Meeting the people behind the media
How do you say goodbye to a project you care about? What happens when a chapter closes? And most importantly, how do you prepare to write the next one? The guests in this third season of Chemins are mostly journalists, several of whom run media outlets, while others have founded them. They come from Bondy Blog, Censored, and Fooding. They all share with our microphone their pivotal moments, their strategic choices, and their lessons in resilience in the face of endings: the end of a format, a way of working, a direction.
🎙️ Camélia Kheiredine (independent journalist, former editor-in-chief of Étiquette on francetv.slash), Sarah Ichou (director of Bondy Blog), Alexandre Coing (co-director of Fooding), Clémentine Labrosse (co-founder of the magazine Censored), Louise Katz and Nathanaël Simon (co-founders of the live news media Les 3 Ours and the magazine La Grenouille à grande bouche) and Max Leroy (product manager who has worked at CNN, the New York Times and POLITICO) are the guests for season 3 of Chemins.
Season 3 of Chemins is hosted by Marine Slavitch and directed by Morgan Prudhomme. The sound identity is created by Nicolas Peiron and the visual identity is created by Christelle Perrin.
The first three episodes of this season are already available. Join us in January 2025 for the next ones.
Episode 1: Camélia Kheiredine, Étiquette — Stopping projects that don't belong to us
Camélia Kheiredine is an independent journalist specializing in creating content for young audiences. For four years, she conceived and led Étiquette, a show broadcast on Francetv.slash that deconstructed stereotypes around identity, profession, or life experience. After leaving the project in 2022, Camélia took a break to become an educational coordinator in middle schools, before returning with new projects on Arte. In this episode, Camélia talks to us about the choices that shape a creative and committed career: how do you forge your own path in traditional media? And what does it mean to let go of a project that doesn't belong to you?
Episode 2: Sarah Ichou, Bondy Blog — A media outlet that wasn't meant to last
Since 2023, Sarah Ichou has been director of the Bondy Blog, a media outlet born from the urgency of the 2005 riots, following the tragic deaths of Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré. This blog, conceived by Swiss magazine L'Hebdo, was meant to last only three months. But what was supposed to be a brief interlude grew, driven by an ambition: to make working-class neighbourhoods visible and heard. Sarah today embodies a new generation leading a media outlet that has always sought to tell stories and share expertise. How does a media outlet designed as temporary become a lasting force? How do you manage a media outlet that trains and supports talent while accepting that they move on to other opportunities?
Episode 3: Alexandre Coing, Le Fooding — Carrying the torch after a change of leadership
Alexandre Coing has been co-director of Fooding since 2022. This media outlet, launched in 2000 as an alternative to traditional gastronomic guides, shook things up by popularizing bistronomie and integrating food into pop culture. Its offbeat and accessible tone won over both gastronomy enthusiasts and a broader audience. Yet Le Fooding has experienced several turning points: its acquisition by Michelin, often seen as running counter to its original spirit, and the departure of Alexandre Cammas, its founder, in 2022. How do you take the helm of a media outlet you didn't found? How do you preserve Fooding's soul while evolving within a major group like Michelin?
Episode 4: Clémentine Labrosse, Censored — Thinking Ahead About Your Project
Clémentine Labrosse is editor-in-chief of Censored, a radical feminist magazine she founded in 2018 with her sister Apolline. In 2022, the cofounders chose to slow down publication to preserve their work-life balance and stay true to their values. A year later, Censored discontinues its print version and announces a transition to a web platform. How can one balance editorial ambition with mental health, and reinvent a media outlet without betraying its essence?
Episode 5: Louise Katz and Nathanaël Simon, The Wide-Mouthed Frog; The 3 Bears — Stopping a media outlet, launching a new one
Louise Katz and Nathanaël Simon are co-founders of La Grenouille à Grande Bouche, a hybrid project combining a culinary magazine and participatory restaurant. Launched in 2019, the project did not survive the pandemic and ended in 2022. Yet, almost a year later, the journalists embark on Les 3 Ours, a living news media co-founded with Julie Lallouët-Geffroy. In this episode of Chemins, Louise Katz and Nathanaël Simon share their experience: how to bounce back after a failure, preserve a collective spirit, and reinvent themselves through new hybrid models?
Episode 6: Max Leroy, former CNN — When the end is imposed on us
Max Leroy is an entrepreneur, product and design specialist in media, and expert in audience and community development. He has worked at Le Monde, POLITICO in Europe, and the New York Times. He also designed the interactive format Interview Club for CNN+, which allowed audiences to ask questions directly to guests. But in 2021, CNN+ shut down after only 30 days, taking Interview Club with it. In this episode, Max Leroy reflects on the abrupt end of a project. How do you cope when a project you've invested everything in disappears? Can you really innovate within large traditional media organizations?
BONUS! Episode 7: Marine Doux, Medians — Closing One Chapter to Open Another
Médianes is four years old. Four years of launched projects, experiments, transitions… and necessary endings. To close out this season of Paths on endings, we return in this bonus episode to those that have marked Médianes with Marine Doux, co-founder and editorial director. Launched almost by accident, Médianes has evolved from a project among friends into a structured enterprise, whose team has doubled in 2024. How do you welcome new people into a close-knit collective? How do you learn to set boundaries in a company whose commitment is the driving force?
Season 3 of Chemins is presented by Marine Slavitch and directed by Morgan Prudhomme. The sound design is by Nicolas Peiron and the visual identity is created by Christelle Perrin.
To go further
- The first season of the podcast highlights the diversity of paths to creating and developing your own media through six founders, interviewed by journalist Margaux Vulliet: Julie Hamaïde from Koï Magazine, Raphaël Bloch from The Big Whale, Benoît Baume from Fisheye, Hervé Kempf from Reporterre, Siham Jibril from Génération XX, and Manon Boquen from Pays.
- The second season of Chemins offers six ways to develop a media outlet and diversify its activities, featuring journalist Marine Slavitch interviewing Cécile Sourd from Mediapart, Jean-Christophe Boulanger from Contexte, Lauren Boudard from Climax, Frédéric Desiles from Alternatives Économiques, Emmanuelle Josse from La Déferlante, and Valentin Levetti from Stupid Economics.
