A small paper that started just over a year ago in Green Street Towers is evolving into much more than that. You may have seen it in restaurants and bars along Daniel and Green streets, or in your Greek house or apartment building.

“The Booze News” has brought students weekly updates on the local social scene while poking fun at pop culture and relationships along the way. The entertainment publication actually has a business aspect behind it.

“My parents love the fact that I started my own business and that I know what I’m going to be doing with my life for the next eight years,” said Derek Chin, president and owner of “The Booze News.”

The conception of “The Booze News” began at the beginning of the spring semester last year. Chin, senior in ACES, was brainstorming with his friends over how their lives were going to play out. They all agreed that starting a magazine would be cool and decided to focus on a local publication.

Atish Doshi and Megleta Adrienne Ambrose both graduated from the University last year, but worked with Chin on their fledgling paper, attempting to create a media source that addressed the “social needs” of students.

“All of us were probably working 50 to 60 hours per week on the paper,” Chin said. After the first 12-page issue came out (issues are now 20 pages), a niche had been filled in the lives of many students on campus.

“I came to ‘The Booze News’ meeting and they gave me a chance to write some articles,” said Rob Erickson, junior in communications. Erickson currently serves as the editor in chief of the publication.

The paper’s staff is chosen based on a meeting with the current staff and a review of the applicant’s writing. A steady stream of writers apply to work for the publication, but if an independent student sends in a piece, it may also run in the paper.

“If someone has something funny, we’ll at least look at it,” Chin said.

Ideas are thrown around during weekly meetings with writers. After much trial and error, they create a paper that comes out on Wednesdays during the school year and bi-weekly during the summer. Feedback is always earnest because it comes directly from the writers’ friends and peers.

Students, faculty and community have mixed opinions of the paper.

“I think it’s kind of funny,” said Brian Johnson, director of graduate studies for journalism. “I get kind of a kick out of it. As a faculty member, it’s not valuable, but I’m not a 20-year-old going to school.”

“The vast majority of feedback we get is generally positive,” Erickson said.

“I think it’s hilarious,” said Matt Parks, sophomore in LAS. “I read it because they throw it at the door of my apartment and it makes me laugh.”

The target demographic of the publication is and will always be students.

“It’s a newspaper that addresses the issues you really only talk about with your friends, be it drinking, sex, working out before spring break – the issues that other newspapers don’t really talk about,” Chin said. Once he graduates, Chin said will no longer write for the paper, but will pursue a career in managing the business end of things and expanding to more universities.

Chin said an announcement concerning its future will appear in the paper near the end of this semester.

This campus is not the only one with “The Booze News.” Illinois State University also has the paper, with writers from both schools contributing to the University and ISU papers. Campus-specific columns are run in the corresponding papers, but Chin said he is planning on doing more with the organization.

“I apologize that the Web site hasn’t been updated in a while, but we want the right person in charge of it before we fix it,” Chin said. Once a qualified person is hired, every issue of “The Booze News” will be available online in PDF form.

“The Booze News” sees no competition with other area publications because they all serve different needs for the students and community. Chin feels that as long as someone wants to be involved in the creation of a product like “The Booze News” then they are doing the right thing.

“The greatest thing about starting the paper is that I’ve learned so many intangibles about how to run your own business,” Chin said. “You can’t learn those things in a classroom.”

For more information on “The Booze News,” visit www.theboozenews.com.