Never had the time or skill to get students started with a website?
SNO Sites is offering a free website for a limited time to any journalism program that doesn’t have a website already. The website is free for the program to use through August 2020, and at that time, schools can opt to keep the website for the 2020-2021 school year for their annual hosting and support fee of $400. They are waiving the setup fee entirely for those that take them up on this offer.
Given the amount of work involved in migrating content from existing websites, this offer is limited to only those programs that don’t have a website already and need a way to publish their content during these challenging times.
Feel free to reach out to SNO Sites (CSMA is a partner with SNO, and this website is provided by SNO) directly at [email protected] if you have any questions, or you can visit https://snosites.com/covid-19-
Looking for ways to improve technical quality of remote interviews?
Quality of audio and video is all over the place as students quickly must resort to remote interviewing (whether using Zoom or Skype or Teams, etc.). The Video Consortium presented a webinar with some tips on April 6 (you can watch the video or share the slides they used from this link), and shared a one-page PDF your students could share in advance with interview subjects. The professionals recommended spending 10 minutes or so PRIOR to the actual interview to reduce technical confusion and lost work.
Do you normally depend on ‘after delivery’ yearbook sales for important revenue?
From California adviser Mitch Ziegler (via the JEA listserv): In the past we always sold 150-200 books after the yearbook arrived. Since we do not know when or how yearbook distribution will occur, I sent out an email to all parents and students that we were finalizing a date for yearbook purchases given that would be no set way for people to purchase a book after delivery. I also included an option for people to obtain a refund for the yearbook if they felt they needed to reallocate their resources. We have sold 171 yearbooks since the email, and only one person has asked for a refund.
We know that many books are not even complete and many printing plants are closed or limited, and we know that all the distribution details are TBD, but we love this idea from Mitch about locking in your revenue, at least. His experience indicates that students and parents may appreciate the value of your yearbook even more this year.
Having trouble with final content for the yearbook?
Each publishing company has stepped up with ideas, and your representative should be able to help, of course. We see links like this one, from our friends at Balfour, or this link from Laura Schaub, who spoke on typography last J-Day. Jostens Yearbook Avenue offers a wide range of help and ideas. This blog post from Herff Jones is a fascinating story and you can find more links on the HJ site. Walsworth yearbooks offers some great advice and resources on its blog. We are proud of our partnerships with all our yearbook publishing companies and representatives, and just wanted to make certain our members have all the resources they need to finish the history of a unique year.
And it occurs to us that many of the ideas here will serve the 2021 book just as well. “Normal” may be a long way off.
