Vacant job

In our previous ad last summer, we were looking for students, little did we know that we would receive applications from professional journalists affected by the cuts in press support here and there. It is certainly great for the Cigar Club that skilled, seasoned journalists want to work with us on an hourly basis. But perhaps not so good from a democratic perspective.

And in order to further undermine democracy, we thought we could cannibalize on the layoffs at SvD and Aftonbladet. We cannot offer you a full-time position, but surely a few hours here and there until you find something else.

We do not refer to ourselves as alternative media, as that requires an already existing narrative, where one is the alternative. Investigations on the cigar industry were absent before we arrived, thus we refer to ourselves by the self-composed term complementary media. We hope this will make it to this year's new words list. We run the blog Cigar World, which can be found on our website, and which is operated with a publishing license.

You are interested in investigative journalism, the format is of lesser importance (podcast, articles, etc.). You have a strong inner moral compass and believe that the truth is more important than the angle. You possess a sense of justice and a feeling for fair play. Additionally, you are articulate, or rather, skilled with the pen.

You are also okay with writing anonymously, which is very controversial (professional pride, honor, and so on), but we have faced a threat against us that is escalating. The fewer employees who are known, the fewer we have to protect. We have quite a large security apparatus behind us for a ridiculously small operation. But we are very careful about security, both for staff and members, that comes first. You need to be able to live with that type of restrictions. It should be added that we are in the process of leaving anonymity now, as we have grown and gained international impact with one of our investigations, so such things are decreasing, but that can of course change, but in the end, you need to live with the fact that you do not make the decision about being anonymous or not.

We have no opinions whatsoever about your political affiliation; we mix freely. You can be bluer than the train or redder than Mao. However, we are completely apolitical; we primarily look at how tobacco laws are structured and how they are adhered to. We have no opinions about their design. Because that is politics.

If you are someone who can discuss politics without being perceived as unpleasant and sometimes feel lonely in the opinion that your party behaves foolishly on a specific issue, then you fit in well with us. If you always stick to the party line regardless of the issue, and regardless of party affiliation, then you do not belong with us. It is, by the way, thanks to those who always stick to the party line that people like Hitler come to power. If that were not enough, holding tightly to an ideology is about as smart as claiming that paracetamol is the only medicine needed to cure all diseases.

We want thinking individuals who can stand by uncomfortable opinions and do not mind being misunderstood for long periods.

Smoking cigars is not a merit at all. Quite the opposite; you do not even need to have a particularly good opinion of the tobacco industry; that is not the type of question we are dealing with.

You will be paid hourly. The work is mostly remote.

Recruiters need not apply.

We are by no means a gentlemen's club and are not particularly fond of bro culture. Your personality as an applicant is crucial. Your gender is not.

We do not accept visitors. Physically submitted applications will be discarded. Applications that do not meet the requirements, formalities, etc., will be discarded immediately, without response or follow-up. Keep that in mind; we receive a lot of responses. You do not need to be flashy to stand out. It is enough that you follow the formal requirements; then you have already surpassed 90%. They do not even bother to read this far to pick that up. You should be able to figure out the formal requirements on your own.

To any young applicants, you are welcome. But responding with something like "I’m having coffee with a friend, can you call back later?" when you receive a follow-up call on your application is relatively unimpressive.