Stack’s curated indie mags, now in North America

It’s been less than a year since the launch of Stack, the curated subscription service that samples a variety of independent magazines each month. We covered the UK-based service last December, just after it launched, so were pleased to learn recently that it’s already expanding to North America. Just to recap, the original Stack service offers readers a choice of receiving six, eight or 12 issues delivered each year. Subscribers never know exactly which magazines they’ll get in any given month because Stack selects what it sees as the best issue from among a roster of multiple indie magazines, including UK-based Bad Idea and Electric Sheep, and Netherlands-based Foam. Now, with the launch of Stack America this week, the service is available in a version tailored to American consumers as well. The magazines sent out by Stack America will be different from those chosen for the original Stack service, focusing primarily—but not exclusively—on magazines made in the US, Canada and South America. The first delivery will go out in early January, Pricing for delivery of six magazines per year is USD 71.99 for the US, USD 119.99 for Canada, USD 139.99 for Mexico and USD 159.99 for the rest of the world. Andrew Losowsky, CEO of New England-based Stack America, explains: “There’s a huge wealth of independent magazines made in America, and there are lots of readers who want to get hold of them. But there are problems of marketing and distribution—small magazines find it hard to promote themselves effectively, and with many Americans living out of reach of a good magazine store, it can often be impossible for people to discover and pick up new titles.” Like Meatpaper, which will be the first magazine that Stack America sends out. Similar in many ways to the curated offerings we recently covered from Hipstery and ShoeDazzle, ad-supported Stack may just have hit upon a model that will make independent magazines sustainable. The company’s expansion to the US, meanwhile, “paves the way to more franchises in the future,” founder Steve Watson says. One to bring to independent readers in *your* neck of the woods…?