Mississippi State University’s yearbook may be discontinued due to a decline in student interest and sales of the student publication. MSU students fund, design and assemble the Reveille, which has been in continuous publication since 1905, with the exception of 1941 due to World War II.
Co-editor Jennifer Hudson said the Reveille’s sales goal must be reached by the publishing company’s deadline or the book will not be printed.
“As of right now I think we’ve sold 85 copies on campus, and we have to sell [at least] 1,400 by Feb. 1,” she said. “It’s pretty much looking impossible right now.”
The original sales goal was 2,000 copies, but if the self-funded Reveille sells a minimum number of 1,400, it would be just enough to stay in budget, Hudson said.
“We don’t get any funding from the school,” she said. “Our funding comes from sales of the book; we only sold more than 700 books last year, and we have to sell double that this year just to get by to keep up with [the budget].”
At some universities, such as the University of Mississippi, yearbooks are an added fee, but purchasing a yearbook at MSU is voluntary, Hudson said.
Eddie Keith, director of the Colvard Student Union, works with student publications and said MSU once included the yearbook cost in activity fees paid by each student.
Due to the discontinuation of such fees and budget cuts, the university chose the subscription system to fund the Reveille.
“The decision was made to do it the way [students buy yearbooks in high school] with a subscription,” he said. “Unfortunately, cost-per-book goes up as the number of books goes down.”
While some universities such as the University of Florida and the University of South Carolina have discontinued their yearbooks as they have gotten bigger, some large schools like Texas A&M have had continued success with theirs, Keith said.
“It’s not fair to say yearbooks are [being bought] everywhere, but it’s fair to say it’s a challenge on a lot of campuses,” he said. “I can’t tell you why, but it seems like students today don’t seem as interested as students in the past.”
Hudson said the yearbook staff is experimenting with new ways to market the book, including Web previews, e-mails, postcards and reaching out to campus organizations and the Greek community.
“In the past, no one has really marked the book … there was a link on MyBanner, but most people just don’t know about the yearbook,” she said. “Most people [wait until their senior year]. It’s cheaper now, but $70 is a lot.”
The yearbook’s past design flaws and high price were both issues the staff has tried to address to boost sales, Hudson said.
“We really worked hard as far as design making the book, and the price is cheaper this year. We’ve tried to make that an incentive to buy the book,” she said. “It’s about $20 cheaper this year than last year. This year the book costs $70.80, and that’s with tax and shipping. It goes straight to the student account so [students] don’t have to pay for it up front.”
Hudson said updating the book was another way the Reveille staff is trying to attract student interest.
“Design-wise in the past, it just hasn’t been that great of a book. We’ve tried to hire new designers and staff writers this year,” she said. “Our [new] design is based on a magazine kind of look.”
Hudson said people including her own mother value their yearbooks, and wishes today’s MSU students would do the same.
“My mom has all of hers and she still goes back and looks at people who were in her class and what was going on when she was in college,” she said.
Personal and family traditions are some reasons students like sophomore pre-pharmacy major Morgan Jefcoat buy yearbooks annually.
“I bought it because I’ve gotten one every year since first grade and I liked looking through my dad’s yearbook from when he was at State,” she said.
Other students like sophomore forestry major Andrew Wood choose not to purchase the book because of its high price, or a lack of connection to the book.
“I’ve never bought one,” Wood said. “There are so many people [at MSU] that it isn’t useful for me. I probably only know 40 or 50 people in my major. It’s expensive and I wouldn’t know that many people in it.”
Keith said the fate of the Reveille lies in the hands of MSU students, who will determine if there is enough interest to maintain the yearbook.
“This to me is really sad. I hate that it’s worked out this way, but the students have to decide,” he said.
Hudson said she is not sure what would happen to the yearbook’s equipment and facilities if the book were discontinued, but she hopes it would not come to that.
“I hope that [we can continue production of the Reveille].” Hudson said. “I think it’s really important.