In conversation with Steven Watson
on digital shifts, music nostalgia and the staying power of indie magazines
‘In conversation’ is Playground’s newsletter series, where we invite friends, acquaintances, and individuals we admire to share their creative thoughts and explore the art of playfulness.
Playground Readers,
Happy summertime! For this season’s final in conversation (we’ll be taking a short summer break), we couldn’t think of a better guest than Steven Watson – founder of Stack, the London-based independent magazine subscription.
Nino and I first met Steve at Indiecon in Hamburg, and later again at Magculture’s London Live. A few weeks after, an email landed in my inbox: a chance to collaborate and distribute Issue 3 to Stack subscribers. We did – and some of you might be reading this thanks to that very drop. Thank you, Steve!
Playground was Stack’s May 2025 pick. We marked it with a meetup at Amsterdam’s iconic Athenaeum, where Steve asked brilliant questions about the magazine and our thinking behind it. In two weeks, you’ll have a chance to join the conversation online.
If you’re new to Stack: it’s a subscription that delivers a different independent magazine every month to thousands of readers worldwide. You never know what you’ll get – but it’s always beautiful, intelligent, and unexpected. Steve runs it all from Kilburn, northwest London, where he lives with his wife, two kids, and a few too many books and magazines.
We loved getting Steve’s insights. Save the date for the online event – and don’t miss the discount code for your own Stack subscription. It’s going to be a great summer read.
What has been taking up the most of your mind lately?
I’d love to say this was some big, expansive idea about the world, but if I’m being totally honest I should say that I’m obsessed with finding new ways of putting Stack in front of people. I’ve been running the business for 17 years, and over that time the tools have changed, but the work has always been about creating content that shows how great independent magazines are, so we can get people to our website, where we can show them that subscribing to Stack is a good idea.
Over the last 12 months it’s felt like people are using the internet differently. I think that’s partly because zero-click searches mean that Google doesn’t send people to websites in the same way it used to. And I think it’s partly because of a general change in the way people access information – increasingly, people are starting with Chat GPT instead of Google, or they’re asking a smart speaker to do something for them, so they’re not even looking at a web page. All of a sudden, spending time creating pages of useful, or interesting, or fun stuff feels like quite an old-fashioned thing to do, but I’m not sure yet what should take the place of that.
What is one subject you’ve been interested in recently that is completely unrelated to your area of work?
I’ve fallen back in love with Pulp after a long time away. I’m going to see them tomorrow, and I think they might be the perfect foil to all the Oasis fandom that’s going to be coming our way this summer. I’m aware that this is mainly defensive – Definitely Maybe was the first album I bought and Oasis was my favourite band when I was a teenager growing up in the north of England, so I’m expecting to feel very sulky about all the bucket hats and tambourines and Gallagher drama. But I also loved Pulp when I was growing up, and they’re still making great music, and Jarvis Cocker has managed to remain cool 30 years on, so I’m putting my nostalgic eggs in his basket.
Where would you take us if we asked you to give us a one-day tour of the city you live in?
I think the best way of seeing London is via its pubs. We’d start with cheese toasties for lunch in Ye Olde Mitre, which is a tiny 16th -century place just off Hatton Garden, the old jewellery street. Then we’d head up to The Holy Tavern, just down the road from St John’s Gate, which is where the world’s first magazine was printed in 1731. Then we’d do a lap around the old meat market at Smithfield (details might be getting a bit vague by this point, but we’d definitely stop at The Butcher’s Hook). And then we’d finish up at St John for some proper dinner to soak it all up.
Snap a picture of your creative space / work desk right now! No cheating - do not tidy up.
What are the books/films/podcasts/any piece of media that truly influenced how you perceive creative work?
I was probably about 17 when I first read The Hawk in the Rain, the first book of poetry by Ted Hughes, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I definitely wouldn’t say that I have it in mind on a day-to-day basis, but I love the simplicity and power of the poetry – the idea that you can create something magical using such spare and direct language is incredibly inspiring.
If you had one extra day in a week - what would you use it on?
I would love to learn to play a musical instrument. I had violin lessons for a short time when I was in primary school and gave it up as soon as my parents would let me, so I’d like to go back to that and learn to play the fiddle like I’m in an Irish folk band.
What is the one fail you made in your career that you would be happy to repeat?
Oof. I did three weeks of work experience at FHM in the summer of 2000 and totally loved it. I kept on writing freelance for them in my final year of university and I realise now that once I’d graduated I should have gone back home and got a bar job or something, and focused on writing for them and other publications so I could build up a proper portfolio of work.
But I just wanted to get to London so I took the first job that came along, which was an assistant editor position at a company that sliced text out of books to put on websites. It was mind-numbing stuff but I didn’t care because I was going out and having fun, but I then found out that it’s difficult to segue from that sort of work into ‘proper’ journalism. This was in the mid-2000s and journalism was contracting quickly, and I ended up stuck in that job for a long time. But that’s what led me to discover independent magazines and to start writing for them, so if I hadn’t taken that wrong turn when I was 21 there’s a good chance I wouldn’t have started Stack.
What are the ways you incorporate play into your daily work?
I try to go to the gym most days and that’s all play. It’s a crossfit box so everything is about little challenges and I love the friendly competition that comes from exercising with the same group of people every day. It can be hard to leave my desk to go and do it, but I don’t think I ever regret it afterwards.
What first drew you to the world of independent publishing?
Desperation! I was going mad writing dull stuff in my real job, and I couldn’t believe there was this whole world of magazines where people only write about things they really care about, and those words get turned into beautiful, high quality publications.
You’ve been building Stack – arguably the coolest indie magazine subscription platform – for 17 years now. What’s surprised you most along the way?
I think probably the resilience of independent publishing – it’s really hard work making a magazine, but there’s a never-ending stream of people who want to do it, for all sorts of reasons. The world has changed massively in the last 17 years, but that enthusiasm for print publishing is still going strong.
From your perspective, what’s the current state of independent publishing?
Creatively strong, but financially precarious, and again, that hasn’t changed in all the time I’ve been doing it.
What sparks your curiosity these days when you come across a new creative project in print?
It’s always about the idea – what’s the central idea that a magazine is communicating?And how is this magazine presenting it in a way that you don’t see elsewhere?
How has Stack evolved since it first launched?
For a long time it was kind of a hobby – I did it one day per week, then two, then three. I think the biggest turning point came when my wife had our first child and my spare time vanished overnight. That was 13 years ago, and I’m really glad I decided to give it a go as my real job.
In your opinion, what makes a magazine (or a book) worth printing today?
Again, it has to be the idea – there has to be something you really want to say, which will encapsulate a particular moment in time, and which you want to put into print so that it will still be knocking around in the world long after you’re dead and buried.
Follow the incredible work Steve & Stack do on their socials — X, Instagram & TikTok, and most importantly — support indie publishing and give their subscription a try!
Speaking of… Stack kindly created a discount code for you, our dear readers! Use the code PLAYGROUND while checking out, and receive a 10% discount off your first payment!
Playground on Stack’s Magazine Club
Join us at Stack’s Magazine Club on June 26th 7PM EEST online. I will be talking to Steve about all things Playground Magazine & our latest issue — don’t miss out.
studio playground exhibition for Savo at 3daysofdesign 2025
Join us and Savo, Swedish workspace seating producer, at 3daysofdesign, Copenhagen next week! To mark 80 years of rethinking how we sit, Savo is unveiling Sit. Dot. Move. — an immersive exhibition exploring the brand’s design legacy and the future of workplace seating.
We’re proud partners behind the strategy, concept, communication, and production of the show — a collaboration with Copenhagen-based architecture studio Archival Studies.
🪑 Expect iconic chairs, a curated library on the art of sitting, and a brand new Savo publication (new project for us!) — all set within the historic Odd Fellow Palace at Framing.
🥐 Every morning from 10:00, join Savo CEO Craig Howarth (we will be there too!) for breakfast and talks on Bauhaus influence, ergonomic innovation, and Scandinavian design roots — served with local favourites from Juno the bakery!
📅 June 18–20
📍 Odd Fellow Palace, Bredgade 28, Copenhagen
🕙 Breakfast Talks: 10:00–10:45 daily
See you in Copenhagen! And after, online, for the Magazine Club ;)
Auste & Playground team