Stack Magazines

“From weakness you make something strong...” Laurent Laporte is editor and founder of Where is the Cool?, the French magazine that presents readers with an eclectic and totally original selection of things that it has decreed are cool. In this conversation he shares his thoughts on turning weakness into strength (he’s not a journalist, which is why you won’t find long written articles in the magazine); the ongoing struggle of independent publishing; and why this thing absolutely has to be a print magazine.

"Magazines were magical to me – they transported me to somewhere else..." Marvin Scott Jarrett launched Ray Gun in 1992, working with the designer David Carson to create one of the most radical and influential magazines of the decade. After becoming disillusioned with the music industry in the late 90s (he didn't like boy bands) he went on to launch Nylon magazine in 1999, pioneering a publishing model that embraced both print and digital. He's now released a book with Rizzoli looking back at Ray Gun, showcasing some of its most famous artwork and locating it within the music, fashion and design cultures of the 90s. He was in London to promote the book at the end of May, so I caught up with him to speak about his career so far, and how he threw himself into magazine making, learning along the way.

"Satire is an interesting weapon, but it's been co-opted by the establishment." Freddie Marsh is one of the editors of The Fence, the satirical magazine that launched in London earlier this year. In this conversation Freddie explains why he and his fellow founders were inspired to produce a new satirical magazine, why it's important that politics is just one part of what they cover, and why The Fence needed to exist in print.

"You're constantly trying to break it..." Seb Emina is the editor of The Happy Reader, the literary magazine made for Penguin Books by the publishers of Fantastic Man. The 13th issue is out now, featuring Hollywood star Owen Wilson alongside Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and Seb dropped into the Stack office to speak about the making of the magazine, and why its simple structure encourages him to play with ever more ambitious and eccentric editorial ideas.

"We have money all of a sudden!" Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff is the editor of gal-dem, the magazine made by women of colour and non-binary people of colour, which made an immediate impact when its first print issue launched in 2016. They've been working hard since then to increase their reach, for example with their takeover of The Guardian's Weekend magazine last year, and this week saw the release of their first book, I Will Not be Erased. I caught up with Charlie to speak about the rapid growth of gal-dem, including the funding they received earlier this year, which is allowing them to embark upon "gal-dem 2.0" – the ambitious next stage of their development.

"It's world peace for publishers..." Nikki Simpson is the woman behind the International Magazine Centre, a proposed hub for publishers and anyone who works with magazines. Aiming to launch in Edinburgh in 2022, Nikki wants to bring together all kinds of magazines, from the biggest corporate titles to the smallest independent outfits, helping them to build connections between one another and using strength in numbers to draw wider attention to magazines that might otherwise be overlooked. In this conversation she explains where the idea came from and how she's taking it forward, and why she wants to hear from LOTS of magazine makers.

"I want to inspire more women to have a career in type..." Amber Weaver is the author of Femme Type, an all-female publication about type design and typography. While studying graphic design at university she noticed that the type projects covered in the books she found in the library were invariably created by men, so she started her own list of great work done by women. The list continued to grow after she left university and joined People of Print, and she saw the opportunity to create the book she had longed to read. The resulting publication features more than 40 women working in the type industry, funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised over £10,000 – more than double its initial target. In this conversation, Amber speaks about how she ran that campaign, and explains that with her list still growing, there are lots of opportunities for building on the book and doing more to support the community that has gathered around it.

"I want it to feel like you're having a chat with a friend." Maria Ilana Moore is editor of Dear Movies, the zine that collects personal writing about films and TV shows. Launched at the end of 2017 as a staple-bound, black-and-white publication that Maria made along with "a few of my film-y friends", it has grown into a thicker zine with a proper perfect bound spine and an international roster of collaborators. But there's no chance of it getting any bigger – Maria is clear that her unassuming piece of print should remain a hobby, and in this conversation she explains why she doesn't have any aspirations to turn a profit, and how the zine is based as much on friendship as it is on a love for the movies.

"Some countries just feel the world should not be watching..." Rachael Jolley is the editor of Index on Censorship, the 47-year-old title dedicated to promoting freedom of expression. Rachael has been in the editor's chair for the last five years, and in this conversation she speaks about the changes she has made in that time, cultivating a network of contributing editors in countries like Turkey, Mexico and China that allows the magazine to give a local perspective from places that can be difficult to report on. And she's also keen to emphasise that freedom of expression is not just a problem in faraway places, pointing to the disturbing development of journalists being killed for their work in European countries like Malta and Slovakia.

"A city is a text for us..." Natassa Pappa is the editor and creative director of Desired Landscapes, a magazine that looks deeply into cities to discover the stories and quirks that make those places unique. Small and compact, it's based on the classic pocket guide book and the plain typographic cover doesn't give any indication of the strange and whimsical stories the magazine contains within. In this episode she explains the inspirations that led to this unique magazine in disguise, as well as the technical difficulties of creating the object she wanted to make, and the challenges and opportunities that come from working in Athens these days.