«Meet the Team»: Beatrice Brandes

«Hello again» Beatrice Brandes ✨ Our longest-serving colleague at NZZone had her first working day at the «Neue Zürcher Zeitung» on 22 May 1985. She can now look back on 40 years (and 1 month, 1 week, 4 days on 3 July 2025) at «Old Auntie». Congratulations from the bottom of our hearts! Beatrice tells us what she experienced back then and how she feels today in a somewhat different «Meet the Team» interview.

What do you miss about what some people call the «good old days»?

The first thing that comes to mind are the many former colleagues who have already retired or gone their separate ways. Back then in the 1980s, the Typesetting Department team was a very varied mix of unusual personalities, eccentrics and a few lateral thinkers.

Was there anything you will never forget?

Yes, the spring of 1985 when I started at the NZZ. Those were different times. I met a former schoolfriend at the Opera House tram stop; she had just come from the NZZ. After the foundation course at the School of Arts and Crafts, I was looking for a job. She said: «Try the Typesetting Department at the NZZ. They are always looking for conscientious students for shift work.» I got in touch immediately. The admission requirements, i.e. the tests I had to pass to get the job: I had to check/correct a German text in the shortest possible time and then demonstrate that I had sufficient virtuosity on the typewriter – and I was hired.

What has changed the most in your day-to-day work?

For me, «everything» and every area has changed a lot. I started out working shifts full-time, then switched to part-time so that I could embark on a course of study once again and so take my studies further. Looking back, the technological progress in particular is enormous: I can remember monster screens with green lettering on a black background. There were no e-mails back then but the telex machines generated metres and metres of paper that were dynamically processed, cut and pasted and more or less legibly edited by the editors. Authors’ manuscripts still had to be transcribed as the first step … Now we have an immense variety of products, advertising formats, information and exchange platforms, tools and a complexly networked social media world. The order archive was also still analogue back then: it was a huge cabinet with metal containers and a rotating internal mechanism. It was managed by a person, not a machine, and operated manually.

Which event do you remember most fondly?

That’s an easy one: our last team event with the bowling challenge.

What has motivated you to stay with the NZZ for four decades?

I was lucky enough to always be part of a team that worked well together. I have also valued the NZZ as a solid and generous employer with a liberal orientation. In addition, the work never became boring because the environment and the challenges in the media landscape were constantly changing almost of their own accord, and the NZZ products are top quality.

What do you particularly appreciate about the current team?

The co-operative teamwork is very important to me – and the friendly atmosphere, which, despite all the pressure to succeed, also leaves room for happy and funny moments.

What do you wish for in the remaining years of your career?

That the working atmosphere remains the same despite all the innovations, changes and uncertainties of today. Merci!