I spent seven years in the yearbook publishing industry, a span quite long enough to determine that it is, these days, hopelessly tied to computers. While the companies themselves are highly dependent on computers for business applications (mainframes), the majority of schools these days use computers to create the yearbook pages.

There are only five such companies in the country, and total employment is probably less than 20,000, but if the 20-30 percent figures about schools' successful remediation prove correct, the whole industry will go away.

For the past decade, the majority of the schools' yearbook pages arrive on disks (copy and layouts), and photos are digitized. Even if we suppose that the companies' computerized equipment for accessing and reading those disks is compliant, the 70-80 percent figure demands that there will be no product, no payment, no paychecks, no more yearbook company.

And BTW, the industry has moved far enough beyond manual page creation that that is not an option. Like other industries, downsizing has cut the work force in half, and the remaining half is not large enough (and doesn't have the knowledge and skill anymore) to do it manually.

Yearbook companies will tell you they are in the memory business. How ironic that could tuen out.

-- Vic (Rdrunner@internetwork.net), November 10, 1999