Stack Magazines

"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").

"Heritage is such an important part of place." Lindsay magazine launched earlier this year with a collection of idiosyncratic and absorbing stories from around the world. Editor and creative director Beth Wilkinson says it's often mistaken for a travel magazine, but in this conversation she explains why she wanted to present a deeper idea of culture and place that looks to history and heritage to better understand the way people live their lives now.

"We plug into a deep history of pamphleteering, troublemaking and piss taking..." Paul Gorman is co-curator of Print! Tearing It Up, the independent magazine exhibition on at Somerset House in London this summer. In this conversation, recorded live on Tuesday 31 July as part of Stack's week-long takeover, he speaks about his surprise at the current boom in independent magazines, and traces the lines of influence that have led to some of our favourite contemporary titles.

"It's important to have a little disturbance." NXS is probably the strangest magazine we've ever sent out on Stack – a brilliantly adventurous avant-garde title from Amsterdam, every part of it is designed to provoke and inspire. In this conversation, two of the team behind the magazine explain how they use the editorial structure, the typography, and even the physical shape of the pages to create a unique publication that brings together disparate ideas and individuals that would never otherwise encounter one another.