Republic (magazine)

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republic
Republic Logo.svg
description Swiss online magazine
publishing company Project R Cooperative
Headquarters Zurich
First edition January 14, 2018
Editor-in-chief Christof Moser
Editor Republic AG
Web link republik.ch

Die Republik is an online magazine that has been published since January 14, 2018. It was founded by six people, including journalists Constantin Seibt (formerly WOZ Die Wochenzeitung and Tages-Anzeiger ) and Christof Moser (formerly Facts , Weltwoche , SonntagsBlick and Schweiz am Sonntag ). One to three articles are published every day.

The magazine does not depend on publishers, but on the readership, who form the publisher in the form of a cooperative. The initiators promise that the republic is an independent magazine for public debate - for politics, economy, society - that basically classifies information for people who have no time for it. It is exclusively financed by readers and does not require any advertising income.

The model was the Dutch online magazine De Correspondent, which was founded with crowdfunding like the Republic in 2013 . In December 2019, the company announced that the financial means to continue beyond March 2020 would not be available and that the magazine would have to be discontinued without a further grant of at least 1.5 million CHF. On March 17th, the magazine announced that the goal had been achieved.

Emergence

The initiators saw the need for such a magazine, among other things, in the fact that the major Swiss publishers neglected journalism and paid too little attention to the separation of advertising and editorial text.

This analysis has met with some criticism. Especially today, excellent journalism is being made in Switzerland, and journalism has long ceased to be as independent of advertising as it is today. In addition, due to the elected employees and supporters, it is expected that the magazine will have a left list. According to Medienwoche , however, the criticism is a late consequence of disputes over the appointment of a new editor-in-chief at the magazine in 2007.

The initiators Constantin Seibt and Christof Moser announced the project on April 12, 2017, the date obviously alluding to the founding of the Helvetic Republic on April 12, 1798. The idea for the name Republic comes from Christof Moser, who was involved in a project called Republic , which failed back then, in 2010 , which was supposed to publish a “new magazine for a new era”.

Financing is provided by investors and subscribers acquired through crowdfunding . The investors, among them the brothers Daniel, Marcel and Martin Meili , who became known as supporters of the federal inheritance tax of 2015, and the St. Gallen real estate company Mettiss AG, together with the initiators, raised CHF 3.5 million , which they made on the condition linked that at least 3000 subscribers register. As supporters also were known Jacqueline Badran ( SP ), Balthasar Glättli ( GPS ), Min Li Marti (SP), Kathy Riklin ( CVP ), Ulrich E. Gut (former personal advisor to the SVP Federal Councilor Leon Schlumpf , Zurich Cantonal and former publisher / Editor-in-chief of the Zürichsee-Zeitung ), Felix Gutzwiller ( FDP. The Liberals ), Veit Dengler (former CEO of the NZZ ), the cabaret artist Viktor Giacobbo and Christian Dorer (editor-in-chief of the Blick Group).

The crowdfunding started on April 26, 2017 and reached the required amount on the first day. By the end of May 31, 2017, expectations were far exceeded with CHF 3.4 million from 13,845 subscribers. The goal is 22,000 subscribers within five years, the minimum to make the project self-supporting.

The project is divided into two parts: the Project R cooperative , which is responsible for everything non-profit, such as open source IT and events, and the Aktiengesellschaft Republik AG, which is exclusively responsible for journalism. The Project R cooperative is also the largest shareholder of the Republic AG.

You can become a subscriber and at the same time a member of the cooperative by taking out an annual subscription for CHF 240. This gives you access to the newspaper articles, which are generally only accessible with a login , unless you have the respective direct link to an article. The direct links to the articles may, however , be shared . To a certain extent, with a subscription you don't get the articles themselves, but their index .

The project also attracted attention outside of Switzerland, for example in Die Zeit , the taz , the Tyrolean daily newspaper and in Standard .

Bon pour la tête, a new online magazine with crowdfunding, has also established itself in western Switzerland . Behind this are former journalists from the magazine L'Hebdo, which was discontinued in January 2017 .

Employee

The republic's crew consists of journalists, start-up, communication, organization and IT specialists. The initiators succeeded in winning some well-known journalists, in addition to the co-founders and those responsible for conception and editing Constantin Seibt and Christof Moser, among others Daniel Binswanger (author culture and politics, formerly Das Magazin ) and Mark Dittli (business author , formerly editor-in-chief of Finanz und Economy ). Permanent editors are also Sylke Gruhnwald , Anja Conzett , Adrienne Fichter and Olivia Kühni , regular employees include Brigitte Hürlimann , Dominic Nahr , Marcel Niggli , Markus Felber and Sibylle Berg . Until the end of October 2018, Susanne Sugimoto, President of the Board of Directors of Republic AG Laurent Burst, was the managing director.

The editors-in-chief were originally supposed to change every three months. The first editors-in-chief were the initiators Constantin Seibt and Christof Moser. In June 2018 they were replaced by Mark Dittli. A permanent editor-in-chief has been in charge of the republic since October 2018, initially occupied by Sylke Gruhnwald and Michael Rüegg. In spring 2019 Christof Moser took over the position of editor-in-chief again.

publication

After the first publication on January 14, 2018, in the first year of publication the approx. 16,000 founder subscribers were added by another 6,000 subscribers, so that at the end of 2018 the republic had around 22,000 subscribers. Around 60% of the founder subscribers renewed their subscription, which means that around 17,000 people will subscribe to the republic from February 2019 . Since it was founded, the editorial team has grown massively from 10 to over 50 people (36 full-time positions). In view of the annual costs of 6.5 million Swiss francs, the republic needs 27,000 subscribers to be self-supporting. It is therefore again looking for an investor for around 1 million Swiss francs and has announced increased marketing efforts and savings measures of around 10%. These efforts since January 2019 have not been crowned with success, in December 2019 the management of "Republik" questioned whether the magazine would continue to run beyond March 2020.

Some notable features of the magazine are the cartel over the Grisons Baukartell and whistleblower Adam Quadroni , The case ETH over the dismissal of Marcella Carollo at the ETH Zurich and the Limit on the case, "Carlos" .

reception

The performance of the online magazine in its first year of publication was criticized in the competing media, which naturally observed the republic critically. The NZZ am Sonntag wrote that the magazine is not journalistic and publishes many long analyzes, while the output of surprising or explosive research is low. It remains far behind the announcement of its program, u. a. with 30% primeurs , back.

Martin Ebel wrote in the Tagesanzeiger that the opening stories were "solid, well-written and pleasant to read" and that the presentation was pleasant. However, he criticized the length of the articles and their narrow "thematic focus". He describes a contribution by Dominic Nahr as "[the] only original and original online form".

The WOZ Die Wochenzeitung complained that socially relevant issues such as health (with the exception of drugs and AIDS), family or feminism tended to eke out a shadowy existence. The project as a whole lacks a gender-equitable framework, and with the republic , “as with other media too,” the men like to write about other men.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Imprint. Founding team. Republik AG, accessed on January 7, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Felix Hoss: The online portal "Republic": Journalism start-up from Switzerland. In: FAZ.NET. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 9, 2018, accessed on January 7, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Crowdfunding kick- off for “Republic”. Project R, April 26, 2017, accessed January 7, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Christian Beck: Republic: "Broken world record for journalistic crowdfunding". In: persoenlich.com. Personal Verlags AG, April 27, 2017, accessed on January 7, 2020 : “ We are working on the detailed conception of the dialogue with the audience and can use models such as“ De Correspondent ”as a guide. »
  5. ↑ a b What You Need to Know About the State of the Republic. In: Republic. December 9, 2019, accessed January 7, 2020 .
  6. ↑ The online magazine “Republik” can go on. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. March 17, 2020, accessed March 17, 2020 .
  7. ↑ We can go on! In addition: Research in times of the pandemic. March 17, 2020, accessed March 17, 2020 .
  8. ^ A b Michael Furger: Media criticism: The rebels of the "Republic" and their advertising lie. In: NZZ am Sonntag . April 27, 2017, accessed January 7, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Peer Teuwsen : Media criticism: This is how one commits ideological suicide. In: NZZ am Sonntag. September 30, 2017.
  10. ^ Daniel Ryser: Attacks on «Magazin» and «Republik»: What you should know about the greatest critics. In: Medienwoche. October 9, 2017, accessed January 7, 2020 .
  11. ^ Project R: The digital magazine is called "Republik". In: persoenlich.com. April 12, 2017, accessed January 7, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Marcel Amrein: Three heirs fight for the inheritance tax. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . May 22, 2015.
  13. ^ Republic: Jacqueline Badran supports the republic. April 22, 2017, accessed January 7, 2020 .
  14. ^ Republic: Balthasar Glättli supports the republic. April 22, 2017, accessed January 7, 2020 .
  15. ^ Republic: Kathy Riklin supports the republic. April 22, 2017, accessed January 7, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Pascal Ritter: After the crowdfunding success: How left is the "Republic"? In: Aargauer Zeitung . April 29, 2017.
  17. ↑ Viktor Giacobbo supports the republic. In: Vimeo. Republic, April 22, 2017, accessed January 7, 2020 .
  18. ↑ New media project convinces 13,845 subscribers. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. June 1, 2017.
  19. ↑ The blueprint for Project R. Project R, March 15, 2017, accessed January 7, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Constantin van Lijnden : Project R: A bottle of hope. In: The time . April 26, 2017.
  21. ↑ Jürg Altwegg : Journalists found "Republic". In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . May 6, 2017.
  22. ^ Rudolf Walther: Swiss journalism experiment: A matter of the public . In: The daily newspaper: taz . May 12, 2017, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed January 8, 2020]).
  23. ↑ Jelcic Ivona: Millions for a new "republic". In: Tyrolean daily newspaper . May 3, 2017, accessed January 8, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Sebastian Fellner: Co-founder Seibt: «Of course, the Republic is an elite project». In: The Standard . May 23, 2017 (interview).
  25. ↑ Le nouveau média “Bon pour la tête” est né. In: Le Temps . June 21, 2017.
  26. ↑ Managing director Susanne Sugimoto leaves. In: persoenlich.com. 5th October 2018.
  27. ^ Arno Meili: "Republic" appoints new editor-in-chief every three months. In: Klein Report . December 6, 2017, accessed January 8, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Thomas Häusermann: Mark Dittli takes over the republic editor-in-chief. In: advertising week . June 16, 2018, accessed January 8, 2020 .
  29. ^ Raphael Waldvogel: "Republic": New editor-in-chief with Sylke Gruhnwald & Michael Rüegg. In: Klein Report. October 18, 2018, accessed November 12, 2018 .
  30. ^ Project R: Dismantling, reconstruction, construction - the second year of the republic. March 22, 2019, accessed April 18, 2019 .
  31. ↑ Our plan - your plan. In: Republic. January 7, 2019.
  32. ↑ Republic: positive balance despite red numbers. In: persoenlich.com. January 13, 2019, accessed January 8, 2020 .
  33. ↑ Stefanie Hablützel: Baukartell Unterengadin - Andreas Felix waives a lawsuit against the "Republic". August 8, 2018, accessed January 14, 2020 .
  34. ↑ Swiss Reporter Award 2019: The Republic's “construction cartel” wins. Retrieved January 14, 2020 .
  35. ^ Nils Pfänders: ETH Zurich: How the Carollo case divides the university . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . ( nzz.ch [accessed on January 14, 2020]).
  36. ↑ Corruption and abuse of power? Reports relieve ETH . In: Tages-Anzeiger . July 15, 2019, ISSN  1422-9994 ( tagesanzeiger.ch [accessed on January 14, 2020]).
  37. ↑ Jörg Krummenacher, Nils Pfänders: Neither discrimination against women nor corruption: two reports relieve the ETH . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . ( nzz.ch [accessed on January 14, 2020]).
  38. ↑ William Stern: Carlos case: media and judicial drama, human tragedy - today he is on trial. October 30, 2019, accessed January 14, 2020 .
  39. ^ Francesco Benini: "Republic" is looking for new donors. In: NZZ am Sonntag. January 12, 2019.
  40. ↑ Martin Ebel: This is what the "Republic" offers . In: Tages-Anzeiger . January 16, 2018, ISSN  1422-9994 ( tagesanzeiger.ch [accessed on January 14, 2020]).
  41. ↑ Silvia Süess: A Year «Republic». Big stories from the lucky bag. In: WOZ The weekly newspaper . No. 51/2018, December 20, 2018.