Grads Launch Alum Magazine

With sections called “Passions” and “Vanitas,” the newly-launched 02138 Magazine bills itself as the “Vanity Fair” for Harvard grads.

The 120-page first issue was sent out free of charge to 50,000 alumni on Monday and was celebrated with a launch party at New York City’s Core Club.

Financed by David Bradley of Atlantic Media Co., which publishes The Atlantic Monthly, 02138 hopes to gain the favor of the 320,000 graduates of Harvard University.

The magazine was founded by Bom Kim ’00, who now serves as its president, and Dan Loss ’00. Kim and Loss could not be reached for comment yesterday.

As undergraduates, Kim and Loss founded Current, a student-run news magazine now owned by Newsweek.

Noting their work with Current, Aaron D. Chadbourne ’06 said the success of Kim and Loss’s partnership can inspire current undergraduates’ endeavors.

“02138 is a real live application of some of the ingenuity that’s seen in student groups at Harvard all the time.”

Chadbourne added that he appreciates 02138’s edgy outlook on life after Harvard.

“I’m looking forward to seeing 02138 because I think it’s going to be a creative way to connect. From what I’ve heard, the magazine is going to be a fresh, new way to envision life after Harvard,” he said.

Publisher Meredith Kopit echoed Chadbourne’s perception of the magazine. “The primary goal of 02138 is to entertain,” she said. “It’s a lifestyle magazine for people who are deeply engaged in the world; are intellectually curious; and have a constant desire to learn.”

The magazine’s first issue features the “Harvard 100,” a list of the 100 most prominent living Harvard graduates.

The top three on the list are Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corp; George W. Bush, the 43rd U.S. President; and Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Others who made the list are Bill O’Reilly, host of the news show the O’Reilly Factor, and Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill.

John Adler ’06 said he thought 02138 was superfluous because he already knows about the most famous alumni profiled on the 02138 list.

“It’s good that the magazine will highlight the most interesting things that people are doing. But I already know about Bill Gates. It’d be more interesting to me if there was a publication of news on people from my class,” Adler said.

Adler added that he was confused about the purpose of 02138, given that Harvard Magazine already serves the alumni community.

But Kopit said that 02138’s goals don’t overlap with those of Harvard Magazine.

Harvard Magazine, Kopit said, “does a terrific job of letting people know about what’s happening at the institution. It links people back to Harvard, and it is endowment-driven.”

But she said 02138 is not looking to get alumni directly in touch with the University.

“We are markedly different, in that we’re not trying to link anyone back to anything. The core of the magazine is the Harvard alumni community and their curiosity about one another, not necessarily the institution. It’s about the world today, and helping the community in that context to connect,” she said.