personalized yearbooks

Looking for inspiration, design tricks, how to make a great cover, promoting your yearbook and engaging your community?

Most recent

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
July 18, 2011

NBC 13 news: environmentally friendly way to have yearbooks

Remember searching through your school yearbook for pictures of you and your friends? Well, that could be a thing of the past. A California based company is taking advantage of digital technology to personalize yearbooks. It's all thanks to a new service called Treering.
"We use this latest digital printing. So, for Treering, we're basically disrupting this multi-billion dollar industry that's been around for a long time with innovation that ends up being better for the student and better for the school," said Aaron Greco, the CEO of Treering.
Treering is different from a traditional yearbook, in that, you're doing it all online, which makes it a lot easier to share pages with other people that are working on the yearbook with you. You also have the ability to customize the yearbook for your child.
"Our family, what we decided to do, was instead of ordering three different yearbooks, we decided to make a custom page for each of our children so that we could have all three in here, and we added a fourth page with all three of them together so that they could share the yearbook," said Sue Kim-Ahn, a parent.
In recent years, a number of schools in California have cancelled yearbooks because of cost. Now because of Treering they're saving a lot of money. Parents can deal directly with the vendor themselves, and buy the yearbook from the site, only if they want to. Treering also plants a tree for every book they print.
June 8, 2011

Cnn money:  a yearbook that looks like facebook

By Blake Ellis  
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As graduation day arrives, students will say goodbye to their classmates and teachers. And many are departing without a traditional yearbook to preserve those memories.
State budget cuts and the weak economy are causing elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and colleges across the country to either do away with yearbooks or look for more cost-effective publishing options.
Research firm IBISWorld estimates that the traditional yearbook publishing industry has seen sales to schools decline by 4.7% a year over the past few years. The decline has come as both public and private schools struggling with insufficient funding put their limited resources toward areas like staffing instead publishing yearbooks -- many of which go unsold, especially in recent years as disposable incomes have suffered.
"Our country is handing out pink slips to teachers right and left, and if it comes down to teachers versus yearbooks, yearbooks are going to lose," said Marc Strohlein, principal at consulting firm Agile Business Logic.
Budget crunch
This is the first year that Indiana's Huntington University isn't offering yearbooks, after budget constraints forced the school to reallocate the $40,000 year it typically spends to publish 750 yearbooks.
"Budgets being what they were and the economy being what it was, forced our hand on this one," said Ron Coffey, Huntington's vice president for community development. "But I think given the economic times, the students are understanding of the difficulties that we and other schools are experiencing."
Students at Mokena Junior High School, in Illinois, won't be taking home yearbooks either, after the school district lost funding for all extracurricular activities this year. And Blaine High School in Washington is in the same boat, and likely won't be handing out yearbooks next year due to a severe lack of funding for the program. But while some schools are abolishing the keepsake altogether, others are turning to new online yearbook companies like YearBook Alive, Lulu, Lifetouch and Treering. Treering, for example, is an electronic yearbook company that lets schools design yearbooks, giving students the option of viewing them online, or ordering a printed copy for just $12 to $17 per book. More than a million photos have already been uploaded, and more than 50,000 students are using its services.
Treering says it is now providing yearbooks for hundreds of schools that would have otherwise eliminated the tradition altogether. Sales have soared 600% since the company launched two years ago.
The company estimates that each school saves an average of $100,000 to $600,000 a year in unnecessary printing costs.
"We just signed on with a school in San Francisco that was losing almost $2,000 a year in leftover books," said Aaron Greco, CEO of Treering. "It's just so crazy, because $2,000 could buy five computers with an education discount."
While the major publishing companies mass produce yearbooks using the traditional -- and expensive -- printing method of offset, electronic printing has improved so much recently that the quality is just as good, said Greco. The company will also soon introduce an online signing function, so students can digitally sign each other's yearbooks books. One inner-city elementary school with a large population of lower income students, Alvarado School in San Francisco, wasn't able to afford offering yearbooks at all until it heard about electronic options that don't incur costs on the school.
"Financially, it would have just been ridiculous to try to do it -- the school can't even afford paper and pencils, so to outlay money for a nice-to-have item like a yearbook wasn't even something that was considered," said Tim Smith, a parent and teacher at the school. This year, nearly half of the school's 484 students bought yearbooks, averaging only about $13 each. The others were still able to create yearbooks, view them online and share them with friends.
Breaking with tradition Budget crunches aren't the only reason for the shift. Huntington University's Coffey said while the school's budget crunch was the main culprit, students are simply more interested in reliving school memories with photos and comments online. Electronic yearbooks give students the ability to customize pages, and share them using social networking sites.
"The personalization makes it into something about the student, not just the school," said Greco. "We're seeing a death of the traditional yearbook and an age of the personalized yearbook." Coffey wonders whether social media and Facebook will eventually replace yearbooks altogether.
"Our view is that interest in yearbooks has waned to some degree," he said. "It's not that no students are interested, but with the advent of Facebook and other social networking opportunities, these are often more readily available and interesting venues than the old yearbook world." But the disappearance of such a long-standing tradition is always hard for some people to accept. "The tradition is the biggest factor -- it's always hard for students to think of life without it," said Coffey.
READ MORE
May 23, 2011

Cw news:  create your own yearbook with treering.com

Morning News show, Everyday w/ Libby AND Natalie, on KWGN-CW in Denver, CO discusses how cool Treering yearbooks are.
May 21, 2011

Kleinspiration blog:  personalize your own yearbook with treering

Have you ever noticed that school yearbooks only have about 2 photos of your child? Recently, I’ve discovered a company that is trying to change that and personalize yearbooks. It’s called www.Treering.com, and it allows the yearbook team to create a bulk of the yearbook online, and each student or parent creates their own personalized pages with photos and memories from the past year. Upon completion, parents purchase the yearbook and hard copies are delivered to the school to keep up with the school spirit. Because families create and order their yearbooks directly online through Treering, schools no longer have to pre-purchase and resell yearbooks, an antiquated and wasteful practice that regularly leaves schools with unsold books and lots of wasted money. Treering’s innovative automated process eliminates the financial burden on schools to pay upfront fees for conventional yearbooks. Treering even plants a tree in honor of each yearbook sold. Like the growth rings of a tree, each memory in a Treering yearbook is marked in a student’s personalized copy. The memories, accomplishments and activities of each student's life are capture and preserved, so that years from now they'll look back at their Treering yearbook and remember all of their great times they had each school year.  READ MORE
February 15, 2011

Fastcompany:  yearbook dorks lose iron grip on content with customizable, crowdsourced books

Crowdsourced, personalized, and cheap--it's a yearbook for the Internet age.
BY DAVID ZAX
Technology gives, and technology takes away. The digital age has brought us so much--tablets! Facebook!--but as a result, old and declining technologies seem to be walking around with targets on their foreheads. This is increasingly true in schools, which have been jumping on the digital bandwagon of late. Each day seems to bring a new report of how the iPad, for instance, will be ousting an obsolete paper-based technology: the textbook, the notebook. 
And what of the yearbook, that paper-based technology that almost seems designed to be obsolete? When we flip through them, it's to laugh at the past, its funny fashions, its dated buzz phrases, its unfortunate braces. Surely Facebook, which keeps people in touch and helps them share photos and memories, has delivered the fatal blow to that annual compendium of awkwardness that is the yearbook?
Think again. A company called Treering offers what it calls "yearbooks for the Internet generation"--actual, printed, physical books, albeit with a digital twist. 
A traditional yearbook is made entirely by a school's self-selecting squadron of nerds. Treering's yearbook brings everyone in on the fun. While 80% of the yearbook is still made by the school's yearbook team, 10% is crowd-created. 
The books that go out, then, are 90% identical. What about the remaining 10%? At the high school I graduated from before Facebook was a gleam in Mark Zuckerberg's eye, only the seniors counted themselves lucky enough to get half a page to create themselves (with maybe a bit of extra vanity content in the form of embarrassing advertisements bought by grandparents). Underclassmen got nothing. But in the Facebook-enabled age of self-casting, such a meager fraction simply won't do. To that end, the final 10% of Treering's yearbook is personalized, created entirely by the individual who will wind up with that particular book. 
It's all managed online, with simple drag-and-drop tools, and you can source your photos from places where they're already likely to be: Facebook and Flickr, for instance. 
The Internet, vanity, social media, crowd-sourcing--Treering has all the major bases of modernity covered, then, right? But something's missing... Oh, right: green cred! Don't worry: Treering plants a tree for every book sold.
The whole scheme winds up saving everyone money, too, because Treering only prints as many copies as are demanded. A slim, 20-page softcover can cost as little as $10 or less (though a more standard bulky hard-cover, hundreds of pages long, can run up to $60 or considerably more). A virtual copy of the book lives online, meaning even if they lose their printed copy, your classmates can still laugh at your dated hairdo years hence.  READ MORE 
December 3, 2010

District administration magazine awards treering 2010 readers’ choice top 100 product

District Administration Magazine Awards Treering 2010 Readers’ Choice Top 100 Product
District Administration—the most-read magazine of America’s school district leaders—announces Treering as a recipient of the Readers’ Choice Top 100 Products of 2010.
Redwood City, CA – December 2, 2010.— Readers of District Administration are the top public school administrators in the country, and they know from experience what works and what does not work within their districts. As part of its annual award program, District Administration asked its readers to nominate the hardware, software, books and materials, Web sites, or facilities products that have made a positive difference in their districts in 2010.  Treering’s customizable yearbooks that eliminate costs for school’s earned the distinction this year in its first time nominated.
The winning products were determined by the quantity of nominations received per product as well as evaluating the quality of readers’ nominations and explanations. The 2010 winners were selected from hundreds of nominations received over the last six months, a significant increase in participation from the previous year. “These product recommendations included extensive descriptions from school administrators of how these products are used in their districts, making it very challenging to choose the top 100 products. We hope these products, and their accompanying testimonials, will act as a valuable resource for our readers,” says District Administration’s editor in chief, Judy Faust Hartnett.
“This year’s winners were a very diverse group of products, ranging from classroom resources to district-level management tools,” says Kurt Eisele-Dyrli, products editor. “Many of them, from online assessments and notification systems to thin clients and projectors, enabled readers to do more with less, which reflects the challenging times faced by many school systems.”
“It is an incredible honor to receive District Administration’s Top 100 Product award.  It’s quite humbling to be mentioned alongside Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle as the best products of the year for schools.  The excitement our customers have for our product drive us to continue to improve the product and revolutionize how yearbooks are created and purchased.” said Kevin Zerber, Treering Co-Founder.
November 17, 2010

Dallas morning news: technology lets students, parents layout personalized pages in high school yearbooks

Technology lets students, parents layout personalized pages in high school yearbooks
By KAREL HOLLOWAY / The Dallas Morning News Yearbooks can be a big rush or a real letdown. Lots of pictures of your child and it's great. Just the formal class picture and maybe a glimpse of a cute face at the back of a group and the big book seems a waste. Yearbook companies are springing up to help avoid disappointment, offering schools and parents a digital way to make the books more personal. Treering, headquartered in California, says it was the first company to offer schools personalized pages in yearbooks. Parents, or the students if they are old enough, can lay out their own pages with photos and text and add them to the standard book. Co-founder Chris Pratt remembers his daughter bringing home her book with just two photos of her. "It didn't capture her memories," said Aaron Greco, who started the company with Pratt. The company started last year, using a digital process to offer personalized pages. Greco said other companies now are springing up to offer similar services. Several area schools, including some in Rockwall and Wylie, are using Treering, he said, though he would not say how many clients the company has. The digital process is called print on demand. Instead of setting up pages and then printing them on a large offset press, Treering pages are similar to documents on any computer. Pages can be added or deleted almost as easily as attaching a file to email. Books can be cheaply printed, one individualized copy at a time. That means the yearbooks can be truly personalized. Schools using the system no longer have to place large orders, or large deposits, in advance. Schools create 80 percent of the pages online – this is the traditional part of the book. But parents automatically receive other pages they can use as they want, uploading pictures and text of their child. Once the book is finished, parents, students, or others, like grandparents, can order the book they want. It can have no personalized pages or dozens. Because of the streamlined digital process, the books are often 20 to 30 percent cheaper than other yearbooks, Greco said. "One mom that had three kids at the school had 16 pages for each kid." Greco said. "The pages were beautiful." Parent volunteer Tonya Fenoglio is in charge of the yearbook at Rockwall's Hartman Elementary School. She said Treering seemed an easy choice. This is the first year Fenoglio has been the yearbook coordinator. She searched the Internet to see if there was a better option than the company the school had used for years. She found Treering and liked the ability to personalize pages and the lower cost. "All the other yearbooks seemed really outdated," she said. She has already created the pages for her daughter. They include pictures with her friends and activities from first grade. Other parents have gone online to finish their students' pages as well. Fenoglio says she likes the chance for parents to add personal details such as teacher names and important days. "They'll kind of have a Life at Grace Hartman Elementary School," she said.
November 5, 2010

New York Times: a yearbook dedicated to inclusion

A Yearbook Dedicated to Inclusion
By WINNIE HU
EXCERPT FROM ARTICLE:
A growing number of schools, including Scotch Plains-Fanwood and Baldwin Senior High School, on Long Island, are also using new publishing technology offered through companies like... Treering to give every student the option of personalizing a yearbook by adding pages to fill with photos and memories, at little or no additional cost. Scotch Plains-Fanwood’s yearbook advisers, Julie Whitty and Amy Rutkowski, said they hoped the customized pages and more inclusive approach would increase their sales; in recent years, about half of the students bought yearbooks, which start at $75 this year.  READ FULL ARTICLE ON NYT 
October 20, 2010

CBS News: treering custom yearbooks at st timothy school

CBS San Francisco (KCBS) news covers Treering's no-cost for school, customizable yearbooks at St Timothy School in San Mateo, CA. Interview with Treering CEO, Aaron Greco, St Timothy School Principal, Monica Miller, and Teacher/Parent Margaret Flynn.
October 18, 2010

Fox news: customizing children's school yearbooks

Published : Monday, 18 Oct 2010, 10:07 AM MDT
MESA, Ariz. - It's the classic yearbook picture you have to love - but wouldn't it be nice to have more than just one picture?
A new yearbook company called Treering allows parents to add custom pages to their child's yearbook - anything from the first day of school to their favorite pets.
Red Mountain Ranch Elementary school in Mesa is trying it out this year.
"That's been the biggest challenge for us..is to try to include every student..more than just their individual portrait," said Red Mountain Ranch's Brenda Sibley.
"I thought it was pretty cool because then you can finally have your own personalized yearbook," said Chloe Smith.
It's easy to do. If your school signs up to have Tree Ring print the yearbook, all you have to do is go to the company's website and plugin pictures to a template. The first two pages are free, but it's $3.99 for each additional page.
October 1, 2010

Cw news: school days online

Amanda Salinas, The 33 News SACHSE, TX - We talk online, bank online, and stand in line for hours for the latest digital gadget. Now the school yearbook is finding its way online. More North Texas schools are making their memories digital. On any given day, you can find Karen Andiel on the campus of Whitt Elementary School in Sachse. Andiel is like most PTA moms. She always has a camera in hand and is ready to capture on film the moments of her children's lives. But many of the pictures she takes these days include more than just her children. Andiel is the yearbook editor for Whitt Elementary School. "I've had so much fun. I'm getting to be at the school a lot, and getting to know the kids and the teachers and the office staff." No cutting, or pasting, or printing involved. Just upload a picture, click and go! "With Facebook and the iPhone, everything is so computerized and so digital. It's pretty easy for everyone to figure out because we're doing it all the time," says Andiel. Whitt Elementary is one of several North Texas schools making the move from hardcopy to digital. "Just drag and drop it on the page," says Brady McCue. McCue is co-founder of Treering, a web-based system for online academic yearbooks. "We allow parents to go on our site. They can quickly upload photos and create as many pages as they like." School administrators say the digital switch makes financial sense. In the past, schools would order hundreds of yearbooks. Many would remain unsold, leaving the school with a hefty bill. Whitt Elementary principal, Jonathan Slaten tells us this move is perfect for 2010 parents. "They're doing Facebook every day," says Slaten. "They are doing everything digitally, and they fully expect that this is digital too." Karen Andiel has kept all her yearbooks and often shares those memories with her daughters. It's an experience she hopes to replicate for them. "I want them to show their kids and laugh at their pictures. Laugh at the way they did their hair, and what they were wearing. It's fun, it's great." Hard copies don't go away. You can still order a printed version of the yearbook. 
September 29, 2010

whattheythink.com: thinking creatively about business models

Treering mentioned in an article by OriginalThought LLC CEO, Bob Lieber, about creative business models.  Here's an excerpt: Thinking Creatively About Business Models By Bob Lieber To help you think a bit out of the box, here are two unique and inspiring business models examples to serve as thought starters just to get you going: Application-Focused Model: https://www.treering.com/. This company focuses on the school yearbook and makes the process for schools much easier and much more personalized. Their description for their business is "Yearbooks for the Internet Generation".  READ MORE