EDITORIAL

  Since January 2001, FolkWorks has produced concerts and dances and published this bimonthly newspaper. It began because we wanted you to know about the Roots/Traditional music, dance and other folk art in the greater Los Angeles area- and because there is no calendar listing of all these amazing things.

Over the years our eyes were opened to so much more than the Celtic, Old-Time music and dance that we were steeped in. We have come to love music from all parts of Africa (partial to Mali Blues), learned a couple traditional Hungarian dances on our trip to Budapest, been entranced by local treasures the Yuval Ron Ensemble and Moira Smiley's VOCO.

Over the years, we gained readers - members/donors, writers and distributors that felt the same passion for this that we do. Our membership numbers have remained pretty stable, and we gained a reputation for having great articles and the best calendar around.

But while we have been pleased with the hundreds of supporters, there have never been enough. Our lives have been our day jobs and FolkWorks. Then last year our daughter gave us identical, twin girl grandbabies. They will be celebrating their first birthday on March 29th. We now spend every Saturday with them and have less time for finding articles, interviews, chasing photographs, and coordinating the distribution of 12,000 newspapers.

Our limited resources have prevented us from updating our web site where we could expand our readership and avail ourselves of many new opportunities. In addition, this last year, our advertising revenue and membership have declined while prices for printing have increased 50%. We hear from artists about how well they are doing on the web and everyone is on myspace and selling CDs on CDBaby.

All these things have nudged us into a decision. With our scarce resources, we cannot have both a website and a print publication. We have decided that for now, we will be focusing on the web site May/June V7N3 will be our last print copy for a while. The hiatus will allow time to design and develop our new web site. We believe it will support the community in ways you have not dreamed of. All those web sites referenced in articles (and lost) that represent lots of work and great resources, will be readily available on our site with a click through! We will continue to do the best calendar in town AND have ways for you to listen to the music as well as purchase your tickets. A one stop shop. You will be able to not only read a review of the newest artists but listen to the music, buy their CD and even get your tickets for their next concert.

To those of you who are now moaning "Oh, another newspaper gone!" Wait! Let us know what you want on the website. Join our Yahoo Group now and get the weekly calendar. Keep checking back to see changes on our site. Tell us what you want. We know you will support us in our new direction....and you never know. If we got more financial support and more people willing/able to give time we might be able to bring back the print edition. So look for the calendar in your email and check in to see new columns and articles to educate and amaze you.