AU’s student-run yearbook, The Talon, has high hopes for its future despite disappointing sales from last year.
The Associate Collegiate Press award-winning yearbook only sold 100 to 200 yearbooks this past year, according to last year’s Editor-in-Chief Ellen Miller.
The Talon does not attribute a hefty price tag or the dying yearbook market to last year’s lacking sales. The biggest factors in this slump were a lapse in marketing strength and a weak push to get the yearbook’s name out to students, said current Editor-in-Chief Eric Hian-Cheong, a senior in the School of Communication.
“A lot of people don’t even know we have a yearbook,” said Diana Bowen, photo editor for the Talon and a senior in SOC.
Talon considers rethinking design, sales approach
Students debate whether the $65 yearbook purchase is worth it because social media sites such as Facebook serve similar purposes to a yearbook in documenting the school year, Hian-Cheong and Bowen said. However, some members of the AU community said the traditional feel of a yearbook has not entirely lost its appeal.
“A published hard copy of a book can be a snapshot of time,” David Johnson, an SOC digital journalism professor, wrote in an email. “It is something tangible that someone can keep and hold.”
Even so, some see yearbooks as better in a digitalized format.
“I love the idea of yearbook, but it is hard to ignore that we are in a digital era,” said Angela Variela, vice president of communication in AU’s Social Media Club and junior in SOC and the School of International Service. “People like free things and Facebook is replacing the yearbook of our generation.”
The Talon looks to revamp its approach
The Talon is working to keep yearbooks something that students will want to purchase. A “salad bar” approach is one of the new techniques the staff is considering implementing to increase sales, Hian-Cheong said. Through this approach, approximately 30 percent of the content will vary by consumer, targeted toward the specific interests of the individual.
“A certain percentage of the book is pick-and-choose, user-generated content,” Hian-Cheong said.
For example, students could choose whether or not to have pages in their book about Greek life, depending on their involvement or attachment to the organization.
The Talon staff is also aiming to break the preconceived notion that the yearbook is only for graduating seniors. The majority of the Talon features spreads and stories geared towards underclassmen, Hian-Cheong said.
Regardless of the sales records from their slump year, the Talon staff said they are confident their efforts will pay off not only for this year, but also for the years to come.
“We’re still strong,” Hian-Cheong said. “We just had a bad year.”
Talon website hacked
The Talon also had technological issues over the summer when its website, talonyearbook.com, was hacked and rendered unusable in early July.
A person or group that goes by the username “pSyCh0-3D” claimed responsibility for the attack, which consisted of the website’s content being replaced with written obscenities toward Tunisia and unidentified rap music playing in the background.
Bowen discovered the attack in early July while preparing to work on the website. She attempted to email the creator of the website, Adam Dexter, who graduated from AU in 2010. But she was unable to reach him, and the problem remained unsolved during the course of the summer.
The website was restored Sept. 15 after the staff contacted the website’s hosting service, which proceeded to reset the website and restore the content with a backup on its servers, Hian-Cheong said.
The attack had no impact on the overall operations of The Talon.
“[The website] was something to help market ourselves better, but it’s not necessary,” Hian-Cheong said.
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