The Harbus News Corporation is a forum for the variety of voices at HBS- some eloquent, some disgruntled, some amusing and some controversial.
Over the past year, the Harbus has strived to achieve a balance – between business and philanthropy, between controversy and discussion, and between frivolity and responsibility.
Not many in the HBS community are aware of what goes on behind the scenes at the Harbus. As a $250,000 P&L business, we depend on dedicated services of a full-time General Manager, a savvy full-time ad sales manager, an indispensable designer, an enthusiastic board of seven directors.
The Harbus has taught us how to successfully run a small non-profit organization with limited resources – every year we make strategic choices for the business, set budgets, determine revenue targets, hire staff, train staff, conduct year-end staff appraisals, pay our taxes, and finally donate our profits to the Harbus Foundation to assist under privileged and deserving candidates in their pursuit of education in media and journalism. The Foundation to date has awarded over $850,000 in grants to 40 organizations that pursue initiatives in education and literacy.
As a business, 2007/08 has been a year of ups and downs. Making an annual $50,000 donation to the Harbus Foundation was something we didn’t think we would be able to achieve. The volatility on Wall Street had seeped into our balance sheet as many of our advertisers deserted us. We persevered. We sourced adverts from local businesses in Harvard Square instead of depending on the investment banks for ad sales dollars. To boost revenues further, we decided to publish the second edition of the ’65 Successful HBS essays book’ due to hit the shelves in the fall of 2009.
On the content side, we relentlessly experimented with our cold-calling skills and hounded notable alumni like Meg Whitman, Rick Wagoner and John Whitehead and convinced them to grant us interviews. Faculty members like Bharat Anand and Bruce Scott couldn’t escape from the Harbus Centennial paparazzi either. The rugby team continued to be riotous, untamed and energetic with its contribution to the paper. David Rawlinson and Karen Singson were irreplaceable. And who can forget Alex Godden – the Viewpoints editor who carried on entertaining us week after week with her bizarre and fabulous charm and humor.
Overall, the Harbus remains a collective effort. At the final publication of Harbus in the 2007/08 academic year, I would like to thank all the writers who wrote fluidly, engagingly and concisely. It has been an honor and privilege to learn from you and work with you. In the age of fast-moving news, packed schedules and virtually instant reaction, the Harbus is grateful to all of you – the majority readers, the dissenters and the contrarians – who contributed, sparked debates and made the school paper come alive every week.
As the summer approaches, the cherry blossoms beckon us to undertake newer adventures outside HBS comfort zone. The Harbus EC team bids farewell and proudly introduces the enterprising and diligent new editorial Team:
Joey Castillo,Editor-in-Chief
Zack Surak, Publisher
Will Boland, Chairman of the Board
Going forward, we will continue to uphold the HBS Community Standards and serve you through a medium of free expression, enquiry and mutual respect. We will endeavor to be informative, acerbic, vociferous, liberal but balanced. Sometimes we may goof up but we will own up. Keep telling us how we are doing so that we can improve. It is to the stewards of our future that this issue is dedicated.
Meanwhile, all the best with the summer Class of 2009 and Class of 2010 – Keep reading, Keep smiling, Keep shining..
