The STACK Blog
Printout takes on 2012
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
At the moment I’m finding it hard to think much further than Christmas dinner, but 2012 is going to happen and Printout will be ready for it.
We’ll be at The Book Club in Shoreditch on 5 January, starting as we mean to go on with a top quality line-up of independent magazine people.
It’s become customary at Printout for us to ask editors and art directors about the past – where the idea for their magazine came from, how they made it happen, and the struggles they had along the way. But this time it’s different. We’ll be at the start of a new year so we’re going to talk about the year ahead – what are their hopes and plans for 2012? What are they going to do to make sure that they not only survive the year, but blow everyone’s minds along the way.
As always our range of speakers run the gamut from big names to new starters:
Spiel started this year and has done amazing work setting itself up as a new title that mixes fashion with football in the style of the classic terrace zines. Editor Dan Byrne will be taking the train down from Liverpool to tell us how he’s planning to build on a big first year.
Boat is the magazine that heads off to a different city each issue, reporting back on what it finds there. Editor Davey Spens has promised that he has no secrets, so come along and find out where they’re going next, what they’re planning to do differently this year and why magazines and babies don’t always mix.
It’s Nice That is nothing short of an independent publishing phenomenon. As well as making their excellent magazine they also run the website, jobs board, events, brand consultancy and more. Find out exactly what that more will mean in 2012.
As if that weren’t enough we’ll also have the Printout library and music courtesy of Supermundane. All that for £5? Book your tickets now.
Words of the Year – Business Week
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Erin Spens, editor of Boat magazine, explains why she chose a piece from Business Week for her article of the year:
“It’s the story of Megabus launching in America – a country where our cars are such a huge part of our life (everyone drives) and at a time when the government is talking about developing high-speed railways across the country. It seems like such a stupid idea but the guy who’s spearheading it, Dale Moser, has this amazing spirit of entrepreneurialism and it’s working surprisingly well. I felt really inspired after reading this about the opportunities that are still out there; you just have to look at things a little differently (and positively).
Still time to buy Stack
Monday, December 19th, 2011
The last mailing of the year left the office on Friday afternoon, but you can still buy Stack as a Christmas gift.
When you subscribe we’ll put one of our welcome cards in the post to you (there they are above) and we’ll also send you a PDF version by email, so we can guarantee that you’ll definitely have something to give your loved ones come Sunday morning. I’m going to be driving up north on Christmas Eve, but will make sure I check emails that evening to catch the stragglers.
The first magazines will go out in early January – what better way to start the year?
Words of the Year – The New Yorker
Monday, December 19th, 2011It may be Monday morning. It may be sub-zero temperatures outside. You may have suddenly realised that the presents you ordered haven’t arrived yet. But forget all that and retreat to the Stack review of the year’s best writing, this one recommended by Sasha Wizansky, editor of Meatpaper.
“Favourite article? It’s hard to choose. But I do love getting sucked into some of the longer New Yorker essays. Here’s one that was particularly riveting.”
Words of the Year – The Atlantic
Sunday, December 18th, 2011Ahhh Sundays in December; the perfect excuse to curl up in front of a roaring fire and expand your mind with Stack’s review of the best writing from 2011.
Georgiana Ilie, editor of Romanian magazine Decat O Revista, picked out this piece on changing ideas of romance and family. It caused a storm when it appeared in The Atlantic, and has since been reproduced in several newspapers and ignited a heated debate on the Guardian’s comments section. Georgiana describes it as a great example of exploratory journalism.
Words of the Year – The Guardian
Saturday, December 17th, 2011We asked our favourite independent magazine editors to cast their minds back over 2011 and nominate their favourite pieces of writing of the year.
Kevin Braddock from Manzine has picked this piece written by Will Self in the Guardian. Diagnosed with a rare blood disease, Self reflects on illness, addiction and mortality.
Words of the Year – Rolling Stone
Friday, December 16th, 2011We’ve been doing a bit of work with Drowned in Sound recently (look out for it appearing on DiS soon). Sean from DiS suggested that as part of the work we should ask music magazine editors to name their favourite pieces of writing from 2011. We thought that was a fantastic idea – so good, in fact, that we decided to steal it (with DiS’s blessing, of course).
So, between now and Christmas we’re going to have a new article each day, as nominated by a different independent magazine editor. Matt Bochenski, editor of Little White Lies, kicks things off for us with this piece from Rolling Stone. Happy reading!
“Angry, articulate and accurate, Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi is fast becoming the voice of the 99 percent; one of the few writers with the erudition, the talent and the balls to stand up to the Wall Street bastards fucking up the world. His best piece of a brilliant year was titled ‘Wall Street Isn’t Winning, It’s Cheating’. A blog post published on 25 October, it took some of the disparate strands swirling around the still-opaque Occupy Wall Street movement and wove them into a blistering, heartfelt and utterly lucid critique of the corporate shills criticising the protestors. This is journalism as both provocation and citizen democracy in action. I think I actually love him.”
The magazine that wants to be a Christmas tree
Friday, December 16th, 2011First came the magazine that wanted to be wrapping paper, now comes the magazine that wants to be a Christmas tree. Thanks to William at OK Periodicals for passing this video on.
