Max Leroy is a product and design specialist in media, with experience at Le Monde, POLITICO in Europe, CNN and the New York Times. He is a guest on the third season of Chemins, the podcast by Médianes.
In this episode of *Chemins*, I’m joined by Max Leroy, an entrepreneur, media product and design specialist, and expert in audience and community development. Having worked at Le Monde, POLITICO Europe, and The New York Times, he also created the interactive format “Interview Club” for CNN+, which allowed audiences to ask questions directly to guests. But in 2022, CNN+ shut down after just 30 days in operation, leading to the discontinuation of “Interview Club.” In this episode, Max Leroy reflects on what it means to build a product at a major media outlet, to deal with a failure beyond one’s control, and to strike the right balance between personal commitment and corporate decisions.
Club Interview: 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 closely tied to current events. CNN was looking to create a completely autonomous team to experiment with new formats—it was the perfect opportunity.”
When he joined CNN in 2020, Max Leroy was tasked with designing an interactive format that would allow the audience to ask questions directly to guests. The idea was to make interviews more transparent and participatory.
“We didn’t want a chat where anyone could post whatever they wanted. We needed a system where viewers could work together to choose 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 being spared certain questions on the set, even though everyone was talking about them online. That’s when we realized: we need to give people the chance to ask the questions they really want to ask.”
Interview Club is built around an intuitive interface integrated into CNN’s digital platforms. To prevent the interviews from becoming unmanageable, the team has 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 is launching CNN+, a subscription-based streaming platform intended to embody the network’s digital future. The goal is to diversify revenue streams in the face of declining television viewership and to compete with services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Apple News+. CNN thus aims to move away from the traditional television model and attract a younger audience 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 at a company in the midst of a restructuring. Three days after Discovery’s new CEO took office, the project was shut down.”
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 figure out if it would work or not. The decision was made at the top, without anyone on the production or editorial team being able to make a case for 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 is a huge success."
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 audience, it’s selected in advance by a reporter. Out of 500 questions received, only one is selected. You can ask a somewhat provocative question that you really wanted to ask, even though it doesn’t technically come from you. However, it might not be the one that interests your audience the most. It’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, responds to comments, and bans trolls. There’s total transparency with his audience. There are two worlds: one that’s dying while pretending to create interactivity, and another that actually does it and is a huge hit.”
The role of Product Manager
In a media organization, the Product Manager works with and for the content, hand in hand with the editorial team. Unlike a service platform, where user experience and usability are key factors, in a media organization, the product cannot exist without the 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 that’s designed for journalists rather than for the public. We have to start with the 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 rampant. In 95% of cases, I advise people not to launch a new 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 that’s designed for journalists rather than for the public. We have to start with the 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 as soon as I lose my freedom to act, I’d rather leave than stay in 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 Le Monde’s developments 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 new avenues to explore and experimenting with great success.”
"Chemins" is a podcast produced by Médianes. Season 3 is hosted by Marine Slavitch and produced by Morgan Prudhomme. The sound design is by Nicolas Peiron, and the visual design is by Christelle Perrin.
