Coverage is cool. Everyone has stories to tell and opinions to share. How well does your book capture them? A key factor in the perception of the yearbook by the rest of the school is the quality and diversity of coverage the yearbook provides.
Make sure each faculty member has a yearbook liaison. This mean, in all likelihood, that each staff or club member will be assigned multiple faculty with whom they must develop a professional relationship for checking in and finding out what is happening in class, in a club, in a sport – with whatever those faculty are involved. If the school has homeroom periods, consider assigning each of your staff members to teachers by homeroom period, and then add in faculty and staff you don’t have homerooms. Essentially, such a system creates a “faculty beat” for student journalists. It’s great PR, makes other faculty feel important, gives new opportunities for discovering stories and angles, and gives yearbook a proactive image.
Index often. Whether you are using eDesign or InDesign, putting together an index is a piece of cake. However, start early. Index pages even before the first deadline to maintain a list of who is in the book. Use this list to make sure you cover every student and every faculty member, in word or in picture, a minimum number of times, depending on the size of your school. Three entries for everyone is a great goal.
Have a caption for every photo, even very small photos. Name correctly the people in the photo.
Use photo credits and bylines. Staff members deserve credit, and giving it helps builds the reputation of the yearbook program. If you accept “free-lance” photos from the school community via eShare or some other system, be sure to credit those photographers. Same thing with copy: if you ask for or accept copy written by free-lance writers, make sure they get a byline.
Have fun! Listening to and seeing pictures of the year’s many stories ought to be good fun, and a meaningful experience for your staff or club members. As your coverage improves, so will the quality of the book, your book sales, and the desire of the rest of the students to be a part of something cool.
