Our mission
We want to establish satellite journalism as a new discipline of journalistic work. Because what used to be the preserve of the military and intelligence services opens up completely new opportunities for journalists to conduct (investigative) research. That's why we founded Vertical52 in Berlin in 2023. You can find us at Publix - on the 52nd parallel.
How many buildings has the war in Gaza destroyed? What does forced labour have to do with your T-shirt? How sealed is your city? How is the biomass of the German forest changing? Hundreds of stories can be told and forensically proven with data from space. Vertical52 brings them back to earth. With Spacestack, we are building a platform for the search, analysis and visualisation of satellite and radar data. For journalists, publishers, broadcasters and NGOs.
Vertical52 GmbH
Vertical52 provides publishers, broadcasters and NGOs with images, data and topics from space. And helps to understand, analyse and visualise these and use them to tell stories that convert.
Vertical Academy
With the Vertical52 Academy gGmbH, we have founded a non-profit organisation that supports exile media and local editorial teams with investigative research from space.
Team
Marcus has specialized in complex storytelling projects since 2012. With his teams, he has produced numerous award-winning stories: For example, he tracked electronic waste that was smuggled to West Africa. Or a missing painting that saved the life of a Jewish family in 1938. He builds his stories using innovative technologies such as GPS transmitters or sensors, which he used to make three dairy cows talk, for example. He has been doing research from space since 2022.
Michael is a social entrepreneur from Hamburg. He also worked as a journalist for several years and founded journalists.network, the Institute for Foreign Journalism. From 2002 to 2015, he built the microinsurance business for Allianz and introduced satellite technology in agricultural insurance. In 2018, he co-founded Earth Analytics India in Mumbai with sarmap. With Vertical, he aims to leverage his experience in remote sensing for investigative research.