New student magazine hopes to reach all Badgers

Red magazine‘s editor in chief, Sydney Burdick, probably belongs on the cover of the new student publication as much as she belongs behind the scenes.

Cover of first issue of Red Magazine

The inaugural cover of Red Magazine, a new publication produced by and for UW–Madison students, includes a photo of six students “who exceeded expectations” as undergraduates. Pictured (l to r) are: Martinez White, Michelle Webb, Bryon Eagan, Allan Evridge, Paula Tran and Marc Becker. Their stories are chronicled in the magazine’s lead feature. Red will be published once each semester and distributed free across campus.

The cover story of Red’s premiere issue, which will be available on campus this week, focuses on UW–Madison students who have made an impact on the campus community, a description that probably fits Burdick as much as it applies to the featured students.

Red is the brainchild of Burdick, who came up with the idea to start a student magazine during her first year of college. Burdick, a UW–Madison junior who created her own major in magazine journalism and analytical marketing communications, didn’t put her idea into action until she paired up with her sophomore-year roommate, Sarah Resimius, in August 2007 to create Madison’s only student magazine targeting all UW–Madison students.

“What we really wanted to focus on was bringing a central publication to the university,” says Resimius, a junior majoring in communication arts. “We really want to reach out to the diversity on campus.”

While other student magazines are written for students with specific interests, ethnicities and religions, Red is intended to be of interest to all UW–Madison students.

“Although there’s a diversity of students on campus and we all have our own things going on, we all have our own interests, we’re all Badgers,” Burdick says. “We can all be our individual personalities, but on game day, we’re all red and we’re all Badgers.”

Thanks to a $15,000 grant from the Office of the Chancellor, 14,000 copies of Red will be distributed in full color in every major university building, University Bookstore and various coffee shops around campus.

“They had clearly done a great deal of work to prepare what appeared to be a very high quality product,” says Casey Nagy, executive assistant to the chancellor. “We all agreed that this was a really good opportunity and the kind of thing we’d like to see have a chance to succeed.”

Red will be printed alongside Madison Magazine‘s October issue. Madison Magazine, inspired by Burdick and Resimius’s ambition, took the student publication under its wing and convinced its printers to print Red on the same quality paper for the same reduced price offered to Madison Magazine.

“The magazine wanted to help out primarily because of the professionalism of those two women,” says Madison Magazine publisher Jenifer Winiger. “They had proven themselves through the writing they displayed to us and the experience they had to be very serious about this project, and we were very impressed with them.”

Red magazine, which hopes to come out once a semester, is a nonprofit student organization that owes its first issue to more than 60 dedicated students under the leadership of Burdick, the editor in chief, and Resimius, who took on the role of business director.

“They really knew how to take initiative and I think it’s impressive what they have accomplished in less than a year,” says managing and Web director Abe Rubenstein.

The cover story will focus on six accomplished UW–Madison students. Other key features include a voting spread summarizing both candidate’s positions on critical issues, in addition to a piece instructing students on how to register and where to vote. Burdick also mentioned an article on the harmful effects of soda on both the body and the environment as one she is most proud of this issue.

Regular sections will include Campus Life, Cuisine, Environment, Health and Entertainment. An article highlighting different destinations for students studying abroad will also be featured in each issue.

No one was more impressed with the completion of the first issue than Burdick and Resimius themselves, who report that numerous people warned them that the project was far too ambitious to complete in a year. They had been told that with the vast audience they were trying to reach, expenses and a short timeline, that their project would be virtually impossible to bring to life.

“I think the most important thing I learned throughout the whole process was at the end of the day, I ultimately didn’t believe them,” Burdick says.