STALKER Magazine – how it all began

In 2003, Samira Alinto had the idea to found a bilingual print magazine named “STALKER – inside out of rock´n roll”, published in German and English language, printed in pocket-size and dedicated to topics around rock, metal and lifestyle. She also founded the publishing company Stalker publishing GmbH in order to release STALKER magazine to the European market, and she also acted as editor-in-chief.

History
The print version of STALKER was distributed between February 2004 until March 2005  (circulation between 32.000 and 50.000) in six Northern European countries. In December 2004 the CD reviews were outsourced to the website, in order to have more room for new columns in the print magazine, which should become the foundation for the future Stalker online magazine, called stalker.cd.

The anniversary of Stalker magazine was celebrated on January 15, 2005 in form of a huge live event at Markthalle Hamburg, featuring the live acts Anathema, Finntroll, The Skreppers, The Traceelords and Hate Squad.

Due to financial difficulties and the publishing company going bankrupt, the print version of the magazine was stopped in August 2005 and the previously additional website STALKER.cd became the (non-profit) main product, and in 2006 Klaudia Weber took on the task as the new editor-in-chief.

In autumn 2013, the STALKER website rights were transferred to Klaudia Weber, and finally in summer 2015 the project “new website” could be completed – stalker-magazine.rocks!

Content
Just like the former print magazine, the online STALKER magazine presents everything that has to do with (mainly but not exclusively) Rock / Metal music, e.g. reviews of CDs, DVDs, books and movies, interviews, festival reports and special features (e.g. tour diaries, artist profiles, fashion and travel features).

Remarkable are the interview styles: besides “normal” interviews, the topic „7 deadly sins” lets interview partners (mainly musicians) reflect on their opinion or their personal connection with 7 deadly sins.

Since May 2010, video interviews were introduced as „Video Stalker“, first in cooperation with the (no longer active) Finnish stalkermusic.com Magazine – cooperating for obvious reasons…. Now Video-Stalker is present on the STALKER YouTube-Channel.

Topics
Most entries refer to well-known bands in the scene; however, STALKER has always supported newcomers extensively, bands, venues and underground events alike. The „Fresh Act“ interview section, for example, exclusively features unsigned bands.

Although a major part of content covers the scene in Scandinavia (editor-in-chief Klaudia Weber is living in Helsinki, Finland) and in Germany, where most of the reporter staff is located, the magazine enjoys an international and constantly increasing audience, thanks to the bilingual presentation and contributors all over Europe and even overseas.