In this episode of Chemins, I welcome Max Leroy, an entrepreneur and specialist in product and design within media, as well as an expert in audience and community development. Having worked at Le Monde, POLITICO Europe and the New York Times, he also designed the interactive format Interview Club for CNN+, allowing audiences to ask questions directly to guests. But in 2022, CNN+ shut down after just 30 days of existence, taking Interview Club with it. In this episode, Max Leroy reflects on what it means to build a product at a major media outlet, manage a failure that's beyond your control, and find the right distance between personal commitment and corporate decisions.
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- Interview Club: reinventing interactivity in interviews
Before joining the media sector, Max Leroy worked in tech and product design. After several experiences, including at Meetup, a community networking platform, he decided in 2019 to turn to journalism.
« After four years in pure tech, I wanted to work in an environment more connected to current events. CNN was looking to create a completely autonomous team to experiment with new formats, and it was a perfect opportunity. »
When Max Leroy arrived at CNN in 2020, he was tasked with designing an interactive format that would allow the public to ask questions directly to guests. The idea: to make interviews more transparent and participatory.
« We didn't want a chat where everyone writes anything. We needed a system where viewers collectively chose the most relevant questions. »
The project grew out of an observation: in their questions, media outlets sometimes miss the public's real concerns. During the 2020 Democratic primary, certain candidates were systematically asked about the same topics, while other questions, widely discussed online, were never addressed.
« We saw candidates spared certain questions on air while everyone was talking about them online. That's when we thought: we need to give people the ability to ask the questions they really want to ask. »
Interview Club thus relies on an intuitive interface integrated into CNN's digital platforms. To prevent interviews from becoming unmanageable, the team designed a democratic selection system:
✅ Users submit their questions in advance or live.
✅ Viewers vote for the questions they deem most relevant.
✅ Guests answer the questions that received the most votes.
- CNN+: an ambitious launch, a brutal shutdown
In March 2022, CNN launches CNN+, a subscription streaming platform meant to embody the network's digital future. The goal is to diversify revenue sources amid declining television viewership and compete with services like Netflix, Hulu, and Apple News+. CNN aims to break away from traditional television and attract younger audiences accustomed to streaming services and interactive formats.
To support this transition, Interview Club was integrated into the platform as one of its flagship formats. But after just 30 days, the project was shut down.
« CNN+ was an internal project, launched within a company undergoing restructuring. Three days after the new CEO from Discovery took office, everything stopped. »
The main reason? The merger between WarnerMedia (CNN's parent company) and Discovery completely reshuffled things internally. Discovery didn't believe in the CNN+ model and decided to cut costs immediately.
« We didn't even have time to analyze whether it was working or not. The decision was made from the top, without anyone on the product or editorial team able to defend the project. »
In major media outlets, innovation remains fragile against financial and political decisions. A project's future isn't determined solely by its potential success, but also by internal power dynamics and management decisions.
« There are two worlds: one that's dying while pretending to create interactivity, and another that's actually doing it and crushing it. »
- A lag in interactivity
For Max Leroy, traditional media outlets that claim to be interactive aren't yet truly so.
« Today, when a radio or TV station takes a question from the public, it's pre-selected by a journalist. Out of 500 questions received, only one is selected. You can ask a provocative question you really wanted to ask without it technically coming from you. But it might not be the one that interests your audience the most. That's fake interaction. »
That's what made Interview Club special: viewers could vote for the question that interested them most among those posed by their peers. In comparison, newer platforms (Twitch, YouTube) offer genuine transparency in interaction.
« Samuel Étienne, live on Twitch, sees questions in real time, replies to comments, bans trolls. There's complete transparency with his audience. There are two worlds: one that's dying while pretending to create interactivity, and another that's actually doing it and crushing it. »
- The role of Product Manager
In a media outlet, the Product Manager works by and for content, hand in hand with the newsroom. Unlike a service platform where user experience and usability are decisive elements, in a media outlet, the product cannot exist without content.
"No one will tell you, 'I subscribed to The New York Times because I love the interface—I find it very convenient.' People subscribe for the content."
This permanent connection with newsrooms is what makes the role of Product Manager in media so unique. Unlike other industries where the product can be designed independently of content, here, journalists are the creators of the "product" that the public comes to consume.
« It's essential to have the best possible relationship with the people who create this material: the newsroom. Its role is to ask tough questions, to challenge choices. It's impossible to be a good Product Manager in a media outlet without a permanent, constructive, and respectful relationship with the newsroom. »
This positioning can sometimes create tensions with the newsroom, which may see these questions as a challenge to its journalistic expertise. Especially since product logic often relies on rapid experimentation, while journalistic culture favors rigor, verification, and editorial control.
« A bad media outlet is one designed for journalists rather than the public. You have to start from users' needs. »
- Rethinking existing media
Max Leroy warns against the temptation to always want to create new media. For him, the main challenge today is not so much about adding new voices, but about improving the ones that already exist.
« Information anxiety is enormous. In 95% of cases, I advise people not to launch a media outlet. It's better to improve what already exists than to add to the noise. »
Another problem he identifies is that many journalists create media that above all reflects their own desires, like a showcase of their vision of journalism, without genuinely taking into account their audience's expectations and needs.
« A bad media outlet is one designed for journalists rather than the public. You have to start from users' needs. »
As a Product Manager, Max Leroy left several positions after two years. The time needed to move a project forward. Particularly since the energy of change is often strongest at the beginning of a project, when the organization is seeking innovation and leaders are ready to test new ideas. But quickly, internal resistance and structural inertia can take over.
« I love making things happen. But the moment I lose my freedom to act, I'd rather leave than sit through endless political meetings. »
He remains nonetheless convinced that innovation is possible, even within historic institutions.
« The New York Times is constantly innovating. They're suing OpenAI, they launched a Telegram channel during the war in Ukraine… I also find the transformations at Le Monde in live coverage fascinating, their video service is exceptional. I could also mention POLITICO's newsletters in Europe, Contexte, 2050NOW… There are plenty of traditional media outlets that are finding room to maneuver and experimenting with great success. »
To go further
- How to develop a solid product approach within your media organization? Design, tech, marketing, editorial… within media companies, it's not always easy to get all departments around the table. Yet, defining and implementing a strategy requires cohesion and shared foundations to properly reach your audience. In three words? Product approach.
- Product Manager: learn to decide and forgive at speed. While a product manager's area of expertise may vary depending on the medium, one essential skill should be found in every one of them: the ability to decide and forgive quickly. Practical case study and tips for adopting the goldfish technique.
- For a direct audience connection. Faced with the power of platforms, many media outlets have lost control of their audiences. Editorial teams, product teams, and publishers—what if we took back control?
- Moving from an audience to a community. More often imposed than chosen, the interactions between editorial teams and readers born from the digital transformation of media nonetheless offer unprecedented opportunities to build audience loyalty: rather than abandoning the field, let's see how to restore the connection.
