ASUCLA board adds magazine
By Anthony Pesce
Jan. 15, 2008 11:09 p.m.
The Bruin Business Review, a new online-only magazine, has been officially added to the list of Student Media publications.
The Associated Students UCLA Communications Board approved the addition of the fledgling publication at a meeting on Monday ““ the only new media the board has approved in recent years.
The board is the publisher of all student media, including the Daily Bruin, BruinLife yearbook, UCLA radio and several news magazines.
The focus of the Business Review would be to offer interested students business news, resume advice and industry insights, according to its proposal.
The magazine already has two editors and a staff, and its first issue should be ready Monday of third week, said Joanne Hou, co-editor of the review and a former Daily Bruin reporter.
In past meetings the board had expressed strong reservations about adding any new print publications because of a lack of resources, but Arvli Ward, the director of Student Media, said the department will shortly be able to offer a new Web publishing platform for online magazines such as the Business Review.
“To bring in students who want to do this kind of content, the overhead would be very low. … There are a lot of upsides for this with very little cost,” Ward said.
Jasmin Niku, an undergraduate member of the board, said she wanted to emphasize that this opportunity could be available for many more students who want to start online publications.
“Any of these groups that actually go through and do a proposal for an online publication, and we feel like it’s appropriate, they basically should have no trouble doing it,” she said.
Niku added that Ward and the board should advertise this publishing opportunity to students on campus.
Mike Sondheimer, the alumni representative to the board, said that before the board approved the magazine he would like to see one issue be published and for the magazine to receive the endorsement of the Undergraduate Business Society.
Ward responded by saying that these requirements led down a dangerous road.
He said independent publications should not have to have the endorsement of groups on campus, and the Communications Board should not take content into account when discussing the approval of a publication.
The online magazine was approved with a unanimous vote.
In other news, the Student Media budget ““ heavily dependent on Daily Bruin advertising sales ““ is roughly on track to lose an estimated $60,000 at the end of the year.
The board is also looking into approving an engineering magazine, in partnership with the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, that would focus on profiling student research.
If approved at a later date, this magazine could open up new ways for students to start print publications. Because the engineering school would partner with Student Media, the board would not have to worry about providing resources such as office space and would instead focus on advertising, printing and distribution.
Board members have stressed that if a student group were to offer a similar proposal for another publication, the board would consider approving it.
