Stack independent magazines 2025 – part 2

This is our last podcast episode of 2025, and we’re rounding things off with part two of our look back at the independent magazines we’ve delivered this year. Part one came out a couple of weeks ago, covering the magazines from January to June, so this episode will run from July to this month, and you’ll hear from the people who make Hotshoe here in London, Troublemakers in Tokyo, Not Here to Make Friends in LA, Cake Zine in New York, Off Licence in Brighton, and Beneficial Shock! in Bristol.

As you’ll hear, the subject of print versus digital media crops up a lot in this overview. The editors of Hotshoe, Off Licence, and Cake Zine all raise concerns about social media and the amount of time we spend on our phones, while Gabriel from Beneficial Shock! is excited by the opportunity that social media brings for connecting with readers.

Of course the one thing you know for sure about the magazines we deliver is that they’re all completely different from each other, and they’re all brilliant examples of small, independent publishing. And I have to say at this point that a Stack subscription makes for a fantastic Christmas present. So if you’re still looking for gifts, go to our Christmas page and you’ll see all our special gift subscriptions. And all of them come with an instant welcome card for you to download and either print or email to your recipients, so they’re ideal for last-minute gifting.

I hope you enjoy this look back at the independent magazines we delivered this year. The podcast is going to take a break for a few weeks over Christmas, but we’ll be back in January with more conversations with magazine makers, so if you don’t already, please follow us wherever you get your podcasts and we’ll be able to deliver our new episodes to you as soon as they’re ready.

Hotshoe
Troublemakers
Not here to Make Friends
Cake Zine
Off Licence
Beneficial Shock!