College Yearbooks Lose Their Cachet

Student government put out the word and staff members posted fliers, but fewer than 60 students showed up last week to take a studio portrait for the Cactus, the University of Texas' yearbook.

Fewer students are choosing to participate in or buy a college yearbook.

(ABC News Photo Illustration)

The UT population tops off at 50,000 students. Just over 2 percent of them bought the Cactus this year, a slight percentage increase from the previous school session.

"Characteristically we don't have high turnout for mug shots, but this year was worse because the University now has a policy against sending campus-wide e-mails," Eleanor Bartosh, junior journalism student and editor of the Cactus said. "We are not sure what to do to get people's interest."

Running Into Problems

But the Cactus is not the only publication with problems. Since the end of the spring semester, five colleges around the country have announced the discontinuation of their school annuals, including Purdue, Depaw, Virginia Wesleyan and Mississippi State.

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The termination of the publications attracted national attention. While many realized that college yearbooks were dying off, no one knew the extent of the problem, said Lori Brooks, director of student media at the University of Oklahoma and College Media yearbook committee chair.

In May, Brooks and Kathy Lawrence, College Media Adviser task force administrator and the University of Texas' student media director, decided to do their own research. They contacted the five major yearbook-publishing companies (Jostens, Herff Jones, Taylor, Walsworth and Lifetouch) to obtain the numbers of higher education clients doing business with each company.

Some companies refused to release sales information. Lawrence and Brooks still have plans to announce what they discovered, however, at the College Media Advisers convention this week in Kansas City.

Fewer Publications

"We found nothing much to report except that many schools are hanging on," Lawrence said. "I expect there are about 750 yearbooks in the U.S.A. today, far fewer than there were 10 years ago or 40 years ago."

Jostens spokesman Richard Stoebe said every school differs in its reasons for lackluster yearbook appeal, but overall students are discovering new ways to remember their college years.