The Standard Hotel bar in the East Village pulsed with an unexpected energy for 2 p.m. on a Wednesday. Sunlight slanted through floor-to-ceiling windows, catching the rims of half-drunk martinis and splintering across lacquered tables.
This wasn’t just any Wednesday — it marked the final interview for the debut issue of Spark, a New York City-based quarterly print publication set to launch in May 2025. The issue features longform profiles of entrepreneurs and creatives.
At a corner booth sat Spark co-founder Jack Weingrad, who leaned back in an olive-green Aimé Leon Dore T-shirt, idly tapping the clasp of his Cartier watch. From his backpack, he pulled out an iPad, keyboard already attached.
Five minutes before their scheduled start time, the hotel’s double doors swung open. Dora Uktan, Spark’s other co-founder, arrived with a closely buzzed head, softly wrinkled sweater and a stillness that offset Weingrad’s more ambient energy.
“Merhaba,” Uktan said in a soft Turkish accent, saying “hello” to his partner before sliding into the booth beside him. A moment later, their subjects pulled up in a black SUV.Giselle Go and Philippe Terrien, co-founders of the Japanese skincare brand DAMDAM walked into the restaurant. Go, the former editor in chief of Vanity Fair Singapore, wore a blazer by The Row. Terrien, a serial entrepreneur in Southeast Asia, donned a half-unbuttoned suit shirt and an air of ease. They all shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.
“Martinis? Or do we pretend it’s still early?” Weingrad asked.
Go smiled. “Let’s not pretend.”
The drinks arrived swiftly. Wiengrad set his phone down to record the conversation. Dora opened his laptop. The interview began.
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Spark was born as a reaction — a pushback against content engineered for clicks, designed to fade away. For Weingrad and Uktan, print media isn’t just nostalgia; it’s a necessity. Their publication is meant to be less a newspaper and more a curated object, crafted to inspire creatives, builders and brand-makers who crave something deeper than an algorithm can offer. And tell their stories in the process.
Their ethos is reflected not only in what they aim to publish, but in how they do it: the afternoon martinis, the face-to-face interviews, the analog rituals that have all but disappeared from digital journalism.
“I got sick of this constant stream of noise,” Uktan said. “I was consuming so much and retaining nothing. I want Spark to be the opposite of that.”
Their frustration echoes a growing cultural shift. According to Deloitte’s 2024 Digital Media Trends Report, over 60% of Gen Z report feeling overwhelmed by content. 43% say they’re actively reducing screen time.“That doesn’t mean they’re rejecting media,” said Lily Chumley, a media professor at New York University. “Young adults now are just rethinking how, when and why they engage with it.”
The numbers back Chumley up. The global print market is growing, valued at $342 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $378 billion by 2028. Independent publishing alone is expected to double by 2030.
Publications like Cultured, Polyesterzine, Monocle, Kinfolk, Byline and now Spark are embracing a shift toward print that offers a welcome break from the endless scroll of digital media. As Penny Martin, editor in chief of The Gentlewoman, put it, “It’s a luxury experience of sitting back and getting a single viewpoint coming to you that you didn’t know you wanted.”
These independent, high-end magazines, including Spark, are part of a larger movement revitalizing print as more than just a medium — it’s becoming an immersive experience. In a world constantly overwhelmed by digital noise, the tactile nature of print offers something refreshing: a more intentional, thoughtful way to engage with media. It’s a slower, richer alternative to the fleeting posts and quick scrolls that dominate our screens.
Uktan believes this to be true. He shared a memory about how his grandfather kept all his books in glass. “He believed dust was a form of respect, that when something lasts long enough to gather it, it’s earned its place.” His recollection lingered. In an era where we’re told that “print is dead,” he said, it’s hard not to see the parallels — how, just like those books encased in glass, print media has gathered its own dust.
Yet perhaps the dust isn’t a sign of obsolescence, but endurance. What’s old can, in some ways, feel new again, and as the pages of print media turn back into our hands, we’re reminded that some things last because they’ve truly earned their place.
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A few weeks after their interview with the DAMDAM founders, Wiengrad and Uktan sat in their shared office, a 500-square-foot space above a flower shop in SoHo that they rent by the hour.
Together, the duo merge two distinct but complementary skill sets: business and creativity. Weingrad is a 29-year-old Tulane University graduate who works in Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at the advertising agency, DMA United. He brings a sharp eye for branding and deal-making.
On the other hand, Uktan, age 27, is a Brooklyn-based graphic designer with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. He has spent the past decade shaping visual narratives for cultural institutions and fashion brands alike. His portfolio includes clients like A24, Air Jordan, Dior and Nike.
Their friendship began when Weingrad and Uktan got connected for a design project. From there, they bonded over a shared love for storytelling and an entrepreneurial spirit.
Spark is their after-hours passion project, a publication conceived at the intersection of their disciplines, where Uktan’s design sensibility meets Wiengrad business instincts. Despite demanding full-time jobs, they carve out time to write, design and edit the project with obsessive care.
There’s something poetic about their office-space being tucked into a quiet corner of downtown. For nearly a century, New York has been the beating heart of literary movements. Uptown gave rise to institutions like The New Yorker, while downtown sparked a different kind of revolution, from Warhol’s Interview to the punk-fueled zine culture of the ’80s and ’90s.
Today, a new wave is taking shape, and Wiengrad and Uktan are among its most committed architects. In their shared office space, they paced, tinkered, debated layouts and talked everything from Japanese cookbooks to brutalist-architecture posters. It’s clear they aim to build something meticulously.
“I just don’t want it to feel like every other downtown thing,” Jack said.
That thought process emerges as Spark’s throughline. Not just in their design, but in their subjects: chefs, architects and founders who prioritize process over virality. Their model reflects a larger media trend — one that’s smaller, slower and more deliberate.
Spark doesn’t aim to be everywhere, except in the hands of the people that will appreciate it for its storytelling. Its first issue will be distributed in curated spaces: boutiques, galleries and cafés across SoHo, the Village and the Lower East Side. “Spark isn’t meant to go viral,” Uktan says. “It’s meant to be found.”