The new digital offering will be made available to Jostens yearbook customers this school year, reaching thousands of schools and millions of students across the U.S.
“Jostens has been the leader in delivering technology to yearbooks since our first on-line layout tool in the early 2000’s, which literally brought yearbooks into the digital age” said Tammy Whitaker, Vice President and General Manager of the company’s Yearbook division. “Yearbook+ takes our digital innovation to the next level by adding aspects of both individuality and inclusivity that can not only make the yearbook better, but a school’s culture and community better.”
“Yearbook+ helps yearbook staffs create a real sense of belonging in the yearbook, while giving each student the power to really tell their own story and express a greater sense of individuality than ever before,” said Mike Wolf, Jostens Vice President of Yearbook marketing.
With patent pending technology developed by Jostens, Yearbook+ creates an interactive yearbook experience. All students are invited to upload 10 photos of their school year. Those photos are then digitally “unlocked” by scanning each student’s portrait picture in the printed yearbook with their mobile device.
Unlike other digital applications utilized by yearbook staffs, Yearbook+ requires no downloading to a device, empowering students to easily personalize their yearbook experience and tell their own stories.
“As a yearbook adviser, I appreciate the inclusion of our many student voices and perspectives in the yearbook,” said Jason Bowen, yearbook adviser at California’s Vista Murrieta High School. “Jostens Yearbook+ will allow every student the opportunity to personalize their own yearbook experience, and the entire school community will benefit from this better, more inclusive yearbook.”
Yearbook+ is the latest effort in Jostens longstanding commitment to make yearbooks the most technology enabled and representative record of a school’s year. In addition to its deep library of on-line tools and curriculum made available to yearbook staffs each year, it has introduced Digital Signing Pages and a series of virtual yearbook workshops to help preserve yearbook traditions in the face of COVID-19 challenges.
“While it wasn’t developed in response to COVID-19, Yearbook+ is going to give all students, regardless of their location or learning environment, a chance to tell their own story in this historic year,” said Whitaker. “This is a year none of us will forget, and Yearbook+ will allow every student to remember it in their own way.”
More information on Yearbook+ can be found here, and on the Jostens website at https://jostens.com.