How can we broaden the coverage in our yearbook?

There is a nasty rumor going around my school that anyone who joins the yearbook class can never be featured in the book. While there is some truth to that rumor, it shouldn’t be taken as gospel. Last year, when the student body president was a member of our staff, it would have been just plain wrong to purposely NOT feature him. When yearbook students are involved on campus, there is a very good chance they will be included in the book. That’s called good coverage. There is really no way around it. There are, however, ways we work to make sure it is not a ‘yearbook staff only’ book, but one that features students from all over campus.

When we sit down to plan out our deadlines, we make a conscious effort to see that students who have not been selected for interviews have an opportunity to be interviewed and potentially featured in the book. When we do senior features, for instance, during our first deadline — we look to see which seniors have not had their senior portraits taken. Some students don’t get their pictures taken, no matter what — even though it is free. We generate a list of those students, distribute it to the senior English teachers and work to feature some of them in the senior section itself. I know this has some positive ramifications because, when the newest addition to our library staff met his colleagues, they found out he had graduated from the same school where he was working. They went to find his senior picture, and he was quick to point out that, while he had neglected to get his senior picture taken, the yearbook staff had done a feature page which had his photo on it. It meant a lot to him. There are a number of ways students and staffs deal with this issue; let’s look at a few.

THE HOT LIST We create an alphabetical list of students and, each time a student is featured in the book, his/her name goes on the list. After students go on the list, it is discouraged, especially within the same section, to feature them again. We have been known to entirely rework pages to alleviate this problem.

Deerlake Middle School, Ocala, FL
Everybody has a favorite team so coverage of fans and their favorites lends itself to being inclusive. Use all-school announcements to solicit photos and check all submissions against your list to make sure you’re not including the same people yet another time.

THE BEST FRIEND LIST The first week of class, students in yearbook are asked to create a list of their 10 best friends. Then they make a short list of people they would like to get to know, are afraid to talk to or look up to. Once the lists are created, students are prohibited from using their friends and required to interview students or faculty on their “afraid to interview” list. This way, they not only gain valuable practice interviewing, but also see the potential for meeting more people and discovering new stories.

Pleasant Grove High School, Texarkana, TX
Most everyone has some out-of-school interests. If you do one big yearbook survey asking for responses, you’ll have lots to choose from. Just make sure you don’t cover people who are already in the book a lot. Some staffs look at last year’s index another way and “disqualify” anyone who was listed more than four times — assuming they’ll repeat some of their activities from year to year.

SECTION BY SECTION Each time we begin a new section we ask teachers for names of potential students’ to interview. For instance, when we begin sports, we ask the coaches which athletes they think we should feature. If a student is pictured and interviewed for the football page, that should probably be his one and only sports feature shot. This year we featured a young man on the soccer page who really knew very few students. It kind of made his year. That made us in the yearbook room feel really good. We had gone outside our ‘familiarity zone’ and covered a student who might otherwise not have been featured. Sure, there were more recognizable students, but his picture really was the best one. He was elated. You can be sure he purchased a yearbook!

Harvest Park Middle School, Pleasanton, CA
Coverage of new students gives them a way to be part of their new school immediately. Ask the office for a list of everyone who has transferred in since school started and then see what they think of your school and how it compares to the schools they left behind.

POLL THE TEACHERS We ask teachers for help as well. Many times a teacher may know of students who might have a reason to be featured. Let’s face it. We may think we know it all in the yearbook room, but we certainly don’t.

BRAINSTORM Too often staffers get a new assignment and gravitate to the people they already know. This is a bad idea. Brainstorming allows us to think of people outside our ‘comfort level.’

Breckenridge High School, Breckenridge, MI
In this spread, the staff intentionally set out to cover people and aspects of their lives that were not well known. How to find those people? Use last year’s index and make it a point to picture and quote those people who were only in the book one time.

PUBLICATIONS RULE #1 We make every effort to avoid interviewing and featuring the newspaper staff members since we share a lab and are kind of like one big publications family. Of course, if these students are totally involved all over campus, they will be included. We just want to include ALL students in the book.

Phillips Academy High School, Andover, MA
Covering different parts of the building will also help you include more people. Here, the coverage is of the two dining halls. Making sure you venture away from the yearbook room (and the wing it’s located in) will help balance coverage. And, if all upperclassmen eat second lunch, make sure that there are photographers shooting first lunch as well.

Obviously, when we try to broaden our coverage to get more students in the book it does not always work. Some students just say no. When they refuse, although we do not understand why, we should respect their right to refuse coverage. Others may simply be afraid they might sound stupid in their quotes. We might have the ability to lessen their concerns and show them what a privilege it can be to be featured. And, while there may be that unwritten rule about not featuring yearbook kids in the book, if we are doing our job, there is plenty of room for them without making it a ‘yearbook student’ feature book.

Why is it important to get better coverage? The formula is simple: when more people are featured in the book, more people buy the book. Isn’t that one of our top goals? It is always fun to win awards, but the most important award is the one the student body gives us when they want to own the book.

Contributed by:
Trish Ladue, Yearbook Adviser
McClintock High School, AZ
Discoveries Vol. 12 Issue 2