Minneapolis, Jan. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jostens, the nation’s leading provider of custom class jewelry, graduation products, and yearbooks serving the K-12 and college education markets, is proud of the support it provided to schools in 2020 and is excited about further expanding these partnerships in 2021.
“We delivered on yearbooks and graduations for millions and millions of students and tens of thousands of schools last year and we are innovating and investing to bring more support and better experiences to schools and students in 2021 during COVID and beyond,” said Jostens CEO Michael Burgess.
Burgess continued, “We were focused on how we could help schools solve their challenges during COVID and we made all of our virtual social and emotional learning content available free to all schools last year. We also provided free resources to our schools for virtual graduations, free tools for digital signing of yearbooks, and free virtual conferences for educators on health, safety and student equity with extraordinary engagement from educators.”
As students return from the holidays to complete the second half of their school years amidst continuing COVID-related challenges and increasing impacts on mental health, Jostens is responding with a variety of new products and programs to retain important school traditions and buoy student and staff morale. Examples include a Finishing Strong video series for high school students and staff, a new Virtual Grad Fair experience for colleges, and YBK +TM (Yearbook +TM), Jostens’ proprietary digital enhancement to the traditional printed yearbook.
“We are pleased to have recently launched Yearbook +TM to allow all students to tell their own story in the yearbook experience and just last month we released our newest enhancement allowing students to upload their portrait picture. This new feature helps our schools overcome the challenges COVID has presented getting student portraits,” said Tammy Whitaker, General Manager and Vice President of the company’s yearbook division. “It is the most inclusive yearbook experience ever, and our new Layout Pro tool and YRBK Express tools for easily and virtually creating these historic yearbooks is available to all of our approximately 20,000 schools.”
Jostens photography business, JostensPIX, experienced tremendous growth and success in fulfilling school needs for photography in 2020 as well.
“We are in a strong financial position to give our partners confidence we will be able to deliver,” said David Huls, Jostens Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. “In fact, with more than $150 million of cash on hand and credit facility availability at this time, we have ample capital to support our efforts through the coming year. We have a deep commitment to serving our customers and other partners, devoting significant additional resources to help them weather the impacts of the pandemic and by investing in new printing equipment to increase our printing capacity, and new technology to expand our virtual schooling and digital experiences. We will continue to commit additional capital in the future to serve our customers through this growth and innovation. We are well positioned to partner with schools to meet the challenges they face in 2021.”
About Jostens
Jostens is a trusted partner in the academic and achievement channel, providing products, programs and services that help its customers celebrate moments that matter. The company's products include yearbooks, graduation products, publications, jewelry and consumer goods that serve the K-12 educational, college and professional sports segments. Founded in 1897 and based in Minneapolis, Minn., Jostens is owned by Platinum Equity and can be found online at www.jostens.com.
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