Our editorial and ethics charter

Created by the entire Médianes team, this charter applies to the teams of our studio and our media outlet. Vision, values, target audiences, positioning and commitments: this editorial and ethical charter guides us internally on a daily basis.

Our vision

For committed journalism

With Médianes, we're working to nurture a new generation of media outlets that are closer to their audiences, through the values they uphold, the models they adopt, and the issues they champion. A model of engaged journalism, of impact-driven media that places economic and editorial independence at the heart of their approach, by prioritizing editorial and business models built on audience engagement (donations, memberships, subscriptions).

« Bringing new voices to the forefront, sustainably »

Launched in 2020, Médianes is an entrepreneurial and nonprofit project that supports media organizations, their founders, and the people who make them.

When developing your project, there are several paths to get there. Médianes helps you create your own. Médianes is a center for free resources, a mutual support network, and a strategy, marketing and design studio for media.

Feminisms, ecology, social justice: new voices are being heard. Listening to them is necessary, enabling them to emerge sustainably as media outlets is a major democratic issue. At the same time, developing viable and virtuous models to guarantee quality journalism that listens to its audience is vital.

1. « Bringing forth »: helping new media emerge

Only 30% of French people trust the media according to a Reuters Institute report on journalism published in 2023. Many of us no longer see ourselves reflected in current media models. Whether in the topics covered (ecology, feminism, social justice) or in the strategic, economic and managerial models in place (advertising models, platform dependencies, management).

2. « New Voices » : changing representations and narratives

We prioritize projects seeking to have a positive and lasting impact on society.

Journalists, project leaders, civil society figures… we're looking to highlight and collaborate with this new generation that's reshaping media in different ways, whether online or in print, in substance and in form. We also want to champion the issues and values we care deeply about: feminism, ecology, anti-racism, inclusive and sustainable society, and fair representation of all regions.

We carefully choose the projects we write about and collaborate with, based on the values and models they promote. We acknowledge that we don't cover all media-related topics and don't work (or no longer work) with everyone. We reserve the right to decline subjects and projects that don't align with our values, and we work daily to uphold these principles within our own project.

3. "Sustainably": developing viable and virtuous editorial and economic models

We aim to inform and support projects so they develop sustainable and virtuous models, in order to produce and finance quality journalism. This notion of "sustainability" lies at the heart of our editorial coverage and our support, and rests on several pillars: management, project management, journalistic impact, and financial health.

We are committed to providing comprehensive, tailored solutions that reflect the reality of the media ecosystem, and work daily to ensure they are independent in all respects. Editorial + design + marketing + tech: we champion a

We firmly believe in the necessary independence of media from third parties—whether political, industrial, or commercial. This means helping media internalize skills, expertise, and professional culture as much as possible, and recruiting and developing technical environments that enable them to guarantee their editorial freedom, beyond algorithms and third-party tools. Concretely, this involves highlighting organic strategies (not sponsored) that don't depend (too much) on algorithms, reader-centered models, promoting writing education and literacy to facilitate knowledge transfer, a testing culture to learn and develop incrementally, and so forth.

Among our references, we particularly recognize ourselves in the work of Nieman Journalism Lab, Lion Publishers, and the News Product Alliance in the United States, the Membership Puzzle Project in Europe, Splice in Asia, and the initiatives of Spiil in France.

Our audiences

We aspire to serve daily those who make and found the media: media founders and leaders, journalists, marketing, digital and product managers, and journalism school students.

More specifically, we reach out to independent and engaged media to help them grow and thrive in their daily operations, and we reach out to established media to support them in their transformation.

Their needs?

• Stay informed about the latest media trends (editorial and marketing innovations, tools, organizational transformation, management, etc.);
• Have a good understanding of the ecosystem to make decisions within their organizations;
• Having tools and acquiring best practices related to marketing, design, technical skills, and project management, organization, and leadership;
• Find new strategies and ideas for their project;
• Being part of a network that resembles them and inspires them;
• Get inspired by media that aligns with their values and commitments, and their daily reality (budget, organization, market);
• Find job offers, make recruiting easier.

Every summer, we take the time to survey our audience through an annual audience study. It's our way of giving a voice to our community and building the project together with them.

Our positioning

• We firmly believe in the necessary independence of the media, both from an editorial and economic perspective, and advocate for committed journalism.
• We're looking to highlight media that align with our vision (mission, operations, business model). To learn more about what drives us, visit our About page.
• We believe in the necessity of linking substance and form, of reflecting on objectives and audiences, of producing elements that are "replicable", "adaptable", and of prioritizing readability and accessibility before ego.
• We ensure we cite media outlets that are considered to have a positive impact on society, whether through their editorial stance, management, or operations.
• We're fully aware that we're far from perfect; and we know it's difficult and complex to develop an editorial model that is both sustainable and ethical. That's why we strive to be educational and to foster mutual support and the sharing of good initiatives.
• We are proud of the diversity of profiles and the relative youth of our team: a team of people from different backgrounds, under 30 years old, who don't necessarily come from media (design, history, communication, journalism, etc.) or traditional models.
• We’re proud to say that we don’t have all the answers. We’re passionate about media, print, and the internet, but that doesn’t make us media “oracles.”
• We try not to always mention the same media outlets or the same initiatives. We like to look at initiatives outside the media: activism, art, sports, etc.
• We aim to highlight articles written in French, but our monitoring also includes non-French-speaking countries. We are committed to using French as much as possible: our audience is particularly sensitive to this!
• We do not cite media outlets that we consider to be promoting racist, sexist, or other such ideologies.
• We aim to highlight media outlets that aren’t covered elsewhere—examples that will resonate with the media outlets that read us (as for the New York Times and the Guardian, there are other media outlets that do this very well!).
• We will explore strategies applicable to media outlets that lack the human, technical, and financial resources of The New York Times (see the point above).
• We advocate for a product-centric approach to media: journalism is conceived and produced through the lenses of design, editorial, marketing, and technology.
• We reserve the right to stop featuring or collaborating with media outlets that go against our values and principles.

Our Commitments

Our Principles

We strongly defend media independence and press diversity. But what is an independent media outlet? To answer this, we refer to two definitions.

• The Spiil definition: “An independent company is one that serves its own interests, not those of third-party industrial, commercial, or political interests.” According to our bylaws: “In the case of a corporation, the activities of its principal shareholders and the possibility of a conflict of interest between them and the publishing organization are specifically evaluated by the Board. In the case of an association, independence is assessed based on whether it has diversified sources of funding and whether its leaders are not in a situation of conflict of interest.” “Spiil works to strengthen the independence of media companies, both from the government and from platforms.”
• From Julia Cagé, an economist: “That’s what media independence is all about: news funded by those who consume it. Because if those who consume it don’t pay for that news, it means that others are willing to produce it so they can give it to you to consume ‘for free.’ This obviously raises questions about their ‘motives’—whether political or related to influence—but also about the consequences this may have in terms of political equality—or rather, inequality. […] Because informing us, as citizens, should not be achieved by pitting the media that produce it against one another; since information is a public good, it must be removed from the pure logic of the market, starting with the logic of competition. It must be achieved by collectively providing ourselves with the means to produce—and thus also to consume—independent, high-quality news every day.”
• In addition to editorial and financial independence, we also prioritize technical independence: we encourage media organizations not to rely on platforms or tools, to develop their own in-house capabilities, to maintain a direct connection with their audiences, and to favor open-source tools.
• Media organizations are businesses like any others. We are therefore particularly committed to upholding and respecting labor rights, whether as employees, independent contractors, or interns.
  • Healthy Environment and Management: We aim to highlight media outlets that are committed to developing their platforms in a positive way. This begins, above all, with respect for and the well-being of each and every individual.
  • Work ≠ Passion: While many people enter the media industry out of “passion,” it must remain a job and not a way of life. We encourage media organizations to develop policies and structures that prioritize the well-being of their teams and maintain a clear separation between work and personal life.
  • The Right to Disconnect: We’d like to remind you that the right to disconnect is essential for you, for us, and for our colleagues—especially in our line of work. Learning to disconnect from work and the issues we deal with on a daily basis is essential.
  • All work deserves compensation: visibility is not a form of payment, and we always encourage payment.
  • Freelance Rights: When paying freelance journalists, there’s only one rule: payment as a freelance fee. On the one hand, paying journalists via invoice or as royalties may seem like an easy solution. On the other hand, it is completely illegal. Not only does this make it difficult for journalists to obtain a press card and assert their rights, but media outlets also expose themselves to penalties. To ensure compliance, the website Paye ta pige compiles the rates charged by media outlets and their payment terms, while also listing resources to help do so correctly.
  • Data regulations, cookies, trackers: We remind media outlets that they must follow the CNIL’s recommendations regarding data collection, trackers, and cookies, and comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Our Values

We prioritize projects that aim to have a positive and lasting impact on society, and we want to champion the issues, values, and causes that are important to us: feminism, environmentalism, anti-racism, an inclusive and sustainable society, regional representation, and Europe.

• We seek to highlight people who are typically overlooked by traditional media, including women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and minorities.
• We strive to be inclusive, both in the people we mention and in our writing (use of inclusive language; content accessibility).

Climate and Life

• At Médianes, we are proud to highlight and collaborate with media outlets that treat environmentalism as a global and everyday imperative. At the studio, we work closely with Vert and Climax, among others.
• We are signatories to the Charter for Journalism That Meets the Challenge of the Ecological Emergency because it embodies the kind of journalism we believe in—committed and aware of the issues of our time. We are also convinced that its adoption can foster a profound change in the overall practices of newsrooms—both new and established.
• We are members of the Itinéraire bis collective, a group of media and communications professionals working to change how travel is portrayed in the media, with a focus on climate change.
• We prefer to use “climate change” rather than “climate crisis” or “climate emergency,” etc.—terms that imply a return to normal is possible. Spoiler: it’s not.
• On both an individual and collective level, we strive to put these values and principles into practice as much as possible.

Feminisms

• We use inclusive language in our content. Specifically, this means we use the mid-dot, proximity agreement, gender-neutral terms and umbrella terms, dual inflection (“all women and all men”), the feminine forms of job titles (ranks, occupations, and titles), and prioritize alphabetical order when listing masculine and feminine forms. For more information, see our style guide.
• We have no problem shining a greater spotlight on women, as we believe that they, like minorities, are victims of being overlooked by some media outlets.
• We fight against transphobia and believe that feminism cannot exist without trans people.
• We promote and highlight tools and groups that work to make these causes accessible and facilitate their dissemination (AJL, Les expert·es, Prenons la Une, Préparez-vous à la bagarre, etc.), as well as initiatives within the media organization itself, such as the role of gender affairs officer.
• On both an individual and collective level, we strive to put these values and principles into practice as much as possible.

Anti-Racism and Diversity

• In light of the reality of racism and the lack of representation in the media, we seek to highlight people of color in our content
• We support the work of the Association of Anti-Racist and People of Color Journalists (AJAR).
• From a recruitment perspective, we support initiatives such as the organization La Chance, which promotes diversity in the media.
• On both an individual and collective level, we strive to put these values and principles into practice as much as possible.

Accessibility/Disabilities

• Today, 12 million French people—or 20% of the population—live with a disability. This figure rises to 40% when temporary disabilities are included. We seek to highlight and promote inclusive practices in the media.
• From both an educational and a democratic perspective, we seek to promote the development of content that is accessible to people with disabilities. This includes guidelines for making design and content more accessible, as well as audio, web, and social media strategies.
• On both an individual and collective level, we strive to put these values and principles into practice as much as possible.

Representation of Regions/Europe

Whether at the local, national, or international level, we are convinced of the importance of regional representation, firmly believe in the European project, and are committed to promoting local initiatives.

• Through *Pays*, a magazine co-founded by *Médianes*, we strive—from both a journalistic and human perspective—to shed light on global issues through a local lens. Published twice a year, *Pays* is produced and printed in France. In each issue, Pays focuses on a single territory. Whether it’s a city, a region, or a neighborhood, Pays narrows its focus to address global issues through a local lens. For each issue, we issue public calls for submissions to recruit people who know and live in the areas we cover.
• We highlight European media initiatives and identify as Europeans. We advocate for a progressive and united Europe.
• We encourage remote work to give everyone as much freedom as possible to live, travel, and visit wherever they choose.
• On both an individual and collective level, we strive to put these values and principles into practice as much as possible.

The Incarnation

• We prefer to use “we,” including in the responses of the interviewees.
• Our articles are credited to the person who wrote them; resources are not necessarily credited to a single person (multiple contributors).
• We always strive to write with humility, pragmatism, and a touch of humor.
• We are proud to share our personal recommendations.
• We believe in a pluralistic and diverse media landscape.

Professional Ethics

About the studio/media outlet

“Médianes, the studio” and “Médianes” (the media outlet) are two separate legal entities. The former is a for-profit consulting firm that supports socially engaged media projects. The latter is a nonprofit organization that operates an independent media outlet recognized under the CPPAP.

Independence

• "Médianes" does not accept advertising in its content and does not allow advertorials. No media outlet may pay "Médianes" to be featured in its pages.
• "Médianes" is currently funded by the activities of "Médianes, le studio." The team is currently working to develop direct revenue streams to ensure the outlet's financial independence.

Transparency

• Within the media organization: We strive to be transparent, both in how we operate and in our editorial work. We use an “Editor’s Note” (“NDLR”) to identify the media outlets with which the studio collaborates.
• While the studio has collaborated with many independent media outlets, we are looking to highlight as many media outlets and initiatives as possible—even those with which we do not collaborate.
• Journalists at “Médianes” are informed of any new collaborations with “Médianes, le studio”—and vice versa—during a weekly team meeting.
• A strict confidentiality policy is observed between the production of media content and studio projects.

Edition

• We do not have the interviewees review the articles, with the exception of quotes, unless they request it.
• We make edits when such changes are in the readers’ best interest (particularly regarding figures and clarifications) and in cases of factual errors.