Nice coat, nice knickers

[Originally published as an Editorial]

Instead of the usual hard-hitting, insightful editorial on an aspect of piping and/or drumming worth debating, we thought we’d talk a little about one of our favourite subjects: Us.

The Piper & Drummer, in its current style, has been published for almost 17 years. (And that’s 17 real years, not some fabricated number to make us look good.) Before that, the Pipers Society of Ontario (and, subsequently, the Pipers & Pipe Band Society of Ontario) published various periodicals, each laying the important groundwork for what we do today.

In the mid 1980s, the mantle was taken up to create a totally new magazine that covered both the incredibly active and growing scene in Ontario and piping and drumming worldwide. By 1988, the “Canadian” was excised from the magazine’s title, and the Piper & Drummer was born.

What started as a digest-sized 24-page booklet became a 48-page magazine printed on glossy stock with full colour throughout. Our success has blazed a trail for piping and drumming publishing. Currently, the Piper & Drummer is the most popular magazine in the world for the Scottish musical arts. Testament to the Piper & Drummer’s leadership, our formula for success has been imitated and emulated all over the world over the last ten years.

With this issue, the Piper & Drummer yet again paves a new road of increased professionalism. Our new quality doesn’t simply catapult us further forward on a piping and drumming scale, it also, we believe, puts us on the same level as newsstand publications.

Yvan Gagne is now managing the graphic design of the publication. A professional graphic artist and a member of the PPBSO for over 30 years, Yvan brings his considerable expertise to taking the Piper & Drummer into the next millennium.

John Riding is now managing circulation. We are confident that John’s management skills will take distribution of the P&D to a new level.

Andrew Berthoff, who used to do just about everything, will now focus his attention on what he does best: editing and overall management of the Piper & Drummer.

With the new Piper & Drummer team in place, our over 3,000 readers around the world will receive an even better magazine—better content, more colour, more efficient, more professional.

We fully expect that, once again, we will inspire the too cluttered piping and drumming publishing market to follow our lead, and strive to become more professional. We recognize that imitation is flattery, and we enjoy the fact that the Piper & Drummer, as Robert Wallace said before he was motivated to publish his own digest, has “dragged piping journalism into the modern era.”

Well, enough of the gloating, back patting, and self-congratulatory musing. At the heart of the matter is that we’re constantly reinventing and rejuvenating your P&D, and the latest refresh is another testament to that approach. It’s all about bringing you a better product and more bang for your buck, quid, yen, Euro, mark, peso, punt or drachma (yes, we go to Greece, too).

As always, we welcome your feedback and appreciate your helping in continuing to make the Piper & Drummer the world’s best publication.