Lee Kravitz

From 1987 to 1995, Kravitz was an editorial director of Scholastic Inc., an educational publishing company.^[1] He oversaw several classroom magazines, including Choices, Science World, Search, Update,^[2] and Junior Scholastic.^[3] He also served as director of new media and special projects for the company's 37 magazines.^[4] Among the products and programs he developed were the Scholastic/NBC News Videos with Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric, "Write Lyrics!" with Elektra Records, "SuperScience with Molly and Bert", an animated distance-learning series on Georgia Public Television, Scholastic NewsFax and the National Student Town Meeting Series on C-SPAN.^[4]

Kravitz came to Parade in 1995 to launch React.^[5] He also managed react.com, a website aimed at teenagers.^[6] React reached a weekly circulation of 3 million through 245 newspapers before its close in June 2000.^[6][7]

On March 1, 2000, Kravitz became editor-in-chief and senior vice president of Parade.^[6] At Parade, Kravitz worked on franchises such as "What People Earn", "What America Eats" and the Parade High School All-American teams.^[5] He also developed the popular PARADE Snapshot and Parade Picks columns.^[5] Kravitz commissioned articles by writers and journalists such as Mitch Albom,^[8] Michael Crichton,^[9] Bruce Feiler,^[10] David Halberstam,^[11] Norman Mailer,^[12] Jack Newfield,^[13] Gail Sheehy,^[14] Jim Webb^[15] and Elie Wiesel.^[16] Among the national and world leaders he edited were Aung Sun Suu Kyi,^[17] Colin Powell,^[18] Bill Clinton^[19] and George W. Bush.^[20] Cover stories during his tenure included Parade's annual ranking of the ten worst dictators^[21] and David Wallechinsky's "Visit to the Bridge to Nowhere".^[22] The response to this article led Congress to rescind a $235 million earmark to build two bridges in a remote part of Alaska.^[23] Kravitz's term as editor-in-chief and senior vice president ended when he was fired in 2008.^[24][25]

During this time, Kravitz also initiated cause-related campaigns with such organizations as the American Heart Association, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, HGTV, the Food Network, Research!America,^[26] The White House Project,^[27] Share Our Strength,^[28] ABC Entertainment, and The Nature Conservancy.^[4]

An honors graduate of Yale University^[29] and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism,^[30] Kravitz grew up in Cleveland, Ohio,^[31] where he attended University School.^[32] He began his career as a freelance writer and photojournalist, traveling to more than 40 countries.^[33] He and the magazines under his direction have received more than 200 journalism awards.^[33] In 1992, he won the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association for "'Scholastic SEARCH: The Bill of Rights,' an innovative publication using rich stories to illustrate how the Bill of Rights affects students' daily lives."^[34] He was also awarded the President's Award from the Association of Educational Publishers for his contributions to that industry.^[33]

Kravitz lives in Manhattan^[35] and Clinton Corners, New York,^[36] with his wife, the literary agent Elizabeth Kaplan,^[37] and their three children: Benjamin, Caroline, and Noah.^[38] He is the author of Unfinished Business: One Man's Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things, published by Bloomsbury USA.^[39]