The Art of Curation

A subscription service centered on surprise 💌 Steve Watson, Stack

Episode Summary

As the founder and curator of Stack, Steve Watson is responsible for curating the world’s periodicals, carefully selecting the most original and interesting ones for his online shop and subscription service. It’s high-stakes curation: he must continually outdo himself so that subscribers are regularly surprised and delighted by his selections.

Episode Notes

“We're not trying to pick something that fits our subscribers’ tastes and interests. In a way, we're sort of doing the opposite: the point of Stack is that you come to us because you want to be exposed to things that you wouldn't have come upon yourself.” — Steve Watson, Stack

Steve Watson is the ultimate magazine curator. As the founder and curator of Stack, he is responsible for curating the world’s periodicals, carefully selecting the most original and interesting ones for his online shop and subscription service. It’s high-stakes curation: he must continually outdo himself so that subscribers are regularly surprised and delighted by his selections. 

Highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

• Geeking out over print magazines
• Looking for something not seen before 
• Remember “Raygun”?
• The art of magazine making in the digital age
• How he curates the Stack magazine service
• How much of an editor’s imprint is visible in magazines
• Which magazines belong in a hall of fame
• Which countries are the best at magazine making
• Could a machine do his job?
• What’s challenging about running Stack
• Magazines: keep, recycle or something else?

👋 Say hi to Steve!
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode itself, plus links to the magazines Steve talks about in the show as well as his own culture picks. 
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