The evolution of Klipsun from yearbook to magazine to online-first publication

STORY BY CAITY WALTHALL | PHOTOS FROM KLIPSUN ARCHIVES

(above) Klipsun, 1956.

Tucked away in the Wilson Library Reading Room, thick, hard-backed books are stacked neatly on a shelf. The spine of an old Klipsun yearbook produces a soft creaking sound as the bindings open to reveal the yellowed pages inside. Black and white photos decorate each worn page commemorating stories and Western students far in the past.

Since its start as a student annual in 1920, Klipsun Magazine has evolved with every new generation of journalists and readers.

A wall blanketed by magazine covers in the Klipsun office serves as a display dedicated to decades of issues proudly displaying the Klipsun name. Change, Control, Rise, Impression and other inspiring themes have shaped the magazine into what it is today.

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The transition away from the traditional hardcover yearbook came in 1969, the same year R.E Stannard Jr., Better known as Ted, arrived at Western to teach journalism. Stannard, a professor emeritus and former Klipsun advisor, taught at Western until 1991, and while at Western in the late 60s, witnessed what he describes as tremulous and changing times.

The Klipsun annual yearbook was unorganized and had many errors, with incorrect names, and page numbers printed wrong. On top of mistakes, yearbooks across the nation were going out of style at that time, along with collegiate homecoming queens and football rallies.

“No one bought them,” Stannard says, pulling out a hardbound copy of the ’69 yearbook. “We had 1000 left over of 1600 printed, and had to give them away.”

After disappointing yearbook sales, the journalism program recommended Klipsun turn into a quarterly magazine to provide a professional publication experience for student editors and writers.

Klipsun was not immediately popular, even though students thought a magazine was more relevant during these changing times.

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“It takes time to build a readership for something new,” Stannard says. “A magazine isn’t an ego trip for your readership; it has to be interesting for its content, not for the thrill of seeing your face.”

Klipsun’s early issues were occasionally considered controversial among more conservative Bellingham residents. One issue was in jeopardy of not being published due to complaints about a photograph of a young woman riding a bicycle. The photo highlighted the woman’s backside, and one reader wrote a complaint to the university president and the time as well as the governor stating it was nearly pornographic.

The staff often had to fight for their issue, Stannard says. There will always be criticism, even if the magazine is terrific, he says.
One of Stannard’s former students, Bill Dietrich, is now a New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer-winning journalist. He is known for his book The “Napolean’s Pyramid”, as well as his coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Dietrich worked on staff at Klipsun as a writer and editor-in-chief in 1972. He remembers laying out the magazine by hand, cutting and pasting stories together and adjusting physical photographs before the convenience of computers and sophisticated editing equipment.

Dietrich says the magazine benefitted from this process, although it was labor intensive.

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“It slowed things down so you had more time to think about the layout; you didn’t have a mouse to slide things around, you had to ponder about the look,” Dietrich says. “Writing was that way too; it was more difficult to change a sentence, so you wanted it to be right the first time.”

Klipsun provided journalism students with more freedom in terms of content than the Western Front, and offered the chance to write longer-format stories. In the 1970s, working on a professionally printed publication and having the opportunity to work on the visuals of a magazine was a real treat, Dietrich says, since most students did not have the chance to create professional portfolio work.

Since the invention of digital editing tools and advancements in photography, Klipsun’s visual approach has evolved drastically since the 70s.

Visual journalism majors and photo editors, like Jordan Stead, helped mold a more sophisticated visual focus for Klipsun. Now a photographer for the Seattle PI, Stead considers Klipsun to be Western’s strongest photographic publication, since photographers have time to work with subjects of a story throughout the quarter.

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“Photo editors have a lot of power in the Klipsun newsroom,” Stead says. Klipsun could look completely different from one quarter to the next, or could follow the same design theme; that’s the freedom the magazine allows, he says.

As the digital era continues to advance in 2015, Klipsun is adjusting once again to become an online-first magazine, while still producing one print issue a quarter.

Marya Purrington, editor in chief for Fall 2011, remembers a time when Klipsun barely had an online presence.

“When I was editor, there was no social media for Klipsun,” she says. “[Now,] I follow Klipsun on Facebook and Twitter and I really like that it is much more active; that’s such a big part of any journalism nowadays.”

At one time in Klipsun’s history, simply having a computer was a big deal. During her time as both a story editor in 2000 and editor-in-chief in 2001, Linnea Westerlind remembers the entire staff huddling around three old Macintosh computers in the Klipsun office, each person taking turns editing and creating.

“There was a lot of energy in that room, especially leading up to the deadline,” Westerlind says. “It was kind of cool not having all the technology because we were really together as a team.”

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Although students in the early 2000s used digital programs to create the magazine, picture layouts were still captured by film cameras, much like Dietrich’s staff did in the 70s.

Westerlind found inspiration in the Klipsun office, as she loved to flip through old copies of the magazine.

“I always felt like they were really precious,” Westerlind says. “The legacy of Klipsun is really amazing. It still has that great journalism that it always had, and I think the magazine is better than ever.”

With each new staff and issue of Klipsun, the magazine continues to evolve and take shape. What once started as a disorganized yearbook has transitioned into a polished magazine moving into the digital-first era. Although Klipsun may not resemble the yellowed, hardback books stacked neatly in the Reading Room, it will continue to grow and tell stories for decades of students to come.