RIP Kruger Magazine– 2002-2010
By: Dan Monsell
It's with great regret that we received an e-mail from our friends at Kruger the other day informing us that they've been forced to follow the likes of Plan B, Fact, Bearded and others into the night. It's a manic, crazily shifting musical world at the moment, and we hold real hope that things will work out in a way that will be adaptable to new habits and what people want within music, and that within that will be great things, but this aside, we're very sad to see great homes of music journalism like Kruger pass away.
Since personally making a huge point to cycle into town to my (now defunct!) independent record store in my then hometown of Exeter just to pick up a copy to find out about the latest new bands and then doing my best to seek 'em out, Kruger has continued to be a trusted source of great new music writing. Huge props must also go to its absolutely wonderful design, making it a bit of leader in the pack of free zines on that basis alone. In its features, its writers also always made a point to be refreshingly tangential and gonzo in their approach to its subjects in a way that only heightened the quality of the articles, rather than taking anything away from the music itself. Not an easy thing to master, but something that effortlessly came across. In short, they were one of the very good guys, and they'll be sorely missed.
Below is a statement from the editors:
Things have been difficult at Kruger for some time, and we’ve struggled to work out ways to keep
making the magazine, hoping that things would work out okay.
Sadly, things haven’t worked out okay, and it’s with heavy hearts that we tell you that Kruger Magazine is dead, and will no longer be produced. Our business model has become completely untenable, and the financial strain, without any sign of any long- or short-term improvement, means that we are unable to continue bearing the burden.
It’s been six and a half years since we first launched the magazine.... we’re going to miss the excitement of delivery day, and the ball-ache of distribution day, and the feel and smell of a brand new issue, but more than that we’re going to miss working with all the awesome people we got to meet over the years, whether we were plotting features and photoshoots, or trying to sweet
talk you into advertising, it was always fun.
Kruger as a business is not dead, and we’ll be in touch about new ideas and projects. In the meantime, we’d like to reiterate our apologies for keeping people in the dark about what’s been going on.
We'd like to thank Kruger for all the support they gave to Rockfeedback, and for all the great magazines they've put out that we'll be sad to no longer see. We look forward to whatever's next in store from their team.