Michael Ritter started publishing a little entertainment and lifestyle magazine for 20-somethings, called Saturday Night Magazine, in his fraternity room in 2003 while an undergrad at the University of Southern California.

But now that magazine has grown into a statewide publication. And at 24, Ritter is his own boss and tells thousands of readers what to do on a Saturday night.

“I realized I wasn’t going to be a professional baseball player,” said Ritter, who was on USC’s 2001 Pac-10 Champion team. “So, I wanted to create something that was interesting and entertaining, covering the type of stuff the Daily Trojan wasn’t.”

He financed the early days with $6,000 he had saved from earlier jobs. The magazine was distributed throughout his campus and provided college news three times a semester.

Ritter said the university was a great feeding ground for his publication because it had the customers and provided his writers, editors and advertisers. With a ton of journalism students on campus eager to write, it was easy finding a passionate and hardworking staff, he said.

However, the real backbone for the startup came from USC’s vast alumni base.

“I just went down the list calling them and telling them what it was about,” he said. “They were really supportive.”

The cold calling worked. He nabbed such big-budget advertisers as the U.S. Army, Geico Insurance and MTV Networks for some of the earliest issues.

Now, after graduating from USC’s Annenberg School of Communications in 2005, Ritter has expanded his magazine to more than 40 college and university campuses across California, with bases in Los Angeles and San Francisco and a young staff of nine employees and about 40 freelancers.

The Century City-headquartered magazine has since transformed to a 64-page, three-edition monthly entertainment and lifestyle how-to guide for the young professional.

Ritter said his audience is an untapped consumer that advertisers want to reach.

“They are just starting their own lives and figuring themselves out, becoming consumers without the filters of parents or school,” he said.

The publication features stories and news about hot party spots, politics, fashion and different industries, giving readers a map to navigate through the real world for the first time.

Ritter said he plans on expanding the magazine beyond California and wants to bring it nationwide to all the metropolitan cities and college towns with a large population of 20-somethings.

As for Ritter’s entrepreneurial bent, there may be something in the genes. His twin brother, Andrew Ritter, also started his own business and is featured below.