At a time when news and features are delivered on a continuous small screen scroll, there is something cathartic about flipping through the paper pages of a magazine... and even better when it's accompanied by a beverage at your local.

As an old-time editor who started a career in magazines way, way back when smartphones were a figment of science fiction, I always get a thrill when the latest CityMag lands in the office. The anticipation, and some anxiousness, that it looks as good printed and bound as it did on screen and that ‘just off the press’ smell keeps me going (and maybe young).

That feeling is why Josh Fanning and Farrin Foster started up the free street press 10 years ago and worked so bloody hard to keep it afloat for years and years. It’s why our last editor Johnny von Einem slaved over every word and layout. And it’s why our current crop of brilliant young creatives will continue to spend the hours and hours it takes to make a magazine that’s informative and beautiful… and did I mention free?

From its very beginnings of telling the story of Adelaide, to now, CityMag has lived by what Farrin says in a Q&A inside this issue: “When you talk to different people, you hear different ideas. Then maybe if we don’t ask just ask the same people what they think the city should become, it will become something else.”

And indeed it did.

Our stroll down Leigh Street in this issue highlights these decade-long changes. From a shortcut to the train station to the bustling entertainment laneway it is today, Leigh Street is proof that if you listen to different people you’ll achieve something that no one at the time could fathom working. Read Joe Hay’s story on small bar licensing to remember when.

Way back 10 years ago, the buzzword was ‘vibrant’. We were all working toward creating a ‘vibrant city’. No need for an adjective anymore, Adelaide is now truly a city and boasts all the good shit — including a bit of grunge — that makes cities, well, vibrant.

So much so that creatives like multi-disciplinary musician Lonleyspeck can live here (the wifi is good) and work with all sorts of artists you can read about in the print edition.

And if you’ve been paying attention, Josh has been writing a series looking back on all things Adelaide. His “Whatever happened to…” pieces are laugh-out-loud funny at the same time as being poignant. Do yourself a favour and binge them here.

Each of the past editors laments how hard fashion shoots are to pull together, but long time contributors Sharmonie Cockayne and Thomas McCammon smash out yet another amazing Style Sample this spring… as well as a retrospective on how fashion has changed in the past decade.

And on long time contributors, illustrator Owen Lindsay makes another brilliant cameo bringing a statistical story to life.

Finally, since a party is always better shared, we celebrate 10 years of Night Call dancing, 20 years of Jive live music, and 170 of Cranker hangovers.

Cheers.

Jim Plouffe, Publisher