It's already been 15 days since applications opened for the Médianes Program, a collective mentorship initiative designed by and for founders of independent and engaged media organizations. A big thank you to those who have already shared their project with us (for the rest of you, you have until March 3rd!).
In creating this program with studio Médianes, we aimed to offer the most useful and accessible support for emerging media leaders. Thanks in particular to financial support from the Ministry of Culture, we are able to offer a year-long collective program at a price of €150 per month for ten projects.
To help us select the media outlets that will have access to this program, we chose to surround ourselves with a panel of professionals aligned with Médianes' values. Five media experts, founders and leaders, with varied backgrounds and areas of interest (journalism, marketing, management, financing) to provide additional perspective and support us in the selection process.
Learn more about the jury in detail
For the program's inaugural cohort, we are pleased to have on the jury: Cécile Sourd (Mediapart), Lucie Geffroy (La Déferlante), Perrine Daubas (Kometa, Reporters without Borders), Johan Weisz-Myara (StreetPress) and Leïla Miñano (Investigate Europe, Disclose), and from Médianes: Baptiste Thevelein, Christelle Perrin, Pauline Butel and Marine Doux.
Cécile Sourd — Mediapart
Cécile Sourd is Editor-in-Chief of the independent online newspaper Mediapart, specialized for 16 years in investigation and the disclosure of matters of public interest.
How can we be as demanding in management as in journalistic practice? We asked Cécile Sourd to join the jury to contribute her expertise as Mediapart now has over 210,000 subscribers and 139 staff members. We had welcomed her in 2022 in our podcast Chemins to explore the media's development strategy.
Lucie Geffroy — La Déferlante
Co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of La Déferlante, Lucie Geffroy also oversees the media's digital strategy and marketing challenges. She has worked as a journalist at Courrier international and at Monde.
How to develop a feminist business? Launched three years ago, La Déferlante has over 11,000 magazine subscribers and 40,000 newsletter registrations. Médianes, the studio, has been collaborating with the team since its inception, particularly on the media's digital and marketing development. We're bringing in Lucie Geffroy to this jury so she can offer her editorial, marketing, and entrepreneurial perspective to the projects presented.
Perrine Daubas — Kometa
A consultant in media development strategy and patronage, Perrine Daubas cofounded the new journal Kometa. Author of two works on patronage and philanthropy, she previously worked for Reporters without Borders and La Déferlante.
Management, financing, strategy… since 2021, we have been collaborating with Perrine Daubas in the development of engaged media outlets (RSF, Arrêt sur images, La Déferlante), and notably in the launch of Kometa, a journal of literary journalism, photographic narratives and idea debates funded through subscriptions and philanthropy.
Johan Weisz-Myara — StreetPress
An entrepreneur and journalist, Johan Weisz-Myara is the founder of StreetPress, an investigative media outlet and urban culture publication that has championed independent journalism on a pay-what-you-wish basis since 2009.
For several years, StreetPress has been working to make its journalism accessible to the widest audience by engaging its community. Médianes, the studio, supports the media's team in its fundraising campaigns and strategy since 2021, notably through journalism committed to countering the far right.
Leïla Miñano — Disclose
An investigative journalist, Leïla Miñano is part of the Investigate Europe consortium. She is the general secretary of Disclose and co-founder of Youpress, a collective of independent journalists. She is also the author of several investigative books and the Women to Be Shot Down project, supported by Médianes.
Being a journalist and developing projects on marketing, financial and organizational levels is the daily reality for many media founders. That's why we asked Leïla Miñano to join our jury and bring her expertise.
And what about Médianes in all this?
The jury members will participate alongside us in evaluating the projects as a whole and in establishing the first cohort of the Médianes Program. Among the Médianes team members involved in project selection, we have four people with diverse backgrounds (editorial, marketing, technical, design).
Baptiste Thevelein — Medians and Countries
Co-founder and Project Director at Médianes, Baptiste Thevelein leads the team responsible for digital products, advocacy, and commercial strategy. An expert in websites and web products, subscription and fundraising campaigns, and economic model development, Baptiste advises numerous leaders in growing their organizations.
StreetPress, Reporters Without Borders, AOC, Arrêt sur images, POLITICO, 60 Millions de Consommateurs, TheMetaNews and Vert are among his collaborations. Baptiste is also co-founder and editor-in-chief of the magazine Pays dedicated to territories.
Pauline Butel — Medians
In charge of support at Médianes, Pauline Butel oversees the Médianes Program and matters related to training.
Pauline is notably behind the conception of marketing campaigns and was responsible for developing a support program for 20 media outlets from the Balkans (CFI). In 2023, Pauline supported the Arrêt sur images team in its subscription campaign (+1000 new subscribers in October 2023) and in the development of a marketing department.
Christelle Perrin — Medians and Lands
Art Director at Médianes, Christelle Perrin is responsible for all of Médianes' graphic design productions, as well as supporting studio projects in this area. Christelle designs paper and web layouts, visual identities and mappings for media on a daily basis, and also directs the artistic direction of the Pays journal.
Among her collaborations, Christelle counts La Déferlante, La Disparition, France Médias Monde (RFI, France24), Maze, Le Ticket, L'Intimiste, POLITICO in Europe, Thiga, 60 Millions de Consommateurs, etc.
Marine Doux — Medians
Co-founder and Director of Projects, Marine Doux leads the editorial and marketing team at Médianes. An expert in audience development, business models and management, she helps media leaders daily build sustainable and ethical news organizations.
Since 2018, she has worked on the launch and development of around a hundred titles, from traditional media to emerging publications, including La Déferlante, Vert, POLITICO in Europe, Kometa, RFI, La Disparition, Arrêt sur images, etc.
About the Medianes Program
The Médianes Programme aims to provide founders of media outlets with the analysis frameworks, methods and tools to develop their projects on viable, ethical business models — and take their development to the next level. It is designed for anyone with an independent, mission-driven media project, whether still in the idea stage or created within the past five years.
This program was designed to be compatible with both professional and personal life. It offers nine months of support, starting in April 2024, divided into three months of group training, followed by six months of individual coaching, as well as a post-program review twelve months after launch.
To learn more about the selection process or about the Médianes Programme in general, visit the programme's website.
About Médianes
Launched in 2020, Médianes is a strategy, marketing and design studio, as well as a resource center dedicated to independent and committed media. Its goal? To support leaders and their editorial teams in producing quality journalism and monetizing it through their audiences, in a sustainable way.
Médianes is an entrepreneurial and associative project that supports media, those who found them, and those who create them. Médianes is built on a hybrid model: a strategy studio (agency) operated by a corporation that supports independent and engaged media, and a resource center (media) operated by a nonprofit association.
A media and consulting studio dedicated to media, you can learn more about Médianes by visiting our studio's website.
