On-Line Magazine for Students

Brian Dale wants to manage the largest Internet magazine for people under 30. The 1995 University of Rochester grad, now a Web designer in Evanston, Ill., hopes to fill what he sees as a void on the Internet with a new on-line magazine called 360.

With a staff of more than 25 young, well-educated writers, recruited from the ranks of Ivy-level college students and twenty-something professionals, 360 reaches out to readers who want an elegant critique of social trends, expert advice on money management and in-depth reviews of popular bands, books and movies.

To obtain a top quality staff, Dale and his managing editor, Danielle Zacks '98, a visiting student who lives in Winthrop House and attended the University of Rochester with Dale, are actively recruiting other students and young people throughout the country.

The staff of 360 "is comprised primarily of students from schools such as Harvard, Yale, Penn, Northwestern and Emory," Katie A. Isenberg '97 says. "The hope is that the content of articles will reflect the intelligence that those schools' reputations suggest."

The snowball effect is most evident at Harvard--nine of the 21 editors listed on the magazine's staff page are Harvard students, the most of any school. Several 360 editors say they were contacted after the editors saw their work in The Crimson or another campus publication.

"Someone who knows the creator of the magazine called me after reading an article of mine in The Crimson," says Flora Tartakovsky '98, who is a Crimson executive. "She asked me if I would write for a new on-line magazine geared toward the under 30 crowd and I thought it would be a lot of fun."

The magazine's writers say the young, vibrant staff is a major factor in 360's success.

"The magazine is written by young people for young people," says Cohen, who is a Crimson editor. "It's not like some of those publications--for some reason Seventeen and YM come to mind--where there are adults trying to key into the interests of young people. The articles are all interesting and fun to read."

This week, 360's homepage, at http://www.360mag.com, features several stories: "The Rise of the Mimbo," a look at the recent increase in stupid, pretty men on TV; a how-to piece giving advice to first-time investors, written by a licensed financial planner; and a sports preview for 1997.

The magazine eventually hopes to put new articles on the Web each day, according to Dale, the editor-in-chief, which they currently do only several times a week.

In addition, essays on the meaning of blackness in America, the investment banking experience and the Internet's role in the dissemination of conspiracy theories also will appear.

The staff of 360 also reviews several books, movies and albums--including a review by Lynn Floyd '97 of The Venetian's Wife, the latest book by author Nick Bantock of Griffin and Sabine fame and Isenberg's critique of "Women for Women 2," a complilation album to raise money for breast cancer research and awareness, which was adapted from an article in Fifteen Minutes.

The magazine's Website is also the home of "Dr. Smoothe," an advice columnist who dispenses love and relationship hints to readers who e-mail their questions to 360. Dale refuses to reveal either the identity or the gender of Dr. Smoothe.

Dale says the unique medium of the Web allows him to post letters and responses almost instantaneously.

"We get something at three p.m. and it can be up on the Web at five," he says.

This potential for interactivity figures heavily into the magazine's plans for the future, and the editors are already working to provide readers with features not available in traditional print publications.

An article on plagarism on college campuses, written by Aaron R. Cohen '00 and adapted, with permission, from an article he had written for Fifteen Minutes, included an on-line e-mail poll of readers. According to this poll, 80 percent of respondents admitted to cheating, while only 19 percent of those said they had been caught.

"The interactive capabilities afforded by the Web are part of what differentiates 360 from print magazines," writes Isenberg, who is a Crimson editor, in an e-mail message. "Having read a movie review, readers can link to the movie's official home page. 360 also offers a list of sites, updated every other week, that appeal particularly to the 360 audience."

Dale has high hopes for the interactivity of his magazine which, he says, has grown to 12,000 readers each month since its inauguration on Dec. 2.

"We're going to try to do more interactivity," he says. "We're going to try and do live simulcasts of events, like concerts."

The magazine will soon feature real audio recordings of interviews with writers and rock bands, such as the Indigo Girls. It also plans to add on-line forums or chat rooms so readers can discuss articles and other issues.

In addition, Dale says, the magazine will soon add a registration page so that it can see who is accessing the site. Current information indicates that "about 20 percent of hits are international," with readers from such countries as Finland, Slovakia, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.

For now, 360, which Dale runs out of his home office during his spare time, is not taking in any advertising revenues. Dale says this is a conscious decision on the part of the magazine's editors.

"We've been contacted by several people who want to advertise," he says. "I want to make this a really quality magazine and then worry about advertising."