The Yearbook World of Scott Geesey

from Jostens Yearbooks of central/northern Pennsylvania

ARCHIVE - OCTOBER 13, 2019
 

WHAT MAKES FOR A GREAT YEARBOOK? Let the Look Book Judges tell you...

Hello! Boy, the leaves are falling now, aren't they? I keep trying to chew them up with my lawn tractor, and they just keep falling. I'll need that rake sometime soon.

The regional journalism days held by the Pennsylvania School Press Association (PSPA) are now underway. Last week I was honored to speak at the event at Bloomsburg University in leading a storytelling exercise. Students in yearbook, newspaper, broadcast and literary magazine can take advantage of this event at more regional sites around the state featuring many journalism contests. The contest winners at each regional event then advance to a journalism "state championship" day at Penn State University Park in March.

Click Here to jump to the PSPA website for all the information and to register online - hope to see YOU there!! Note that you DO need to register in advance, and be sure to take advantage of PSPA's free one year membership offer so your students can take part in the various journalism competitions.

What are the four areas included in every great book?

Jostens high school advisers receive a fantastic item every March, the annual Look Book. I can't believe that Volume 18 (18 years already?) will come out next spring, and I'm hoping some work from local yearbook staffs will make the next edition.

The experts who compile the Look Book were asked what they consider when they include a yearbook in the Look Book. They cited four areas of importance, in this order...

INCLUSIVENESS: I thoroughly agree that this is the most important area for a great yearbook. Too many books feature a relative handful of students a ton of times and too many students not at all, only one head shot in the portrait section.

Advisers, this is something that comes from you - left to their own devices, yearbook staffers will concentrate on themselves, their friends and other popular students. You need to send the message that EVERYBODY COUNTS. Work hard on this one area and your yearbook's worth will immediately skyrocket.

COVERAGE: Going along with inclusiveness, the idea is to tell the stories of your school this year but also the stories of the people IN your school this year. As I've told many students during my recent workshops, a yearbook is not the story of a building, it's the stories of the people IN the building.

And when you think about it, every single person in your school has some story to tell. The charge to your yearbook staff is to tell as many stories as you can this year, both in your book and on your ReplayIt website/app. There's enough room in both to cover literally EVERYONE.

Here's where some folks get confused - they think telling a story means devoting an entire page to it as we do with the usual stories: the football team, the cheerleaders, Homecoming week, etc. You can tell someone's story in a picture and a caption, one image and a few lines.

I've challenged yearbook students this fall to not only tell the usual stories but to find and tell the unusual stories: someone who won an award, what happens behind the scenes at Homecoming, the football third stringer who works as hard as anyone in practice but rarely plays in games.

Want your yearbook sales to increase? Tell more stories!

PHOTOGRAPHY: This is an obvious one but the real challenge is to take GOOD photos, not just photos. Most yearbook staffers snap random aimless shots when out and about with a camera. Instead, take a little extra time and take images that help to tell stories, both real-life action and posed shots.

If you haven't already, check out my online instructional video on Basic Photo Tips. Play this one for your staff - it's less than 15 minutes, includes good and bad examples of photos, and will hopefully spur your staffers to go out and improve their efforts.

Also check the Digital Classroom on your YBA website - we have some great photo lessons among the Seven Minute Starters, and check out the Videos section for more material to use with your staff. Better photos automatically make for better yearbooks.

DESIGN: I found it interesting that this is mentioned fourth because this is where most staffs spend most of their time; in my estimation, where most staffs waste too much time with students creating their own individual layouts within the same section. That's several students all creating their own designs when they could be using just one or maybe two designs and spending more time compiling the all-important content to place on the page.

If you haven't already, check out the Jostens Page Surfer book for many great page layouts already done for you. And for YearTech Online users, absolutely check out the Design Gallery on the YBA Home Page for hundreds of fantastic page designs, many of which you can select for use in your own book!

Plus, in Page Designer under the Designs tab, check out the Theme templates, designs coordinated to work together in every section of your book. And check out the fun modular templates to build your own informative pages quickly and easily, just follow the color coding with far more templates to use this year.

Want a handout to print out and give to your students as a reminder of these four elements above? Click on the Files for Download link in the left column, then select the second item listed.

Advisers, these four areas are the key elements to a yearbook that everyone in your school will cherish for a lifetime. It's not too late to get started - point your students in this direction and your readers will thank you forever.