Many influential figures mobilized after Emmanuel Macron's announcement to dissolve the National Assembly, plunging France into a political crisis. On social media, the mobilization was organized through various channels, including Instagram posts created collaboratively and cross-posted (published on multiple accounts simultaneously) to increase their visibility. Against the far right, joint events were also organized, such as the gathering on July 3rd at Place de la République in Paris, initiated by, among others, independent media outlets like Mediapart, Blast and StreetPress.
Alliance makes strength in this context against the far-right but not only that. Faced with the GAFAMs, media outlets have greater interest in organizing together and forming alliances. These recommendation strategies make it possible to give more visibility to their content but also to the media themselves. Several have thus reaffirmed their editorial line and positioning.
The advantage of these collaborations is that they attempt to escape social media algorithms by distancing themselves from them or trying to circumvent them. Meta is increasingly making decisions that render media invisible on its platforms and does not encourage the distribution of verified, sourced information. Especially since producing content on social media comes at a cost. Independent media in particular cannot afford to over-invest in a strategy that will not yield direct results or any results at all.
On the other side of the Channel, the British media outlet Monocle, launched in 2007 by Tyler Brûlé with each issue selling over 80,000 copies, has long chosen not to be on social media. In the face of Google and Facebook, they see no point in investing in these platforms. The logistical needs, and therefore financial costs, required to maintain an Instagram or Snapchat account are simply too significant.
One of its founders had recalled during a conference that their media outlet doesn't have the
Social media: heavy investment for minimal results
Leaving social media is a decision that Voxe, a daily news newsletter with 68,000 subscribers, has also recently made. Instead, they want to focus on more organic strategies, particularly through media recommendations. "In three years on social media, we gained 1,200 subscribers to our daily newsletter", analyzes Léonore de Roquefeuil, founder of Voxe. Their social media community was largely already made up of their newsletter readers.
"It wasn't something we used as a source for acquiring content, or at least not in that context," she adds, "if we had wanted Instagram to be a real growth driver, we would have had to invest in it and make it a real parallel media channel." The writing style and storytelling favored on social networks like Instagram rarely allow content created for one medium to be directly transposed to the platform. It's worth noting that you also always need to adapt your posts to algorithm changes and keep innovating if you want them to perform well.
People who follow an account on social media are generally less engaged than those who subscribe to a newsletter, for example. To build a genuine community on a platform, you need to be proactive, respond to comments, and create discussion spaces. In short, you need to meet the requirements set by the platforms.
"In our case, a click on a link in the newsletter is worth 200 likes on Instagram," explains Léonore de Roquefeuil. The communities behind media outlets are generally engaged since they support a project and back it, often financially. "Our audience, compared to much larger audiences, is four to five times more reactive, and we notice that small communities are proportionally very engaged," adds the founder.
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To promote the media, Voxe decided to focus on partnerships with others, a strategy they have been developing for a long time. Thus, they recommended in their newsletter media outlets such as Vert, Komando or even Snowball but also content from influencers like Louise Aubery's newsletter.
To establish these partnerships, Voxe sends a communication kit to the partner so they understand the media's identity and editorial line. They then write text to be integrated into the newsletter. The process is the same for Voxe, which writes texts to promote the other media. Partners decide on a number of subscriptions to reach, which often falls between 50 and 500 or so. As long as the target hasn't been met, they continue to feature the media in their newsletters.
Links to media are then tracked to "be able to measure whether the text made people want to click, whether the audience is reacting and interested in our product, and then whether we're able to keep that audience with us", explains Léonore de Roquefeuil. If the partnership is well-targeted and the language elements used to describe the media are strong, readers become interested in it. The conversion of these targets then depends on their attachment to the product but also, for example, on the UX of the homepage. "In our case, the conversion journey is quite smooth", says the founder of Voxe.
The independent ecology media outlet Vert, whose daily newsletter has 80,000 subscribers, has also implemented similar strategies. Notably, they partnered with the investigative urban media outlet StreetPress in their respective newsletters. 48,000 people are subscribed to StreetPress's monthly newsletter "Faf," which analyzes the far right.
They explained to their community the link between their two subjects. These two media outlets cover complementary themes that don't compete with each other. "This strategy lets us promote a friendly media outlet while also feeding our own communities", explains Loup Espargilière, editor-in-chief of Vert. The initiative appears to have been effective, "it was really an interesting partnership and we'd be happy to do it again", he states.
Build partnerships using your expertise
Recommendations between newsletters aren't the only way to promote your media outlet. Creating content with or for another media outlet that doesn't share the same business model but has a large audience can increase your visibility as well as that of the topics you cover. Vert partnered with Konbini at the beginning of last year to produce a regular video column published on Instagram in Reels format.
"I take an environmental topic and break it down, trying to keep it simple, short, educational and if possible, not boring," explains Loup Espargilière. The latest chronicle published achieved nearly two million views. "It gives exposure to our content that's incomparable to what we could do on our own, and for Konbini, it provides them with quality, expert content on environmental issues, he says. Each of us brings very specific expertise and it works really well."
These initiatives aren't limited to the web and newsletters, either. In March, the magazines Gaze and Fisheye offered a joint one-year subscription at an attractive price for a limited time. Their collaboration was focused on photography since both magazines feature carefully crafted imagery. They both share an interest in photography from different angles—feminism for Gaze and contemporary and emerging photography for Fisheye.
The alliance of different independent media outlets also makes it possible to create a shared network. "At Voxe, we're very much in a dynamic of helping each other among people in the same ecosystem," agrees Léonore de Roquefeuil. Recommending specialized media focused on a particular topic, which have independent business models, can create a virtuous circle.
These initiatives also give readers the impression of a united front of independent media, powerful, facing traditional mainstream media that captures a large portion of the media landscape. "We're at a moment where independent press needs to take an increasingly larger place in the media landscape, and that's going to happen through this type of initiatives that we must multiply at all costs", says Loup Espargilière.
To go further:
- Help your media reach new audiences by letting your subscribers gift articles, a best practice analyzed at Médianes.
- An article on Monocle's "no social media" strategy published in 2018 (but still very interesting) by The Drum.
- To learn more about organic marketing strategies centered on audiences, consult our book.
