From staffers to editors, managing editors and finally the Southport Anchor’s Editor-in-Chief, senior Aspen Collins, The Anchor strives to make the ‘25-’26 yearbook not only exciting but inclusive to all students around SHS.
To ensure production stays on track this year, new positions, such as coverage and index editors and an album editor, have been created to strengthen The Anchor together as a whole.
Every yearbook staffer is required to follow through with getting photos, writing stories and captions and coming up with design elements that they use in their print copies.
Even with the busy year they have ahead of them, The Anchor’s leadership team runs an organized procedure to ensure production runs both smoothly and consistently.
For example, junior Christina Par is the yearbook’s Student Life Editor, but Co-Editor-in-Chief, junior Katie Crouch, is responsible for editing and assisting Par’s work.
“Whenever she’s struggling or needs help assigning beats, meeting deadlines or getting photos, she’ll come to me,” Crouch said.
Junior Harlee Graham fulfills one of the two new yearbook positions, as she is the coverage and index editor.
Graham’s job is to cover a wide variety of students while also balancing out how much of each group is being covered. She also keeps an eye out for spelling errors.
The transition from a rookie staffer to an editor is a big, yet worthwhile, change.
“It’s really like getting into a new feeling,” Graham said.
Graham struggled with comprehending how to do things in order to serve for The Anchor, as she was one of the few who didn’t take a journalism course prior to joining the publication.
So, oftentimes, Graham would struggle with aspects of journalistic writing.
“At some point I was like, ‘What am I doing?’ ‘Am I doing this right?’” Graham said.
Over time, Graham rose to strive for excellence and now mentors other staffers to become editors like herself.
Yearbook’s other new position this year is the Album Editor. The position was originally used in previous years, but was unfortunately forgotten last year.
Since the yearbook is big on coverage, reintroducing the Album Editor grants more inclusivity throughout SHS.
This allows for all students to be incorporated into the yearbook and provides a more exciting way to let everybody have their own section as a part of it.
To ensure things run smoothly this year, the leadership team came to the conclusion to bring the spot back, giving the role to junior Joclynn Wiles.
“We are big on coverage and making sure everybody has something because you don’t want to buy a yearbook and not be in it,” Wiles said.
Wiles is responsible for managing the individual pictures of each class. This means her job is to situate SHS students’ yearbook pictures.
Design elements and sidebars are also to be included in each page giving everybody the opportunity to incorporate themselves into fun features throughout the yearbook.
Every month, Wiles meets with a group of staffers and goes out in search of finding new ways to fill pages, and it’s her job to put together those pages in the yearbook.
With hopes that The Anchor better operates with these new fulfilled roles, the leadership team’s main goal is to produce a memorable book.
“Creating a yearbook that people remember in ten years means the most to me,” Crouch said.
