Meet the residents: Vertical 52
In each edition of our newsletter, we introduce one of the organisations working inside the Publix building. This time: Marcus Pfeil, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Vertical52.
What is the core of your work?
We provide publishers, broadcasters and NGOs with investigations and story leads derived from satellite data. We support them in understanding, analysing and visualising these findings – and in turning them into impactful stories.
What is the aim of your work?
We want to establish satellite journalism as a new discipline within investigative reporting.
What are you focusing on at the moment?
Our current work centres on the massacre in Al-Fasher, the destruction of Gaza, and the detection of methane leaks.
What has been your biggest achievement in recent months?
We managed to detect glyphosate from space, and we contributed to the global “Russian Secrets” investigation.
What is giving you headaches?
First: satellite operators’ dependence on defence budgets, which creates growing political pressure to censor imagery. Second: the rise of fake satellite images.
What is your contribution to a pluralistic media landscape?
We are working to make our services accessible to exile and local media, as well as freelancers, through a non-profit subscription model – so that anyone can investigate from space. We have just entered a new partnership with the JX Fund: a Space & Data Helpdesk for exile media.
Which journalistic project has impressed you most recently?
Green to Grey. A team of 41 journalists and researchers from 11 countries documented the scale of nature and farmland loss across Europe. Their findings show that Europe loses 1,500 square kilometres to built-up development every year – the equivalent of 600 football pitches a day.
Who or what deserves much more attention?
The work of exile media – in most cases conducted under extreme conditions.
What is the best reading for understanding the current moment?
From Above?Stories from Space. Our newsletter featuring the strongest investigations carried out from orbit.
What should people watch or listen to right now?
Late to the party, perhaps, but with this weather I’m watching Yellowstone in chronological order, from 1883 to the present day.
Photocredit: private
