"It started out of a need – there was no place for magazines in Berlin." Mark Kiessling and Jessica Reitz opened their magazine shop Do You Read Me?! in Berlin in 2008, and over the last 10 years they have become renowned for their discerning collection of quality print. In this episode Mark reflects on a decade of selling the best magazines, including the changes they've seen during that time and the massive increase in the number of independent magazines around the world.
Jan 26, 2018•25 min
"To see your little magazine poking out on the shelves is an amazing feeling." James Roberts and his friend Hugo Ross launched Vanguards magazine together while the two of them were studying Fine Art at Edinburgh University. With their studies behind them, the pair collaborated with 12-B, a design and risograph studio in London, to produce the second issue of their magazine exploring Scottish design and brands. In this episode, recorded at the end of 2017 just after the second issue had launched...
Jan 19, 2018•21 min
"I have an urge to make things that stay in the world." James Guerin is the founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of Berlin Quarterly, the literary and arts magazine that considers the cultural world as seen from Germany's capital. In this episode he reveals his motivations for making the magazine, the vintage magazines that still inspire him and his own desire to leave a lasting impression in print.
Jan 12, 2018•24 min
"How can you change without changing?" Marco Velardi is editor-in-chief of Apartamento, the iconic interiors magazine that is currently celebrating its 20th issue and 10th anniversary. We met up in Berlin to speak about the enduring pressures of independent publishing, the things they've learned along the way, and the challenge of keeping a magazine fresh while remaining familiar.
Dec 15, 2017•28 min
"It was three of us in a white van." Thomas Sumner is the creative director of The Essential Journal, the men's fashion and lifestyle title based in Liverpool. Now distributing 50,000 copies every month across Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and London, and working with high end advertisers like Rolex and Jaguar, he reflects on the title's rapid growth, its editorial ethos and the opportunities that lay ahead.
Dec 08, 2017•21 min
"I'm always waiting for the surprise." Christoph Amend is the editor-in-chief of Germany's Zeit Magazin, the magazine distributed with news weekly Die Zeit. In this conversation he speaks about his earliest experience of writing articles, how his first professional magazine jobs taught him that creativity and profitability must go hand in hand, and why it's important for him as an editor to keep on writing.
Dec 01, 2017•26 min
Hear all the judges' comments and winners' acceptance speeches from this year's Stack Awards, recorded live at The Queen of Hoxton on Monday 20 November 2017.
Nov 24, 2017•1 hr 10 min
"Eastern Europe deserves a means of expression." Kajet is a new journal published from Bucharest and dedicated to telling unheard stories from across the region. First-time magazine makers Petricā Mogos and Laura Naum dropped into the Stack office this week to speak about their experiences making the magazine, and to explain why we need a fresh and authentic voice of Eastern Europe.
Nov 17, 2017•22 min
"I think we needed this period of very beautiful and luxurious magazines to prove that print was of worth... but now we're moving on." Ruth Jamieson is the author of Print is Dead Long Live Print and Angharad Lewis is the author of So You Want to Publish a Magazine, and together they judged the Student Magazine of the Year category in this year's Stack Awards. They came over to Somerset House for the judging session this week, and after we'd picked our winner, we sat down for a wider conversatio...
Nov 03, 2017•21 min
"You guys don't make dog owners look crazy..." Julian Victoria and Emily Rogers are the editors of Dog, the lifestyle magazine for people who love dogs. With its ultra simple cover concept, Dog has become a familiar sight on newsstands around the world, and in this episode they reveal their motivations in making the magazine, and explain why their readers aren't quite as doggy as you might expect.
Oct 27, 2017•22 min
"If we can't capitalise on football being more popular than it's ever been, we probably shouldn't be in the business of making a football magazine!" Mundial is the football lifestyle magazine that was launched by Dan Sandison and Seb White as a one-off print project for the 2014 World Cup. Fast forward three years, and the co-founders tell the story of how their quarterly magazine has evolved from that first issue, and why they're aiming to make the most of next year's World Cup in Russia
Oct 20, 2017•25 min
"This is the survival mode for magazines – they'll never disappear because they're so beautifully made... You can't do that online." Marc Robbemond and Reny van der Kamp are two of the people who run Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum, the Amsterdam magazine shop that's an Aladdin's cave for print enthusiasts. In this episode they speak about a life spent selling independent magazines, and the boom they're seeing in indie print.
Oct 13, 2017•18 min
"People of Print is about everyone being part of it – we're not just some company telling you what's cool." Marcroy Smith is the founder of People of Print, the organisation that started out as a simple list of screen printers and expanded to become a publishing company, a printer, a retailer and many more things along the way. In this conversation he recounts the often accidental journey he has taken over the years, as he responded to problems he encountered and tried to find a better, fairer w...
Oct 06, 2017•26 min
"Everything is about story, and the content defines the design." Cassius Matthias is the founder and editor of Yes & No, a bold new magazine that defies categorisation. In this conversation he tells his own story, of how recovering from serious illness set him on an unconventional path to publishing his own magazine, and how a background in filmmaking informs his original approach to telling stories in print.
Sep 29, 2017•30 min
"It's almost as if they don't care about the future of the magazine industry." Fraser Allen is the publisher of Hot Rum Cow, the Edinburgh-based independent magazine dedicated to booze. The tequila issue has just hit shelves, but after five years and some top industry awards, Fraser and the team are calling time on the magazine. In this episode he speaks about his frustrations with distribution and retail, the opportunities he still sees for both independent and mainstream publishers, and why no...
Sep 22, 2017•24 min
"Independent magazines are more like a culture than a market." Urs Spindler and Malte Brenneisen are the co-organisers of Indiecon, the co-editors of Gentle Rain magazine, and the co-founders of Die Brueder, the creative agency based in Hamburg and Berlin. For this final episode from Indiecon 2017, I spoke to them about the challenges faced by independent magazine makers today, and heard their thoughts as both industry commentators and individual creators.
Sep 15, 2017•24 min
"I would have quite liked it if we hadn't needed to publish The New European in the first place." Steve Anglesey is digital content director of The New European, the multi-award-winning newspaper that was set up in nine days as a response to Brexit. The whole project was only expected to last a few weeks, but one year on, he reflects on the newspaper's first year in print. Recorded live in front of an audience at the Indiecon festival in Hamburg in August 2017.
Sep 08, 2017•56 min
"The devastation of the shooting at Pulse nightclub was one of the biggest markers that shifted the intention of my work, and made me question why I was doing it." Ryan Fitzgibbon, editor-in-chief of Hello Mr, on the shock that led to the relaunch of his magazine for gay men, as well as a new publishing project that aims to empower new voices from across the LGBT community.
Sep 01, 2017•21 min
The Stack Awards opened for entries this week, and Kirsten Algera and Ernst van der Hoeven flew into London to join us for our launch event, which brought together some of the winners from last year. They're the creators of MacGuffin magazine, our Magazine of the Year for 2016, and I met them at their hotel the morning after the event to find out more about what it meant for them to win the award, and what they have planned for the rest of this year. This is our last episode of the podcast for t...
Jul 21, 2017•25 min
Davide Cazzaro is the Seoul-based publisher and editor-in-chief of Nang, the magazine of Asian cinema. He dropped in at our office when he was in London earlier this year, and gave us a look behind the scenes at the latest issue, themed around scars and death. He also spoke about the many opportunities he sees for 'micropublishing', as well as the various challenges involved in producing and distributing a small independent magazine, which will probably sound familiar to anyone who has tried it ...
Jul 14, 2017•29 min
This week I made my first ever trip to Wimbledon to speak with Caitlin Thompson and David Shaftel, publisher and editor of Racquet magazine. Recorded during their garden party, with Pimms clinking and the cheers from centre court in the background, it's probably our most quintessentially English episode so far, despite the fact that it features two Americans. Hear them speak about their mission to create a fresh and distinctive tennis brand that means something to them, and which does justice to...
Jul 07, 2017•31 min
Recorded live in Amsterdam on 21 June 2017, we speak to Isabel Seiffert and Justinien Tribillon about their phenomenally successful Migrant Journal, the magazine that takes an ambitious, expansive look at the subject of migration. Thanks very much to Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum for organising the event, and to WeTransfer for the support, and listen out for Amsterdam's celebration of the new herring season beginning towards the end of our audience Q&A...
Jun 30, 2017•1 hr 6 min
Last month we delivered Anxy magazine to our subscribers around the world, so we were very pleased to have contributing editor Kati Krause drop into the office to speak about their mission to smash stigmas around mental health. This first issue is themed around anger, and Kati speaks about why that made for a good starting point, how they approached their subject, and why anger isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Jun 23, 2017•26 min
This week's episode isn't ideal for listening with small children. Louis Jensen runs Illegal! magazine, which exists to empower drug addicts and encourage open conversation about the reality of drugs, addiction and criminality. I loved speaking to him about the growth of the magazine so far, but there is some swearing and of course some quite adult topics of conversation. You have been warned...
Jun 16, 2017•26 min
Recorded at the Byline festival of journalism, Riposte magazine editor Danielle Pender and her husband Dan Ziglam speak about creativity, balancing work with family life, and the ridiculous stress of organising live events.
Jun 09, 2017•23 min
We all know Little White Lies as a brilliant film magazine, but these days it's also a film podcast hosted by none other than James Richardson (TV presenter of Football Italia, World's Strongest Man, etc). I dropped in on editor David Jenkins and digital editor Adam Woodward to hear how the podcast found its way into the world, and to catch up on the print magazine, now 70 issues in and under the artistic influence of new creative director Lauren Boglio.
Jun 02, 2017•29 min
The last 12 months has seen a new wave of British independent magazines made by people of colour, so we brought a group of them together for a panel discussion at The Book Club in London on Tuesday 23 May. Featuring Mariel NO, assistant arts and culture editor of gal-dem; Campbell Addy, founder of Nii Journal; Rhona Ezuma, founder of Thiiird; and Jason Nicco-Annan, co-founder of Signatures.
May 26, 2017•1 hr 12 min
Dogear is the bookmark that thinks it's a magazine – a lovely, unassuming piece of print that we were lucky enough to send out on Stack this month as a special little extra gift for subscribers. I caught up with editor and co-founder Joe Hedinger to hear about the project so far, and his plans for where Dogear might take him next.
May 19, 2017•20 min
Cathy Olmedillas began publishing her independent children's magazine 10 years ago, and in this conversation she reveals the process of evolution that saw it transform from a passion project into a sustainable business. As she admits, she has a "disease" for starting magazines, and she speaks about some of Anorak's successful siblings, as well as the ones you won't be seeing on a newsstand near you any time soon.
May 12, 2017•25 min
The latest issue of Printed Pages is out now, with Ted Parker's big pink grin beaming out from newsstands around the world. It's Nice That's magazine has built up a reputation for selling out in super-fast time, so I dropped into their office to speak to editor Owen Pritchard about wrangling content, commissioning top creative talent, and making a phenomenally popular piece of print.
May 05, 2017•24 min
