Jean-Christophe Boulanger is the president and co-founder of Contexte, an independent online media outlet for political professionals in France and Europe. He is the guest on the fourth episode of the second season of Chemins, the Médianes podcast.
In this fourth episode of the second season of *Chemins*, we welcome Jean-Christophe Boulanger, president and co-founder of *Contexte*, an independent online media outlet aimed at political professionals in France and Europe. For the past ten years, Contexte has been developing a subscription-based editorial and business model. How do you go from 0 to 80 employees? From one to eight thematic editions? How do you grow in a healthy and sustainable way while becoming an expert in your field?
Key Points
- Contexte currently has 12,000 paying subscribers in a target market of approximately 50,000 people. However, Contexte remains relatively unknown to the general public.
“We’re a professional media outlet; that’s not our mission. Our goal is to be known by the 50,000 people who make up our target audience, not by all 70 million French people.”
- The media company has been profitable for the past five years, which has allowed it to invest in new publications and products. It has been growing at a rate of about 50% per year for the past three years.
“At first, it took quite a while. It took us four years to reach 1 million euros in subscription revenue; today, we’re at 8 million, and the growth is accelerating significantly.”
- Context is now in its third phase of acceleration.
“The first phase took place when we started out with seven people and grew to twenty. We were a small, close-knit group where everyone clearly understood where we were headed, without needing to over-structure things. Once we reached 25–30 people, that was no longer possible. Roles changed and became more specialized, and not everyone had a clear understanding of what everyone else was doing. Today, we’re at 100 people. Once we hit 70, that marked a third stage. The structure is even more defined. What enabled this acceleration was our investment in the editorial team. We also invested in the business and marketing sides of the operation. That goes a long way toward explaining the growth in subscription revenue.”
- To run a successful media outlet, it’s important to rely on both good journalists and good salespeople.
"If you do just one or just the other, it gets complicated. Good content doesn't sell itself."
- 1,300 organizations are currently subscribers to Contexte. The publication sold its subscriptions one by one.
“Two-thirds of our clients are in the private sector—that is, companies, professional associations, and consulting firms. The remaining third is in the public sector: government agencies, local governments, and ministries in France and abroad. The onboarding process often begins when someone stumbles upon a Contexte article on Twitter and is asked to provide their email address to read it for free for fifteen days. Otherwise, the content is behind a paywall. Every day, we have anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred people who provide us with their information to access the content. Our teams assess these individuals: Where do they work? Are they likely to subscribe? We then identify who will be the decision-maker within the organization regarding the subscription and determine the right price. We then work on building loyalty and increasing the use of our products among subscribers.”
- The price of a subscription ranges from 1,000 euros for a small NGO or media outlet to 150,000 euros for a CAC 40 company or a public institution with several hundred subscribers. The average subscription costs 6,000 euros per year.
Contexte currently has eight sections, half of which are profitable. The goal? To cover as many sectors as possible in order to provide useful information for political professionals. Its digital edition will be expanded in November 2023 by doubling the number of journalists and splitting it into two sections: tech and media.
“Our selection is based on requests from our subscribers, our assessment of the sectors where regulation has a significant impact, and the dynamics of a given sector. A new edition requires an investment of roughly 800,000 euros for 4 or 5 journalists, 2 or 3 sales or marketing staff, and a few pro-rated positions in tech, HR, finance, and support. That’s 8 or 9 people, and it can take up to five years to turn a profit.”
- 98% of Contexte’s equity is owned by the team. This helps limit the need for fundraising. The media outlet has also received a total of approximately 6 million euros in grants.
- Journalists can switch fields if they feel the need to.
“One of the problems with the trade press is that it becomes stuck in its ways. By focusing on a narrow topic for ten years, you lose perspective. We don’t force change, but we encourage it. With each new edition, journalists switch sectors.”
- The media outlet is the first in France to have published its journalists' declarations of interest, and it also publishes its financial statements.
“If a journalist is a member of a political party or donates to an NGO, readers will be informed. We also have a code of ethics that goes a long way toward ensuring the separation of editorial and commercial functions. This contributes to the value of our product.”
- On the management side, Contexte has launched an internal group focused on addressing workplace stress.
« We're considering having a news-free day, where once a week journalists wouldn't be following daily news but could focus on in-depth investigations. We're also working to validate their feelings with regular surveys to identify moments of tension, or tensions in certain teams. We also believe that management is a job in itself and that every manager must be trained in these areas. For the past year and a half we've had managers dedicated solely to their management function. They don't produce content.
“Management is often seen as a career path to earn more money, without any real desire to actually hold that position. That’s not the case here. We created a pay scale to avoid that effect. The downside is that it’s hard to attract good managers without competitive salaries.”
"Chemins" is a podcast produced by Médianes. Season 2 is hosted by Marine Slavitch and directed by Morgan Prudhomme. The sound design is by Nicolas Peiron, and the visual design is by Christelle Perrin.
