The initial media attention began with a Crimson article published in February after the magazine was approved by the Committee on College Life, a College student-Faculty group that oversees student extracurricular organizations.

That article stated that Cieplak-von Baldegg “does not object to H Bomb being called porn” and referred to H Bomb as a porn magazine.

Cieplak-von Baldegg and Hrdy said last week that they were not meant to be taken seriously when they told the Crimson reporter that she could “call it whatever you want.”

After the February Crimson article appeared, Cieplak-von Baldegg and Hrdy said they were shocked by the national interest.

“We were being naïve...we didn’t know it was a big story,” Hrdy said.

The hype was anticipated by some at Harvard, though.

Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II, who sits on the committee that approved the student-run publication, said in February that he thought H Bomb Magazine might generate considerable attention, even outside the College.

“I guess I can’t imagine that it won’t,” he said at the time.

Though Hrdy said the attention hampered the artistic side of magazine, she added that it did help the magazine’s bottom line. The business staff of the magazine featured quotes from national newspapers on the magazine’s website in order to attract national advertisers, Hrdy said. The magazine ran full-page advertisements from businesses including Playboy and Daedalus.

“They’re the capitalists, we’re the artists,” Cieplak-von Baldegg said of H Bomb Magazine’s business staff.

But Hrdy said she hopes the media attention will diminish for the second issue, scheduled for release at the end of the fall 2004 semester.

“I’d love to have a room full of people interested in posing...but I’d hate to have a room full of people who are just interested in publicity,” Hrdy said.

POINT OF IMPACT

In the months leading up to its publication, the prospect of a Harvard sex magazine generated controversy on campus.

Debates raged in dining halls, editorial columns and Undergraduate Council meetings about awarding $2,000 in council funds to the magazine.