Keene State College’s yearbook, The Kronicle, is facing the possibility of no longer being made. This comes after years of declining participation with just one student working on it last year. The Equinox Staff presented multiple theories on what caused the yearbook to become an afterthought.
One reason for The Kronicle’s dissolve is because of a complete lack of marketing for the club. Due to this, a large amount of students do not even know that there is a yearbook. Many members of our staff said that they did not find out about the yearbook until their sophomore or junior years when a faculty member mentioned it. One of our staff members even said that they joined and sent emails to the person in charge but never heard anything back.
Some members of our staff also mentioned technology and social media as a potential reason for lack of interest in a yearbook. This was said because people will be less compelled to print out and cherish physical pictures due to the fact that it’s always just on their phone, available at any time. We think this is unfortunate because the internet may not be around forever and if we do not properly preserve these memories, then they will be gone forever if something happens to our technology.
Another possible cause of people not wanting a yearbook is because they knew more of the people that they went to high school with, while they don’t know as many at college. With them not knowing many of the people that would be in the yearbook, they may not want to just see a bunch of strangers.
Overall, The Kronicle needs a dedicated group of people that will properly market the club and work hard to make it done well. If they do not get a proper group of people then nobody will want to sign up because nobody wants to have to do work on a yearbook without any assistance. The staff believes that even if a lot of students do not buy it, we should still try to make them for sentimental and record keeping purposes.
