Coup Magazine: Paying for lavish long-form journalism
In March 2016, Coup, the digital magazine for in-depth stories from Switzerland, raised 50,000 francs. Since July, the young magazine—which aims to produce fewer but all the more in-depth stories—has published seven in-depth stories. As a result, it has now gained 500 paying members.
It was good news for the Swiss media industry: At the end of March 2016, three journalists from the city of Zurich, Andres Eberhard, Joel Bedetti and Pascal Sigg, cracked the self-imposed mark of 50,000 Swiss francs with their crowdfunding to found a magazine for Switzerland that would publish a single, carefully researched and excitingly told story once a month. The business model: memberships from paying readers. Crowdfunding secured financing for the first year.
Team enlarged
The founders immediately expanded their team, and freelance Bernese designer Konrad Mazanowski was joined by Anna Miller, a freelance journalist from Zurich. In this constellation, the group has so far planned and realized seven in-depth stories from Switzerland. Four of these stories were researched and written by members of the editorial team, and in three cases young freelancers were involved.
Much praise for profound stories
The stories dealt with the integration difficulties of unaccompanied underage asylum seekers in Aargau, the identity crisis of a Solothurn farmer, nuclear power plants in Aargau, cosmetic surgery for young people, the conflict over wolves in the canton of Valais, the trend toward open relationships among young couples, or the increasing commercialization of the Adelboden ski races. What all the stories had in common was that they each represented the most elaborate and intensively published articles on these topics in Switzerland. They were praised and in some cases received great recognition not only among readers but also within the industry, and were even recommended and read in Germany. "Several weeks of work go into the stories," says editorial director Anna Miller, who is particularly involved in mentoring young journalists. In addition to guidance during research, the writing process is also intensive.
Growth in readership
Coup now has 500 paying readers, who are informed about new stories and the progress of the journalism project via a direct member newsletter. The website has registered 20,000 visitors since it began.
On the one hand, honorary managing director Andres Eberhard is pleased that he can finance journalism with journalism and not with any advertising or data deals. He says: "Money flows with us, which is not a matter of course. On the other hand, this development is slow and the work is time-consuming. "We currently do mainly volunteer work and put the money into the stories," says Eberhard. In order to reach even more paying members and to put Coup on a healthy footing in the long term, Eberhard is sure: "Coup has to become even better and more eye-catching.
