Stack Magazines

"We miss having a tactile experience..." Platon Poulas is one of the people behind Dead Slow, a strange new magazine concept that we have in the Stack shop at the moment. He and his co-founder Anunaya Rajhans describe themselves as producers rather than editors, and that reflects the unusual format of the magazine, which is presented as a vinyl record, complete with a cardboard sleeve and sides A and B. In this conversation he explains the idea behind the vinyl references, and also his and Anunaya's desire to create a piece of printed ephemera that celebrates other forms of physical media.

"The world suddenly feels bigger again..." Nelson Ng is founder, editor and art director of Lost, a travel magazine based in Shanghai and published in both English and Mandarin. Of course the pandemic has made international travel much more problematic than it used to be, and that will inevitably have consequences for anyone making a travel magazine, but as you’ll hear Nelson is pretty philosophical about the situation, and he speaks about how he thinks travel feels different these days, while also acknowledging that he expects it will be significantly harder to make his next issue.

"We've always loved analogue. We produce records, we make books, we do physical shows – it's part of who we are..." Sean Bidder is editor of Fact, the music and visual art magazine that was relaunched last year as a big, glossy, biannual publication. I spoke to Sean and Zak Kyes, founder of Zak Group and art director of the relaunch, to find out what brought Fact back to print, and how it fits in with the broader activities of publisher The Vinyl Factory.

"A book is different to a magazine – you've got more space. You can take more time..." Rob Orchard is one of the founders and editors of Delayed Gratification magazine, and now one of the authors of An Answer for Everything, their hardback book published by Bloomsbury. Infographics have always been a big part of what Delayed Gratification does, and the book really leans into that, with 200 ridiculously detailed, meticulously researched infographics set over 300-odd pages. In this conversation Rob explains how it was the uncertainty and disruption of the pandemic that finally took the book from being a loose set of ideas and turned it into a real actual thing you can go and buy in the shops, and also how the process of making the book alongside the magazine is the hardest thing they’ve ever done.

"A lot more love and care goes into it because it's in print..." Tom Preece is one of the founding editors of Yuck, the Manchester-based music magazine that released its fifth issue this summer. Publishing a music magazine is tough when nobody is allowed to go out and listen to live music, but now life is opening up more here in the UK and I was excited to hear how that’s changing the scope of what Yuck can do, including planning for their first live event next month, and increasing the size and ambition of the magazine itself.

"I'm finally at a point in my life where I'm proud of my identity as disabled..." Olivia Spring is founder and editor of Sick, the magazine made by chronically ill and disabled people. In this conversation Olivia speaks about her own illness, why she decided to start the magazine in the first place, and how she’s using it as a way to challenge some of the ableist prejudices she faces day to day.

"I just really needed a sense of freedom..." Zena Alkayat is editor and publisher of Bloom, the gardening magazine she started when she moved into a new flat and suddenly became somebody who had a garden for the first time. Unable to find gardening books or magazines aimed at her, she decided to go ahead and publish one herself. In this conversation she talks about how the magazine has evolved over 10 issues, the difficulties of independent publishing and also the opportunities it has opened up for her.

"Running a Kickstarter is a very overwhelming thing..." Caspian Whistler is creative director and editor-in-chief of A Profound Waste of Time, the beautiful illustrated magazine that’s inspired by video games. He’s one of the independent publishers who has successfully funded his magazine through Kickstarter, and he has a campaign live at the moment to reprint issues one and two, which is currently sitting at just under £80,000 pledged with 22 days left to go. In this conversation he speaks about the stresses and strains of running a Kickstarter, independent publishing, and generally getting by in the pandemic.

"We can talk about football as our very own way to experience the world..." Matteo Cossu is editor and co-founder of Uno-Due, the annual magazine about football and culture that he started with some footballing friends in 2014. The first two issues of the magazine were published in Italian but for the third issue they switched to English and produced a beautiful 250-odd page hardback tome with fascinating stories from all around the world. In this conversation he explains how the magazine first came about and why everything they do with Uno-Due stems from their original desire to tell footballing stories that reflect their experience of the game.

"We wanted people to lose themselves in words..." Marius Sosnowski is deputy editor of Dispatches, a large-format magazine of ideas published out of Berkeley in California, and inspired by that city’s intellectual and counter-cultural heritage. As he explains in this conversation, Dispatches was always intended as a big publication, and they make the most of those oversized pages by packing them with text – this is definitely a magazine that needs to be read.