CSPA names 24 Walsworth Yearbooks schools Crown Finalists

Twenty-four of Walsworth Yearbooks’ 2018 yearbooks have been named a 2019 Crown Award Finalists by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA).

Coverage

November 9, 2018 / Coverage / Interviewing/Reporting

Searching for a story? Look to your students

Trying to come up with an interesting idea for a yearbook feature story? Sometimes it can be difficult coming up with a unique angle, but the fact that you’re trying means you’re on the right track! “A yearbook shouldn’t be full of topics,” according to Brady Smekens, former adviser of the Deka yearbook staff at Huntington North High School, Huntington, Indiana. “Rather, it should tell the story of students. In the process, the topics get covered.” The list of story ideas on this page will help editors start brainstorming for coverage unique to their school and the current year.

Make sure your yearbook staff keeps these tips in mind this Halloween

Next week is Halloween, which is always one of the more colorful, photogenic events of the fall for yearbook staffs to document. Many schools incorporate Spirit Week around the week of Halloween, so it can be an important coverage week. Make sure your staff photographers and reporters are ready, the way they were for the…

October 3, 2018 / Coverage / Design / National Yearbook Week

Watch replay of design webinar with Mike Taylor

Walsworth’s first webinar of National Yearbook Week 2018 took place on Tuesday afternoon, with Mike Taylor’s presentation, “Content-Driven Yearbook Design.” Taylor spent 60 minutes discussing how your yearbook coverage can directly impact your book’s design. Replay of the webinar is now available. Creating page templates helps yearbooks keep a consistent look and allows students to…

September 28, 2018 / Coverage / Fall 2018 / Theme

Clear eyes, Full imaginations, Can’t lose

How a new adviser, new editors and new outlook made for one of Azle High School’s best yearbooks ever When The Hornet yearbook staff at Azle High School in Azle, Texas, gathered for their very first meeting just one week before the 2017-2018 school year kicked off, there was a lot of uncertainty about how…

September 28, 2018 / Copywriting / Coverage / Design / Fall 2018 / Photography

The Look, The Story, The Words, The Images

Everyone always wants to know what the current “trends” are for the upcoming yearbook year. What cool things are other schools doing that we should consider doing? Or even better, what did we do that has become a trend that everyone is going to be doing in 2019? At every workshop and every convention everyone…

August 1, 2018 / Coverage / Theme

Let your theme inspire your coverage

A good theme never shuts up. While theme shows up loudest on the pages dedicated to its explanation (opening spreads) and continuation (division pages), it should not fall silent in the rest of the book.

February 23, 2018 / Copywriting / Coverage

Yearbook staffs shouldn’t slough off the colophon

You’d be surprised how often it happens. You pick up a yearbook, see a cover design you really love, or flip through and eye a font you like, then flip to the back looking for the colophon to read the specs and… nothing. A number of yearbook staffs get overwhelmed with the workload when pages…

January 26, 2018 / Coverage / Design

Spicy sides for your yearbook coverage

When you need information pulled out and explained further, or in a different way, consider using pie charts, surveys, lists, quote boxes, timelines, tables and fast-fact boxes to tell the complete story – and leave readers pleasantly full.

December 20, 2017 / Coverage / Coverage Spotlight

Holidays, winter break provide plenty of coverage opportunities for yearbook staffs

The holidays and winter break are likely a time for most yearbook staffs to pause, regroup and get ready for the second semester. A week or two off to recharge is great for all involved, but it’s also good to keep in mind that this time of year is also filled with story possibilities. In…

November 30, 2017 / Copywriting / Coverage

More ways to say it with sidebars

There are lots of ways to be informative. Pie charts, bar graphs, quotes, polls, and lists are all ways to convey information. The key is to use them to impart information that is important to the students. A bar graph for a survey question on whether students were happy the football team won the homecoming game does not make for compelling reading.