international news _ Jonty Skrufff _ 17th June 2005
DJ Magazine's Decade Of Balearic Magic
DJ Magazine top dog Charles Ward chatted to Skrufff this week about his magazine's 10th year of publishing a special Ibiza edition and revealed that he's a firm believer in Ibiza's legendary mystique.
"I do believe in the magic of Ibiza actually, yes," said Charles. "Because having been around the world a few times, not to every country, but loads of places, it's still the best here, definitely. Though if you treat it badly it will treat you badly, that's what I've found. It's a very karmic place, what goes around comes around."
The self-confessed cricket fanatic launched DJ Magazine with Chris Coco in 1991, handling business matters as Chris did the editorial.
"It used to be called Jocks, I got headhunted by people who said they'd put some money behind it if I changed it basically. We became DJ magazine in 1991 then did a business plan to take it fortnightly making sure we kept all our advertisers and we got away with it and ended up with a good product," he recalled. "And nowadays the DJ brand is known throughout the world, so I don't think I've done too bad a job."
The magazine launched a parallel Ibiza edition in 1995, giving Charles a unique perspective on how the island's club business has developed over a decade.
"It's changed in that it's become more expensive and in a way it's priced out the lager louts so I think San Antonio is suffering more than Ibiza Town in a business sense," he suggested.
"As a place though Ibiza's improved enormously in terms of general safety on the island. I think they're trying to turn it into a new Monte Carlo without the car racing. It's definitely improved for the better though it's definitely priced out a lot of people."
In day to day magazine terms, however, he suggested little has changed admitting 'you always get different clubs complaining of favouritism and not getting enough coverage.'
"But that's Ibiza; you've got three months to make your money and the gossip and the 'he said/ she said' kind of thing goes on all the time. It's actually all nonsense, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things but it can be very petty," he laughed, adding that his favourite Balearic moments are usually outsde the clubs.
"Nothing beats being in a nice villa up in the hills after a party rather than being stuck in hotel rooms where people come and talk nonsense 'til 10am in the morning. It's great to have your peace and quiet at that time," he said.
DJ magazine's main celebrations take place at Pacha on Augist 15..
(Jonty Skrufff/Skrufff.com)
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