On October 19, 2012, The Campanile released their first-ever magazine. The first issue of “The Campanile’s Magazine”, an extension of Paly’s increasingly popular newspaper, was 20 pages long with 10 feature stories, and covered topics like Style, Food and Culture. It was an instant hit. 10 years later, the 64th issue of C Magazine (the one you’re holding!) spans over twice that length, placing a greater emphasis on relevant cultural stories and multimedia content.

How did the idea for C Mag come about? Back in 2012, a group of students had repeatedly approached Paly journalism adviser Esther Wojcicki asking to write feature stories, but The Campanile didn’t have a category that these stories could fit neatly into. 

“So I made a suggestion to them like, ‘Why don’t you just start another magazine?’” Wojcicki said. “They all thought it was a great idea.”

Expanding into a magazine gave Wojcicki’s students the space to both write about creative topics and get creative with design.

“One of the first articles that they wanted to publish—which of course I thought was a little crazy, but everyone else loved it—was an article about how to braid your hair,” Wojcicki said. “They did a lot of different types of braiding and took pictures and did a whole article on it, and it was super popular.”

In this final issue of the 11th volume of C Mag, we’re looking back on our first 10 years of visual storytelling—retracing our steps to how we’ve evolved into the publication we are today.