Stack Magazines

"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.

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 the summer, but we'll be back in September with more conversations with independent magazine makers.

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 themselves...

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 the sport they love.

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...

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Pylot is the analogue photography magazine that promises to never retouch its images for beauty. With the latest issue hitting shelves right now, editor Max Barnett and fashion director Patricia Villirillo stopped by to talk about why analogue is so important to them, what they've learned along the way, and why there's more to their magazine than meets the eye. (Also featuring a special guest appearance by a helicopter hovering above Somerset House.)

There are loads of really great music magazines out there, so how do you make one that stands out from the crowd? Liv Siddall's solution was to make a music magazine without commissioning a single music writer – instead she turns to the bands themselves and the staff at the Rough Trade record shops to create a totally unique title that's packed full of fun and idiosyncratic charm.

Cereal is the travel and style magazine renowned for its beautiful minimalism, and with the latest issue founders Rosa Park and Rich Stapleton have introduced their most substantial redesign to date. Editor-in-chief Rosa stopped in at the Stack office to speak about the sense of confidence that underpins the redesign, and the very many other projects currently coming out of the Cereal office.

Last week Giovanni Marchini Camia flew over to London to present Fireflies magazine as part of our Magazines at the Movies event. He's normally based in Berlin, so I took advantage of him being around to grab him for a quick podcast chat before the event started. He spoke about his arts-inspired movie magazine, creating a new vocabulary for speaking about film, and working remotely to make a magazine between Berlin and Melbourne.

Mixing witchcraft with feminism, Sabat magazine brings a fresh perspective to the occult. It has been brilliantly successful since it first launched a year ago, but the magazine was always conceived as a three-part project, and with the third issue out now, editor Elisabeth Krohn is calling an end to the print title. She came over to the office to speak about her reasons for making Sabat in the first place, and why now is the right time to stop.

This week we met up with Arman, Ganesha and Théodore from Eyesore to speak about their magazine dedicated to the changing face of the city. Starting as a student publication, Eyesore is now a project they and the rest of the team run outside their regular jobs, creating an alternative and artistic perspective on buildings, streets, places and spaces.

For the last 13 years, Peter Lundgren has been mixing magazines with t-shirts: each 'issue' of T-Post is a high quality, ethically produced t-shirt with a graphic on the front and a story printed inside. He runs his apparel publishing empire from Umea in northern Sweden, but we lured him down to speak at this year's EDCH conference in Munich, so I caught up with him there to record this podcast conversation and find out about how he reaches new customers, how marketing has changed over the last 13 years, and why ethical choices need to be visible.