News Topic - Kansas State University
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UNT's is latest annual to go in apparent trend
By JOHN AUSTIN For better than a century, the yearbook has been as much a staple of campus culture as beer and bad dorm food. But as of this year, the University of North Texas’ Aerie is history. Purdue and Mississippi State universities are also closing the books on annuals, while at schools that still have yearbooks, advisers tend to talk somewhat soberly about the future. "It’s probably a convergence of a lot of factors," said Tom Rufer, director of the UNT student union, which plans to distribute the final-edition 2008 Aerie in August. "To some degree, social networking is replacing that. Students are using Facebook to chronicle the college experience."Rich Stoebe, communications director for publisher Jostens Inc., headquartered in Minneapolis, downplayed the influence of social networking sites."MySpace, YouTube, Twitter are a different category," Stoebe said. "High school students are just as involved in MySpace, and it hasn’t had an impact. Virtually every high school produces a yearbook."But if the virtual world isn’t hurting yearbooks, rising costs, the loss of a key adviser and student indifference can lead administrators to shelve yearbook publication, Rufer said. The fact that students at many schools are pulled in the direction of off-campus jobs, semesters abroad and off-campus living also means they don’t share a common focus on traditional college life they might once have. The fact that the University of Texas at Arlington doesn’t offer a yearbook didn’t bother Jason McDonald. "It’s not high school, where everybody’s so centralized," said McDonald, 19, who will transfer to the University of Texas at Austin this fall. As for UT, McDonald said he might get a copy of the Cactus as a senior. Advisers say first-year students and seniors are usually the biggest buyers. Campus newspapers capture some of a college’s culture. But yearbook fans say a paper can’t put an academic year into a single volume students can pull off the shelves, leaf through and laugh at for the rest of their lives. "It really does give you a sense of what it was like to be on campus in years past," UNT archivist Michelle Mears said.At Kansas State University, the annuals are the most requested items in the university archives, the KSU yearbook adviser said. "They’re losing the only written history of the year prepared by the students who lived it," Cactus adviser Kathy Lawrence said.Downward trendStoebe estimates that 1,100 of the nation’s approximately 2,500 four-year colleges produce all-school yearbooks. But at UT, the latest Cactus sold only 2,000 copies on a campus of about 50,000, Lawrence said. UT-Arlington has not had an annual for years. Texas State University’s book was discontinued in 2004 after its 100th edition. Texas Wesleyan University’s book ceased publication six years ago."There are very few yearbooks that have not experienced declines in the past few years," said Richard Lytle, director of Student Media at Southern Methodist University. "We have not come up with the exact reason."At this point we are still in the black, but if we continue to drop in sales, that becomes questionable," Lytle said, adding that most income for SMU’s $55 yearbook derives from sales to students, with ad revenue secondary.
Star-Telegram.com – Jul 21, 2008 04:25 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Texas: Dallas-Fort Worth
By JOHN AUSTIN For better than a century, the yearbook has been as much a staple of campus culture as beer and bad dorm food. But as of this year, the University of North Texas’ Aerie is history. Purdue and Mississippi State universities are also closing the books on annuals, while at schools that still have yearbooks, advisers tend to talk somewhat soberly about the future. "It’s probably a convergence of a lot of factors," said Tom Rufer, director of the UNT student union, which plans to distribute the final-edition 2008 Aerie in August. "To some degree, social networking is replacing that. Students are using Facebook to chronicle the college experience."Rich Stoebe, communications director for publisher Jostens Inc., headquartered in Minneapolis, downplayed the influence of social networking sites."MySpace, YouTube, Twitter are a different category," Stoebe said. "High school students are just as involved in MySpace, and it hasn’t had an impact. Virtually every high school produces a yearbook."But if the virtual world isn’t hurting yearbooks, rising costs, the loss of a key adviser and student indifference can lead administrators to shelve yearbook publication, Rufer said. The fact that students at many schools are pulled in the direction of off-campus jobs, semesters abroad and off-campus living also means they don’t share a common focus on traditional college life they might once have. The fact that the University of Texas at Arlington doesn’t offer a yearbook didn’t bother Jason McDonald. "It’s not high school, where everybody’s so centralized," said McDonald, 19, who will transfer to the University of Texas at Austin this fall. As for UT, McDonald said he might get a copy of the Cactus as a senior. Advisers say first-year students and seniors are usually the biggest buyers. Campus newspapers capture some of a college’s culture. But yearbook fans say a paper can’t put an academic year into a single volume students can pull off the shelves, leaf through and laugh at for the rest of their lives. "It really does give you a sense of what it was like to be on campus in years past," UNT archivist Michelle Mears said.At Kansas State University, the annuals are the most requested items in the university archives, the KSU yearbook adviser said. "They’re losing the only written history of the year prepared by the students who lived it," Cactus adviser Kathy Lawrence said.Downward trendStoebe estimates that 1,100 of the nation’s approximately 2,500 four-year colleges produce all-school yearbooks. But at UT, the latest Cactus sold only 2,000 copies on a campus of about 50,000, Lawrence said. UT-Arlington has not had an annual for years. Texas State University’s book was discontinued in 2004 after its 100th edition. Texas Wesleyan University’s book ceased publication six years ago."There are very few yearbooks that have not experienced declines in the past few years," said Richard Lytle, director of Student Media at Southern Methodist University. "We have not come up with the exact reason."At this point we are still in the black, but if we continue to drop in sales, that becomes questionable," Lytle said, adding that most income for SMU’s $55 yearbook derives from sales to students, with ad revenue secondary.
Star-Telegram.com – Jul 21, 2008 04:25 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Texas: Dallas-Fort Worth
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