In a world where media outlets are cutting back, closing down, and generally suffering the ill effects of decreased ad revenues and reader migration to the internet, there is at least one good news story to report: Canada’s glossy folk music magazine, Penguin Eggs, heads into its tenth year of publication this summer, and, more importantly, it’s still thriving.
Founded by former Edmonton Journal and Edmonton Sun journalist Roddy Campbell, and named for the iconic Nic Jones album, the quarterly magazine has grown from a mostly-black-and-white affair to a shiny, full-colour edition that averages around 100 pages per issue.
“Canada’s folk, roots and world music magazine” began as an online e-zine in 1997 with the goal of building a readership then moving to print. After a winter of working in construction in Fort McMurray to raise funds, editor and publisher Campbell produced the first forty-page hard copy in the summer of 2001.
The magazine’s tenth anniversary issue, which features a rare, in-depth interview with Gordon Lightfoot as its cover feature, is shipping now. In the issue's editorial, Campbell further writes:
“Consider the timing. At the turn of the millennium, Canada was on the brink of producing an unprecedented assortment of wonderful, new, innovative folk talent... Just as important, as world economies grew in the nineties and naughties, international performers toured more often. World music gradually made its presence felt here. And Canadian folk audiences developed an unnerving, open-minded willingness to expand their tastes. … That Penguin Eggs has survived and prospered is due in part to the vitality and growth of the music it covers.”
The magazine’s tenth anniversary issue, which features a rare, in-depth interview with Gordon Lightfoot as its cover feature, is shipping now. In the issue's editorial, Campbell further writes:
“Consider the timing. At the turn of the millennium, Canada was on the brink of producing an unprecedented assortment of wonderful, new, innovative folk talent... Just as important, as world economies grew in the nineties and naughties, international performers toured more often. World music gradually made its presence felt here. And Canadian folk audiences developed an unnerving, open-minded willingness to expand their tastes. … That Penguin Eggs has survived and prospered is due in part to the vitality and growth of the music it covers.”
