Declining Yearbook Sales

In last week’s issue of The Economist (July 5^th-11^th), there was an interesting short article regarding the recent decline in the purchase and production of printed yearbooks. With the increasing cost of print-runs, the overwhelming popularity of social networking sites, and the replacement of print with electronic media, I find this no surprise. Why pay $75 to remember your college days in just one book when you can treasure the memories online and keep in touch with your classmates over Facebook and MySpace? According to the article, Purdue University and DePauw University, both in Indiana, have recently stopped the presses on printed yearbooks, and many colleges are beginning to try to use new media to replace the print, including DVDs to summarize the year. It should be interesting to see whether this trend extends to high school, where claiming to be part of the yearbook staff had an impressive air. Even if schools begin to switch to new media like DVDs to summarize the year, will it serve as a fair replacement for printed yearbooks? Will more students be more likely to buy these? How much are students and universities willing to pay to see their memories (or snapshots) in print?