Stack Magazines

"Why can't we talk about identity in a way that brings people together rather than divides us?" Luc Hinson is the editor and co-founder of Between Borders, the new magazine that aims to straddle some of the dislocations that are currently dividing Britain. The project began in 2017 and was inspired in large part by the fallout from the Brexit vote, and after publishing online for a couple of years and gradually figuring out their editorial voice, they’ve released their first print issue, themed around transit, a familiar subject they use as a way of uniting very different people from very different backgrounds.

"We take a very deep and holistic view..." Dörte de Jesus is the editor and founder of The Lissome, a sustainable fashion magazine based in Berlin. She became fascinated by the fashion industry while working at Elle Germany, and although she quickly became disillusioned by the wastefulness of fast fashion, she says she felt inspired to champion the people and companies working at the forefront of more sustainable making. In this conversation she tells the story of how she started publishing online, before moving into print while making some major changes in her personal life along the way.

"We believe these stories deserve to be told..." George Wright is the driving force behind The New Issue, a new print magazine published here in the UK by Big Issue North. The Big Issue helps homeless people by recruiting street vendors to sell copies at a profit, which the vendor then keeps, and The New Issue is dedicated to helping the same people but via a different route. It’s intended as a slower, longer read; it’s more expensive with higher production values; and its quarterly publishing schedule allows the team more time to find and develop the stories they want to tell. In this conversation George speaks about the motivation behind the new magazine, and how they're reaching readers without selling on the streets.

"Obviously it was just me in my bedroom..." Joel Seawright is the man behind Rotten, an extraordinary magazine that reveals and comments on the process of magazine making. Joel left school aged 15 and struggled to find work without any qualifications, but he knew he loved photobooks and started playing around with the idea of making a magazine as a way of working with the photographers he admired. He had no experience of publishing; he felt like he didn’t have a voice; and moreover he felt like he needed to prove himself to his dad and show what he could do. The result is a magazine unlike anything else I’ve seen – scrappy and handmade, funny and opinionated, it’s intensely personal but also intended as a general demonstration that these days virtually anyone can make a magazine.

"There are lots of horrible assumptions and stereotypes around disability and I just wanted to smash them all to pieces..." Claudia Walder is the editor of Able, the magazine that provides a platform for people with a wide spectrum of disabilities and chronic illnesses. She was diagnosed with ME when she was just 23 years old, and in this episode she speaks about the frustration and shame she felt at having to stop work and become "a disabled person", and also the revelation that made her want to turn that around and create a bold, confident magazine that communicates a wide range of disabled people’s experiences.

"We're just a big group of friends who make a magazine together..." Daniel Milroy Maher is the editor of Swim, the art and photography magazine that takes a refreshingly unpretentious approach to the work on its pages. As Daniel explains in this episode, the magazine was initially intended as a way to showcase the work of friends, and while it has grown since then and now also includes some really big names, it’s managed to keep that same feeling of easy accessibility.

"I've never found anything interesting to read about soil..." David Reeve and Luciane Pisani are the editors and art director of Where the Leaves Fall, a magazine that focuses on our contemporary relationship with nature. It’s the sort of subject that can easily feel overwhelming, but they explain that they’re on a mission to tell stories about sustainability and the natural world that feel human, and which ultimately inspire readers to take positive action. They’re also keen that their magazine should help give a platform to voices that aren’t normally heard, and so they search far and wide, looking particularly to the global south for local stories about these global environmental issues.

"We wanted to do something that was ours..." Jessica McGowan and Coco Cassibba are the art director and fashion director of photography magazine Primary Paper. The title started without any grand plan – the word they use to describe the process is “impulsive”, as they set out to make something based on the work they love. In this conversation they speak about what they've learned along the way, why print is so important to the project, and why they love not having a client.

Published by a group of British students studying overseas on the Erasmus programme, 34minus1 is a showcase of creative projects made by fellow Erasmus alumni in 2018. The magazine has a political motivation – concerned that Brexit could mean the end of British involvement in Erasmus, 34minus1 was launched to show what British students would be missing out on.

"We don't ever do controversy for the sake of it..." Maria Dimitrova is the editor of Mal, the journal of sexuality and erotics that was started in 2018 by the Feeld dating app. In this conversation she speaks about that origin story, the importance of editorial independence, and how they’re “following the thread”, taking advantage of opportunities as they arise and allowing the project to take its own direction.