When I got word about the upcoming launch of The Alpha, an undergraduate business magazine produced by Delta Sigma Pi Alpha chapter (a business fraternity at Stern), I was more than a bit skeptical. Starting a magazine now? When even the most successful magazines and newspapers in the world are dying or cutting back on content? Why isn’t this a blog? I thought some of my fellow Sternies had gone loopy.

But I decided it was worth giving them a chance to explain themselves, so I sat down with Lucy Liu, one of the co-editors-in-chief, to discuss the magazine’s launch and how it came to be. After talking to her her, I found she had begun the project for all the right reasons. I’m hopeful The Alpha will help my fellow Sternies, as well as break down the stereotypes we’ve commonly been associated with (ah, who am I kidding?).

Read the transcript of our conversation after the jump.

Paul Sailer: Can you give me a basic overview of what The Alpha is?

Lucy Liu: The Alpha is basically a magazine for undergraduate Stern students. Well, all of NYU, but primarily for students interested in business. It provides tools and resources and inspiration to students to help them compete in the world of business. For example, we have entrepreneurs, fashion articles and career articles. The way it’s divided up is that we have “Career”, “College”, we have some fun Stern features, and then we have a whole section on taking risks, and being bold and spotlighting alumni who have done crazy things.

PS: So how did this all get started? Whose idea was it?

LL: I went to a Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business conference last November and they have a magazine specifically for women who are interested in business. What I liked about the magazine was the articles were not like your conventional “Dining for Success” or “Networking 101” articles. Instead it had actual articles that really helped me when I was looking for something I was interested in. At Stern it’s easy to become one-minded, and it’s important to have something to show you where your peers have gone, what have they learned along the way. So I was inspired by their magazine, and wanted to start something at Stern. And I when I say I’m going to start a magazine, I actually do it.

PS: How did you get people together to create the magazine?

LL: This is done as an initiative under Delta Sigma Pi Alpha chapter, a business fraternity I’m part of. I started a newsletter committee within DSP, so I sent out applications to sign up for an internal newsletter. Then I said, “Now I want to start a magazine. Are you guys on with me?” So my newsletter committee is my magazine committee. We’re only 8 people and 3 are abroad.

PS: With such a small team, what were some of the challenges getting this together?

LL: I would say the hardest part is taking an article and turning it into a journalistic exposition. If it’s not just an interview, you have to think, “How is this going to be relevant?” We originally had a lot of articles, but you have to make them so people will want to read it. It’s not going to help if I just stuff all the content into a magazine and say “Oh look, we have 60 pages!” It has to be 60 pages of useful information. We had meetings where we asked “What is this article for? What is it going to do to help students?” Some of the things didn’t have as much relevance as we’d like to, so we made it shorter and put it with another article. The ones that had relevance we made longer. That was the hardest part because we had to change our mindset.

PS: Why do the magazine rather than just post it online?

LL: The reason we wanted to do a print magazine is partly because we think it’s very hard to get readership. For a 60 page magazine you need to get people interested first. We want something people can touch, feel and flip through. Once people realize it’s cool and interesting, they’re more likely to go to an online version. We’re actually putting this online the day after the launch. We’re going to be promoting the online version through the print version – it’s like our marketing pitch. But I feel like we can set the foundation so in the future we can just distribute online.

PS: There are all these ads from different businesses in here, so how much would it cost if someone wanted to pick up a copy?

LL: It’s free. The costs are covered by advertisers, and we did a couple of fundraisers to cover the costs like bake sales and a Cold Stone fundraiser. It’s funny because we didn’t really know what the cost was, so we’d go into local business like “Hey, we’re interested in selling ads,” and we didn’t even have the magazine yet, so we’d quote random prices. It’s pretty much all covered by advertising. It took us only about two weeks to get the money we needed. I think the biggest benefit you get from starting any sort of initiative like this is it forces you to think like a businessperson. Starting the magazine taught me so much about working with people, it taught me to work with companies, it taught me how to market a product. On top of all that, working with all these people and interviewing them has built my network – all these people are now future contacts.

PS: You said this is basically the marketing for the website. Are you doing anything to get the word out so people know the magazine exists?

LL: Mostly through the launch event and we hope word just spreads. We’re going to post up some flyers. At the end of the day it’s going to be word-of-mouth. I feel like the launch party’s already getting pretty good press, so I’m excited about that. You have to dive headfirst to really learn.

PS: Next year, how often do you plan on publishing an issue?

LL: In the future we’re hoping to publish in early April of every year.

PS: Why not January? When everyone’s doing interviews, they have this guide to help them.

LL: That’s very true. We might consider doing that. Harvard’s magazine comes out in November. I’m hoping this encourage a shift in the culture at Stern. The deans have done an amazing job building the Stern community, but I think that some people come to Stern thinking, “Oh, students are so competitive and they only like finance and focus on summer internships and work part-time during the year, they’re all crazy people.” But that’s not true. Not only does the magazine show you that not all Sternies are like that, but it also helps change the perspective on what it means to be successful.

The Alpha launches this Wednesday with a party at Tisch Hall. All the details can be found on the Facebook event page. There are limited copies, so if you really want one, the launch party is your best chance. They’re also handing out bags full of promotional items, and there’ll be free food, so at the very least that can be your incentive to go.

More information can be found at The Alpha Facebook page. Lucy tells me the online edition will be available Thursday, so be on the lookout for the link to be posted on Facebook.