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The tradition of the yearbook is quickly disappearing. The yearbook has been an annual publication that recorded the people and the events that took place during the academic year.
Colleges across the country are cutting down on how many yearbooks they publish and others are dropping them entirely.
Part of the problem is the cost of the hard-bound books. With a typical cost that can be as high as $75.00 students are finding they can't afford them. The cost of tuition continues to rise as well as living costs keep climbing upward. The yearbook looks like a luxury that most cannot afford. Another problem for the yearbook is today's students have replaced the printed page with electronic media and have become the Facebook and MySpace generation. These social networks have linked hundreds of friends and also offer digital photographs and videos which make a traditional yearbook look a little old fashioned.
Purdue University, in Indiana has published a yearbook for over a hundred years but this will be their last year for one. Nearby DePauw University also will cease to publish yearbooks after this year.
Virginia Wesleyan and Mississippi State University also will join the other colleges that have decided to discontinue publishing yearbooks.
According to Kay Jones in thedmonline.com the yearbook advisor at MSU they will cease to publish yearbooks due to lack of interest and budget cuts. She said with the enrollment of approximately 17,000 students as of a few weeks ago there were only 300 orders for this year's yearbook.
Jones said,
"We have lowered the price of the yearbook and even tried different marketing techniques. The interest among students is just not there."
Even though some colleges have tried to modernize the yearbook by adapting the new media by including DVDs that sum up the year along with printed book there are still too few students, readers or editors that are interested in them anymore.
The students in McKendree University in Illinois use the latest technology but the the university still publishes a yearbook but only print 150 copies even though they have 1,500 students but only half of the books are bought by students. To be on the staff of the yearbook was at one time a prestigious position but now there are only eight students doing this job. Even the printed magazines for alumni have been affected and increasingly are being replaced by online editions.
According to Economist.com yearbooks are still hanging on in American high schools but even their future is unclear. The parents and students are complaining about the high prices for the yearbooks. This generation has always had the internet and they are losing interest in the printed book.
