From the Belgian event-magazine to collaborative Greek investigations, through Polish-Ukrainian transnational collaborations: engaged media is thriving across Europe. Again this summer, our Strategy newsletter invites you to broaden your horizons by visiting them. What these media have in common: an emphasis on collective work and creativity.
Missed our 2024 edition, the Euro summer across Germany, Spain and Italy? Catch up here.
To discover in Belgium
Médor, the cooperative magazine
Belgian investigative magazine run as a cooperative, Médor practices journalism rooted in care, where certain stories are built hand in hand with readers. This is the case with Sauvons nos sentiers, their latest investigative project on the privatization of public paths. Their approach embodies a journalistic ethic that resonates with us: building connections, fostering trust, and rebuilding solidarity from the ground up. In the same spirit, we love their classified ads, which promote direct exchanges, no parcels, no vans.
Axelle, the non-profit organization
Published by the association Vie Féminine since 1998, the feminist magazine Axelle draws its legitimacy from deep roots in the social realities of Belgian women. Its organic connection with an associative structure enables broad grassroots reach: "This identity informs the stories we tell in our pages." Topics thus emerge from local groups, and content is shared through activist networks. A strategy that links the production, distribution, and reclaiming of information, while strengthening the loyalty of its community of readers.
Sabir, the event magazine
Both magazine and performance space, the Belgian literary journal Sabir (which we broke down in this article) publishes, in small booklets, texts on diasporic identities and cultural struggles. But it doesn't stop there: the team then stages them at performance evenings — Sabir La Nuit. Events that blend reading, music and visual arts. The published object thus becomes alive and genuinely collective: a way to foster commitment to a project as much as to an atmosphere.
Discover in Greece
Popaganda, adopting the cultural lens
Founded in Athens in 2013, the online media outlet Popaganda treats culture as a social issue and uses it as a lens through which to tell stories about the world. Music, film and literature become entry points to current affairs: politics, international issues, cities, social struggles, personal narratives. By tapping into cultural sensitivities, Popaganda speaks to a young, politically engaged generation that is unreceptive to traditional formats. The result: journalism that is embodied, emotional, rooted in the practices and language of our time. Bonus: the media outlet is a member of our European network Sphera.
Solomon, pooling resources for sustainability
Solomon is an independent media outlet that investigates migration, social justice, and human rights in Greece and beyond. Its model is built on collaboration at every level: networked investigations with other European newsrooms, and resource sharing via the Solomon Media Lab, a training, support, and hosting space for independent journalists. The idea: to create collective and sustainable working conditions.
The Manifold, betting on editorial design
The Manifold rethinks the format of online investigations through its
Discover in Poland
Krytyka Polityczna, dialogue as editorial product
With its Spięcie project ("Short Circuit"), launched in 2018 and unfortunately now defunct, the left-leaning political media outlet Krytyka Polityczna, a member of the Sphera network, offered a rare space. Five editorial teams with opposing viewpoints (liberal, conservative, progressive) published simultaneously on the same topic. The result: a place for collaboration and discussion that forced journalists and readers to step outside their bubble. Highly valuable for encouraging constructive confrontation rather than polarization. Enough to inspire Libé and Le Figaro?
Sestry, a transnational media outlet and an expanded community
Created by Polish and Ukrainian journalists, Sestry is a transnational online media outlet that aims to offer a shared narrative of Central Europe, today marked by war and political tensions with Russia. The project goes beyond journalism to present an alternative political and cultural vision, where peace, tolerance, and human rights are core values. Neither exclusively Polish nor Ukrainian, Sestry harnesses the power of collective action and diversity to reach audiences from different countries, while championing a shared identity.
Dzień Dobry Belchatów, local-global
In Bełchatów, an industrial city in southern Poland dominated by one of Europe's largest coal power plants, the media outlet Dzień Dobry Bełchatów has become the hyperlocal reference. Its team covers daily life (news, tips and recommendations, classified ads), as well as civic initiatives and issues related to the energy transition, in a dedicated section. A good example of how a local media outlet can have an impact locally, by being genuinely useful to residents and bringing global issues into focus at the scale of a territory.
To go further
- Go here to discover other independent media in Italy, Spain and Germany.
- Gábor Kardos, CEO of Magyar Jeti Zrt, publisher of the independent Hungarian media outlet 444.hu (partner of our Sphera network) describes how his newsroom reacted to a new bill threatening to impose heavy penalties on media outlets receiving foreign funding, including private donations and European funds.
- Agnieszka Wiśniewska, editor-in-chief of the independent Polish media outlet Krytyka Polityczna, explains how budget cuts ordered by Donald Trump have weakened the economic stability of her newsroom.
- The Center for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom published an initial study mapping "media deserts" in Europe, these spaces where local information is fragile or even absent.
- By replacing its comments with a discussion platform, German media outlet Der Spiegel offers its readers a space for constructive discussions while significantly reducing the workload of its moderators.
