There is a time for everything. After more than five years working for and with Achte Minute, we, Gudrun and Tim, are going to retire by the end of the year 2012 from editorial work.

Since in September 2007 in Hamburg, the first post of a digital Achte Minute went online the magazine – and a lot has changed. Many – an estimated hundred – freelancers, writers and video journalists, whistleblowers and twitterers, designers and graphic across VDCH country, young people wrote about “old warriors” as well as others have written pieces about “baby vegetables“. peer-reviewed each others work and published it on Achte Minute. At peak times ten people reported on the same weekend live from four places about motions, victories and issues, about people, rumors, opinions and myths.

Now, Achte Minute is the largest online debating magazine and reaches out to hundreds of thousands of readers. It is read by active debaters, friends of debating, former debaters, coaches and even debate moms.  In short: To many, Achte Minute is worth a bookmark in their browsers and a daily view.

In July 2010, the magazine went bilingual and we reported on events such as the Jacobs or Tilbury House Summer Opens in both German and English. And of course we’ve covered Euros and Worlds. Achte Minute and debating in Germany are known more on the international debating circuit and the readership of the Achte Minute is no longer restricted to German “Muttersprachler” (natives). At two European Championships, Achte Minute took responsibility of the entire reporting from on the spot and as far as we know Achte Minute often was the fastest and most reliable news magazine here.

The magazine grew and grew. We were happy to have a whole “network of correspondents” in the world: adjudicators and speakers who were at tournaments in Thailand and Turkey, who were sleeping in Oxford on the floor or enjoyed the heat and hospitality of Africa – they reported, telephoned, and texted. With the reporting, we went more and more multimedia: Video of third parties were involved as well as own productions. Alfred Snider, professor of rhetoric in the U.S., wrote on Twitter: “#EUDC The tournament has not done a good job of getting out the news. Without Achte Minute and Twitter there would be a lot of nothing.”

Much praise for all involved! To achieve the density and reliability of the Achte Minute we needed the great commitment of many.

Tim Richter and Gudrun Lux have been the editors of Achte Minute from 2007 to 2012.

We, Gudrun and Tim, would like to once again thank all those who have worked with such great committment – and the magazine magazine no less than profited from this. To name all of you would exceed the maximum length of the server but one name is to mention: Thank you Anja Pfeffermann! Anja pitched in when we most needed support, and since then is one of the most important members of Achte Minute staff.

It is now time for us to put the operational work and editorial into younger hands. We wish for Achte Minute to keep being a unique project in the future. We hope that the magazine will keep us updated also in the coming years with professional and reliable information and news about our passion, the debate.

With much anticipation for the next five years of Achte Minute!

Tim & Gudrun