The State of Yearbooks: A Fix For a Dying Tradition
Yearbooks have been steadily declining in popularity over the years. www.TheAnnuary.com offers a new approach by having yearbooks available online.
Yearbooks have been steadily declining in popularity over the years. Why is this? Well, there are numerous factors to look at. Fingers are normally pointed at the advent of social networking as the main culprit. With social networking sites gaining popularity students no longer feel that yearbooks are relevant and it shows in sales. Families and schools have picked up the torch to become the champions of keeping the tradition alive, and for good reason. Families and school want a record of their children and students to keep as a legacy and keepsake.
The second major reason for the decline in yearbook sales and activity is the economy. In this day and age spending 50 to 150 dollars on a yearbook is out of the question for a good deal of families and it simply does not make financial sense to add more burden to families with children. Some schools have combated the cost issue by making physically smaller yearbooks with a lesser amount of pages, less color on pages, and paperbacks instead of hardbacks. It has helped slightly, but ultimately the experience is crippled and hurt with this approach. This is a prime example that less is not always more.
The last major reason for the decline is that at any cost in a digital world the utility of a physical publication simply doesn’t exist anymore. The fundamental problem with a yearbook in today’s modern society is that it could be done in a way that would make it inexpensive and available to anyone anywhere who would like to view it, not just the person whom has a physical copy. This paradigm shift also leads to the fact that physical books also lack utility because there is no way that they can support our increasing video and sound-rich content and consumption.
www.TheAnnuary.com was established with those barriers in mind and aimed to solve each one. The first thing that we targeted was the cost. We wanted to bring the cost of making a yearbook down to a slight fraction of what it would normally cost. If you mention that you read this article on AusBusiness we will even host the first yearbook for any school or organization for absolutely free of charge! We also aimed to solve the problem of utility. How could we make it so that any loved one could see their friend or relative’s yearbook, no matter when and where they were without having the restrictions of having to purchase and have a physical example in their hands? We solved that by making the books completely digital and accessible anywhere at anytime as long as the user has an active internet connection. They still act like books and schools still have complete control over them. We even added the ability for schools to add their own video and sound for a truly interactive experience.
We aren’t resting on our laurels however, as we have many more exciting ideas in the pipeline. It is with the support from great schools and organizations that our company even exists, and we’d like to thank everyone for their boundless support.
If you’d like to find out how TheAnnuary, Inc. can change how you yearbook, please feel free to contact us anytime at: Atlas@TheAnnuary.com
You may also like to see the following business reviews: Naplan, Mathletics, Scholastic and a review of myschool.edu.au.
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The review "The State of Yearbooks: A Fix For a Dying Tradition" was last updated on 17/5/10.
Eventually yearbooks would become available purely in digital form with the option of getting a printed copy. But I think it’s gonna be more expensive considering that it’s cheaper to print in bulk rather than a few. Back then when DVD just came out and CD was more common, universities and colleges were already experimenting on including a few things in a CD to go with the yearbook.
Wow, I hadn’t even considered the fact that yearbooks might be an endangered species with the advent of social networking and such. I know the 10-year high school reunion seems antiquated to a lot of people, because whereas in the past you just had no clue what people were doing, now you can just follow them on facebook and see what’s going on in their lives. It’s an odd thing really….
Yearbooks are great! But as you sate there are more and more “disappearing”. But the online alternative is really good!