Republic introduces eight new employees
Republik, a media project funded through crowdfunding, introduces eight new staff members. They come from the NZZ and Google, among other places.
Brigitte Meyer, 47, Head of Picture
Brigitte Meyer from Schaffhausen was responsible for the relaunch of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 2009 and served as NZZ's head of image until 2017. She started her career at the news magazine Facts as a layout artist. She then designed the women's magazine Meyer's and finally became art director of the titles Weltwoche and Das Magazin.
Carlos Hanimann, 35, Reporter
Hanimann is the man for stories without happy endings, writes the Republic in a statement: "His field is the tough, dark, shoreless: Justice, tax avoidance industry, secret services, lobbies." Hanimann studied contemporary history, entered journalism at the St. Galler Tagblatt and switched to the weekly WOZ ten years ago. He received the East Switzerland Media Prize for an article on the St. Gallen heroin scene. In 2016, his book "Elmer schert aus," about the whistleblower Rudolf Elmer, was published.
Adrienne Fichter, 33, Editor
A political scientist and social media expert, Fichter co-founded the digital platform Politnetz in 2009. From 2014 to 2017, she headed the social media department of the NZZ. In January 2017, she quit to work as an author and editor on a book, "Smartphone Democracy," on politics in the 21st century: on fake news, bots, filter bubbles, waves of outrage and the latest strategies of spin doctors. It will be published by NZZ Libro in mid-September.
Lukas Bünger, 34, Software Developer
Computer scientist Lukas Bünger first worked at various agencies before joining Watson, then a startup, as a front-end developer. "Switzerland has high-level robotics. And excellent engineers. But the professionalization of web development is just beginning," he is quoted as saying in the Republic release.
Anja Conzett, 29, Reporter
For a time, Conzett was a student of German and an intern at the Prättigau slaughterhouse. Finally, she wrote articles for media such as Hochparterre, Südostschweiz and Schweizer Illustrierte - "about dealers, prostitutes, truck drivers, refugees and construction workers. In 2016, Rotpunkt-Verlag published the reportage volume "Lohndumping - eine Spurensuche auf dem Bau" (Wage dumping - a search for clues in construction) on the latter.
Ariel Hauptmeier, 47, Head of Text
Born in Germany, Ariel Hauptmeier studied philosophy and German studies before moving around the world as a freelance journalist. At 35, he became an editor at Geo magazine. In 2014, he moved to the newly founded start-up Correctiv, specializing in investigative journalism, as head of copy. This year, together with a colleague, he wrote the book "And the Birds Will Sing" - the autobiography of Syrian pianist Aeham Ahmad, who became famous for playing Mozart amid the rubble of Damascus. The book will be published this fall by Fischer-Verlag.
Sylke Gruhnwald, 36, Researcher
Sylke Gruhnwald, who grew up in Munich and studied business administration, joined the NZZ in 2012 and built up the data team as head of journalists, programmers and designers. She also built up a network of international researchers and became a member of various research clubs. In 2014, she moved to Swiss Television as team leader of the data team, and in 2016 to the Observer as a reporter. Of her numerous, almost always multi-headed researches, "The Migrants' Files" was the most awarded: an overview of all those who died on the flight to Europe.
Daniel Pfänder, 42, Software Developer
Daniel Pfänder, who grew up in Bavaria, worked for Google in Zurich for ten years. Among other things, he programmed the logo in the YouTube videos. Suspecting he was living in a bubble at Google, he quit, saying he wanted to "do his own laundry again." In his new job at Republic, he would have to, the project writes in the notice.
