell 54%, to $48.8 million.
Fair revenue fell from $224.1 million in the second period ended November 31, 2019, to $47.7 million in the most recent quarter. The revenue decline was due to a significant drop in the number of in-person fairs held in schools because of the Covid-91 pandemic, Scholastic said. The increase in new online fairs was not nearly enough to offset the downturn of Scholastic’s in-person events. The company said it is hopeful that “after a ramp-up period in the third fiscal quarter,” overall results, and especially the fair business, will start to show improvement in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ends May 31, 2021.