A pilot of Verde’s new look. Only 50 copies of Volume 13, Issue 2 were printed before editors decided to switch publishers.

– Alex Carter

Palo Alto High School’s Verde Magazine has revamped its print product with glossy pages and brighter colors after striking an agreement with the local branch of national yearbook company mBrosia.

“Basically, how we found the glossiness was that a representative from mBrosia came to our classroom and gave us a pitch about their business model,” Verde editor-in-chief Maytal Mark said. “We talked it over as a class and the editors talked about it as well and we decided to contact mBrosia and set up a test-run.” 

“We first got about 50 copies of Issue 2, just to see what the paper and color would look like,” Mark said. “From there, we plan to increase the number of copies per issue so that we can distribute them among the student body.” 

The deal does not cost much for Verde because mBrosia sells ads to national and local companies as part of the publishing deal. The increased ad revenue allows mBrosia to provide this full-color printing service cheaply.

The glossy look received mostly positive reviews from Paly students.

“The changes were recieved really well, I thought,” Mark said. “I got so much positive feedback from students as well as teachers.” 

The new look caught the eye of senior Tremaine Kirkman, who picked up a copy.

“I usually never pick up the Verde, but it was visually appealing,” Kirkman said.

Others, however, were less accepting of the changes.

“It’s the same magazine, it’s just glossy,” junior Brandon Douty said.

Verde will distribute glossy magazines to Paly students, and continue to mail the previous, non-glossy version of the magazine to students’ homes using the old publisher.

“We still mailed copies home through our old publisher, Fricke-Parks Press, because they have that [mailing] service that mBrosia has not established,” Mark said.