Stack Magazines

Recorded live at The Queen of Hoxton in London on Monday 19 November, this week's episode features all the winners and commended magazines from the Stack Awards 2018. Hear our judges sharing their thoughts on the stand out titles, hear the winners giving their heartfelt acceptance speeches, and hear our little microphone breaking down whenever we play our walk-on music. See lots of pictures from the awards on the Stack site: https://www.stackmagazines.com/current-affairs/stack-awards-2018-winners-event-party/

"It just became this thing we couldn't shake..." Perrin Drumm is the founder and director of Eye on Design, the initiative launched by AIGA in 2014 as a way to reach designers in the college to mid-career age bracket. Originally a blog that Perrin ran on her own as a side project, it quickly grew into a fully fledged website, and then in 2017 came the first full issue of the Eye on Design print magazine. In this conversation Perrin tells the story of her journey so far, explaining the advantages and challenges of publishing both online and in print ("Now we're running on two treadmills at the same time"), the importance of theming issues, and the experience of working on an all-women team.

"You can't deny there's something bigger than us out there..." Jay Armstrong is the editor and creative director of Elementum, a beautiful biannual journal that draws upon the landscape and folklore of the British Isles to create a totally original sense of place. Filling her pages with stories about nature, identity and spirituality means she could easily cross over into politics and religion, but as she explains in this conversation, she actively avoids those subjects and instead prefers to plough her own furrow towards, "a crucible where academics, folklorists and artists can bring their own responses". She's also a mum, and she speaks about the challenge of fitting the magazine around the rest of her life, and the things she has learned along the way about the practicalities of publishing on a biannual schedule. I love it when a magazine finds an original way of viewing familiar material, and her "genre fluid" publishing does exactly that, crossing over conventional boundaries to bring a fresh and distinctive view of Britain's nature and history.

"It's a totally fresh look at cycling..." Josh Page started The Domestique as a blog where he and his friends could post their stories about cycling. Deliberately turning away from the mainstream coverage of the sport, with its focus on elite male athletes, they instead placed an emphasis on the sense of community they found from riding their bikes together. Now a print magazine on its second issue, The Domestique has continued on its mission to tell alternative stories from across the cycling world, and has even branched out into other sports in search of people getting involved in things they love. In this episode Josh speaks about the changes he has made along the way, the inevitable struggles (and surprising success) with advertising, and why the blog turned out to be just too much work (but may well be making a comeback soon). www.thedomestiquemag.com

"People want their little treat, even when times are hard..." Scott Bentley loves coffee. A magazine designer for big brands like Men's Health, Arena and FHM, in 2013 he decided to turn his passion into print and launched Caffeine magazine. Distributed for free in cafes across London and the UK, plus at coffee festivals and other special events, the business has grown fast over the last five years and he's now printing 40,000 copies per issue. In this episode he speaks about his reasons for starting in the first place, the journey from hobby to sustainable enterprise, and the importance of being picky when building a distribution network.

"Music is a springboard for everything else..." Recorded live at The Book Club in London on Tuesday 25 September 2018, this episode is a panel discussion featuring the people behind four of the UK's most interesting music magazines: Hanna Hanra (Beat), Tom Armstrong (The Move), Paul Bradshaw (Straight No Chaser) and Woody Cecilia (Cool Brother). Of course they're all driven by a love for music, but they have chosen very different ways of expressing that passion, and have each found their own ways of overcoming the challenges thrown up by independent publishing. In this conversation they share the sometimes hard realities of making music magazines, plus lots of tips for getting a print project off the ground. This episode is sponsored by Park Communications

"The London Review of Books can be quite a daunting experience." Ed Needham loves books. And he also knows a thing or two about making magazines; he was the editor of FHM in its late 90s heyday, and he went on to edit FHM in the USA, then Rolling Stone and Maxim. But his latest editorial position is altogether more humble – Strong Words is a new magazine that takes a fresh and unpretentious look at books, and Ed is its editor, publisher, marketing manager and van driver. He dropped into the Stack office to speak about his new publishing project, the ways in which it has changed since it started earlier this year, and how he plans to develop it over the coming months. As is often the case with independent publishers who find they have to do everything themselves, Ed is open about the things he finds most difficult, and excited by the opportunity to tweak all aspects of the magazine as he goes. There will be lots of magazine makers who feel very familiar with his struggles over marketing, distribution and production...

"We have the dog as our muse." Marta Roca is the editor and creative director of Four & Sons, the magazine that mixes art, culture and lifestyle with dogs. There's a simple joy that shines off the pages of the magazine, and when she dropped into the Stack office earlier this summer, Marta explained that her approach is all about surprise: "You have to be ready for the unexpected... Because you're not going to be rational with a dog." I think you can hear in her voice the love and passion she has for her subject, and all of that flows out onto the pages of this lovely magazine.

"We're celebrating the art and culture of magazines." Jeremy Leslie has been at the heart of London's magazine world since he launched his magCulture blog in 2006. Over the years he has turned his love for magazines into a business, with a well stocked shop, an annual conference that runs in London and New York, and a series of partnerships and collaborations. In this episode he looks forward to a busy autumn ahead, and shares some of the magazines he's been most impressed by recently.

"Trump was like a bomb going off..." Good Trouble is the great big newsprint magazine we delivered to Stack subscribers this month, published out of New York and providing a meeting place for arts, culture, protest and activism. In this conversation editor Rod Stanley tells the story of how Donald Trump's election in November 2016 spurred him into action and set him on the path to creating this impassioned piece of print alongside designer Richard Turley. As well as his reasons for starting Good Trouble in the first place, he speaks about the design of the magazine ("It treads the line between technical detail and chaos") and the virtues of publishing as an independent ("I don't think you get that direct connection from mass media").