Online magazine Republic has a board again
The online magazine Republik, which has been under financial pressure, says it has addressed its organizational shortcomings and once again has a four-member board. Former Financial Control Director Michel Huissoud, Karin Landolt, Nina Scheu, and Roger Staub were elected to the strategic committee of the Project R cooperative in a special membership vote.
The voting lasted from July 10 to July 20, as the Republic announced at the end of July. The proposed board members were each elected with over 96 percent of the vote. A total of 4988 people took part.
The cooperative's Articles of Association stipulate that the Board of Directors must consist of at least three people. Board member Roger de Weck resigned at the beginning of March 2023 (Werbewoche.ch reported). Thereafter, the board was understaffed. The Commercial Register Office had given the Republic set a deadline of the end of July to remedy its organizational deficiencies.
The Republic was launched on January 14, 2018, as an ad-free digital magazine for politics, business, society, and culture. At the start, it received a lot of advance praise and around seven million Swiss francs from patrons and potential readers.
The online medium struggled with financial problems several times thereafter. In April, the magazine announced job cuts. Eight employees were affected. At the same time, it acknowledged mistakes in its strategy. As a result, the entire board of directors resigned and took responsibility for failed expansion plans.
Organized is the Republic on the one hand as a stock corporation, and on the other as a cooperative. The former is responsible for publishing the magazine, the latter for non-profit objectives such as training and a research budget. (SDA/swi)
