Starting your media in 5 steps

Introduction

When deciding to create a media outlet, there are many things to know and consider even before launch and the project's actual inception. The key is to prepare well for this venture by identifying and reflecting on a number of important elements.

This guide is designed to walk you through this process step by step. It aims to broaden your perspectives and support you in your initial reflections on your media project.

Obviously, you won't always have all the answers, and that's normal! The idea is to give you an overview of what your project might involve, to provide you with some key insights and essential tools to make your project a reality. Ultimately, the idea is to help you avoid being caught off guard and wasting your energy.

Also, you'll find here:

• Of methodology;
• General knowledge of how a media outlet operates ;
• Tools to implement from the genesis of your project and on a daily basis;
• A checklist of essential questions to ask yourself and topics to address before you start and throughout your project's lifetime;
• Resources to consult and make your own;
• Links to other specialized guides to help you develop your project even further ;
• A teaching resource to download. It will allow you to review the different elements of this fact sheet and have a ready-to-use document to get you started.
• Further reading, written and audio resources to go deeper. We're sharing with you notably what allows us to keep current on a daily basis.

Ask yourself the right questions

Why do I want to create a media?

The first thing you need to do is identify why you want to create a media outlet: what perspective, what goal? Depending on how you answer this question, you won't shape your project the same way in terms of strategies, formats, objectives, constraints, and business model.

To clarify things, we encourage you to take the time to answer the following questions:

Why am I creating a media outlet? Reflect on your deeper motivations. What drives you to want to create a media outlet, what are your motivations? This could be linked to your personal history, professional questions, your convictions, or a passion, for example.

What is my goal in doing this? Identify exactly what you're trying to achieve by creating this media. Where do you see your commitment and what's your objective? Do you eventually want to make a living from this project?

This objective may be linked to the desire to address a lack of information on a topic, to shift mindsets, to offer informational content different from other media on the same subject, or any number of other things.

What problem have I identified? What need(s) do I want to address? Whether it's professional or personal. By identifying a clear problem, you'll make your project essential in the eyes of a potential audience. A few examples of needs you might address: a lack of information on a topic; absence of news coverage in a territory; underrepresentation of a community's or minority's voice; a desire to make knowledge more accessible and democratize it; proposing a new format to approach a topic or subjects in a different way suited to other audiences; information for professionals in a particular sector, etc.

Who do I want to serve? Who will my target audiences be? Ask yourself who you want to reach. Define the profile of your core audience. Remember that the "general public" doesn't exist and that by trying to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one.

What values do I want to put forward and defend with my media? What convictions drive me? What vision do I want to share? Ask yourself what values you want to place at the heart of your project and at the heart of the message you will send to your audiences. This is your political and editorial positioning as a media outlet.

What topics do I want to cover in my media outlet? It's essential to clearly identify the subjects you want to address in your media and to define its areas of interest; especially at the beginning, and especially if you're the only one producing content or working in a small team, since you won't be able to cover everything, at least not right away! The current media ecosystem already has an oversupply of outlets, so don't hesitate to be specific and bold in your approach.

What are my main sources of inspiration? My major competitors? My potential partners or channels? Take time to understand your environment, to see the projects (media and non-media) that inspire you and can help you develop your own project.

What format(s) would I like to develop? This format must be consistent with the type of content you want to produce and also with the audiences you want to engage (needs, uses). So you need to think about: what type of content (written, video, audio), what length and what publication/distribution frequency.

What medium(s) will I use to distribute it? Related to the format is the question of the distribution channels through which you will operate. This involves both determining whether you want to create media available in print, digital, television or radio format, but also identifying whether, practically speaking, your audiences will need to have a tablet, a smartphone, a computer, a television or radio, internet access, etc. Ask yourself which distribution platforms you want to use for your podcast or videos, whether social networks are more suitable, whether you want to create ex nihilo a print media, etc. Above all, think about your audiences' uses and needs!

What editorial, visual, or sonic markers could define your project? Embodiment, tone, colors, principles… What universe makes your project unique and identifiable? To help you define yours, look around at the media, brands, and projects that matter to you and identify what makes them remarkable.

Do I want to carry this project alone? With others? Identify the skills you bring, the skills you will need, and what might be missing. Also look in your immediate and wider circle for potential people and networks that could help you.

How do I describe my project simply? In a few sentences, what do I want to do?

What business model do I envision? What are the potential sources of revenue and costs?

What legal structure might work best for you? Think about which model would suit you most and appeal best to your audience: for-profit? Non-profit? Business and/or association?

What are my financial objectives? Depending on your project, you'll have different financial objectives — making a profit or not, offering as much free or paid content as possible, finding a hybrid model between a paid and free media. In any case, you'll need at minimum to break even financially — that is, even if you don't want to make a profit, your media needs to generate enough money to be self-sustaining rather than requiring you to inject money from your own pocket.

Where do I want to be in three months, six months, or a year with this project? What are your goals? Always be as pragmatic as possible when thinking about your roadmap.

What would count as success for me? What would count as failure? What metrics can I define to help me evaluate my goals? Number of newsletter subscribers? First subscribers? First customers? Coverage of a particular topic? Whether from a qualitative or quantitative perspective, and regardless of the nature of the goal (editorial, financial, etc.)

How am I going to do that?

You also need to ask yourself how you plan to go about creating your media outlet. The answers will depend, in particular, on “why” you’re creating it. The question of “how” raises the issue of your strategy for developing and launching your media outlet and reaching your audience. It also raises practical questions, such as the amount of capital you have available, the number of people working on your project, and the skills you’ll need.

Think about how you can connect with your audiences and how you can make your media accessible to them. This is a marketing, communication, and distribution strategy in its own right.

You can begin your initial considerations by taking the following points into account:

Identify who your audiences are, what their needs are, and what they expect. To do this, check out our guide on Defining Your Personas.

Develop a distribution plan and a communication strategy. Take into account your audiences, their habits, and their preferred communication channels (Discord, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Telegram, Twitch, Twitter, WhatsApp, blogs, trade publications, local media, newsletters, radio, websites, Spotify, YouTube, etc.), their communication patterns (note when they’re available to consume information), and their preferences (do they respond more to short or long content, videos or text, humor or serious topics?). To help you with this, we invite you to read our dedicated guide, “Building a Framework.”

Find a tone and pace of communication that work for you, that match the spirit of your media platform, and that resonate with your audiences. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different approaches to find what works best for you and your audience. Also, remember that it’s more strategic to post regularly but sparingly than to post frequently but poorly. Quantity doesn’t always guarantee quality or effectiveness.

Create a dedicated editorial calendar to help you organize your communication strategy. You can use a reverse schedule as a guide, planning various texts, videos, and post types based on a timeline spanning several months. Check out our dedicated guide to help you through this step: Creating a Reverse Schedule.

Depending on how much time you have and what your goals are, you can adjust your strategy. Keep in mind that turning the release of a piece of media into an event and rallying a community around it are key to your success.

Consider the workload in light of the people available and their skills in order to propose a feasible communication strategy. Organize yourself with a schedule that clearly outlines who is responsible for what and who needs to do what and when. A reverse schedule or roadmap can help you with this. Check out our dedicated guides to help you through this step: Creating a Reverse Schedule, Creating a Roadmap.

Clarify and structure your message to effectively present your media outlet and highlight its value to your audiences. The goal is to convey a clear message about your media outlet: its editorial line, who founded it, how content is produced, the values it upholds, its objectives, its target audiences, its business model, and the needs it addresses. Practice with people who aren’t involved in your project to ensure that individuals who don’t know you or your project can understand what you’re telling them. Check out our dedicated guide to help you through this step: “Presenting Your Project.”

Assess the funds specifically allocated to launching your media outlet and its communication strategy. Launching a media outlet is like running a marathon: you have to be able to go the distance, both mentally and financially.

Consider the issue of partnerships, contacts, and potential sponsors early on so that you can increase your visibility or secure funding.

👉 To learn more and work through each of these elements in detail, check out our dedicated guides: Defining Your Personas, Creating a Canvas, Creating a Reverse Schedule, Creating a Roadmap, and Presenting Your Project.

Immerse yourself and put your ideas to the test

What kind of work environment will I be in?

You’re going to launch a media outlet within an existing ecosystem that’s teeming with a large number of other players and has a long history. Therefore, you should start by taking an interest in this ecosystem and observing who else is covering the same topics as you, who shares your values, or who uses the same format as you. This market research phase is essential to building your project. It’s also the stage where you should take a look at everything you find exciting, inspiring, and that you’d like to develop yourself!

These other media and projects should serve as a framework within which you position yourself and from which you can build your own. The goal is both to model yourself after these media and draw inspiration from them, while also distinguishing yourself from them by discovering what makes you unique. You can also:

• Take a look at what’s happening elsewhere and list the various players to create a map of your media ecosystem. Focus primarily on current players. Don’t limit yourself to players in your own country, and don’t hesitate to look at what’s happening abroad. Once you’ve created this contemporary map, you can also explore past players to gain a historical perspective and draw inspiration from them as well.
• Continue to monitor developments regularly to keep this map of your media ecosystem up to date. That way, you’ll always be able to adapt your project intelligently without ever losing touch with your media ecosystem.
• Make a note of the best practices, ideas, formats, and communication elements that you find inspiring among these organizations.
• Please note any items that you find problematic or missing.
• Think about what you’d like to do that they do—and what you’ll do differently—to clearly define the unique aspects of your project. Without this, your media outlet risks being a mere copy of other media outlets and won’t offer anything new.

👉 Staying informed about your ecosystem is an ongoing process. To that end, at the bottom of this sheet, you’ll find resources to read, listen to, and watch throughout the development of your project.

What are the technical requirements for carrying out my project?

When you embark on an entrepreneurial venture, there’s undeniably an element of dreams, ambition, and idealism. However, you need to keep your feet on the ground by testing your ideas against real needs, actual data, and the opinions of others. Stay pragmatic!

You need to give serious thought to a number of factors related to your project and your goal:

• What are the technical requirements for carrying out my project?
• What skills do I need to succeed?
• Do I need other people to carry out my project?
• How much time will I need in total before my project comes to fruition?
• What financial resources do I have available to carry out my project?

💭 Don’t forget to discuss your project with those around you—your loved ones and professionals—to test your ideas and gather constructive feedback that will help you move forward and refine your project. That said, don’t let negative criticism—especially if it seems unjustified or harsh—throw you off balance. You’re the one who ultimately judges and makes the decisions. Some feedback will be interesting and constructive; other feedback, not so much! Also, consider who is providing this feedback: remember that your project must meet the needs of a specific target audience. Therefore, seek feedback from people who resemble that target audience.

Lay the groundwork for your project

Which business model should you choose?

Depending on your target audience, the content you wish to produce, the format and medium you have chosen, as well as your financial and strategic objectives, various business models may be feasible.

To determine which business model is right for you and best suits your project, you should:

• Start with your target audiences and their needs. This is an essential and indispensable step.
• Consider the media landscape in which you operate in order to assess the various existing and effective models. Research media outlets that are structured like yours, have the same audiences, or use the same formats.
• Consider what your environment is best suited for: monetizing content, subscriptions, crowdfunding, donations, paywalls, sponsorships, etc.
• Carefully consider your audiences’ financial resources and whether or not they are willing to pay, up to what amount, under what terms, for how long, for what type of service, etc.
• Estimate the funds you need and set your financial goals for the year. Even if you don’t have exact figures or forecasting tools, you can still make this initial assessment.
• Think about what you can monetize: content, merchandise, or advertising space? Will this monetization be direct or indirect?

👉 To learn more and work specifically on your business model, you can check out our dedicated resource ‣.

Which key performance indicators should you look at?

Key performance indicators—or KPIs—are quantitative and qualitative measurement tools that help you manage your project and strategy on a day-to-day basis. They help you measure a result or impact (revenue, number of clicks, open rate, engagement rate, conversion rate, satisfaction level, degree and sense of loyalty, etc.). They’re what let you know whether you’re being effective or not, and whether you need to tweak your strategy or completely change course.

You don’t need to check all these metrics every day. You should focus on the ones that align with the goals you’ve set for yourself at a given time as part of a specific project (for example, the open rate for an email marketing campaign or your newsletter, or your website’s conversion rate). So you’ll select specific KPIs to get certain insights and review them weekly or monthly.

The decision to focus on certain KPIs shouldn't distract you from the need to conduct a comprehensive monthly review using tracking tools (such as Metorik or Instagram analytics, for example).

📌 Keep in mind: With KPIs, you can reassess your goals as a project progresses.

Refine Your Value Proposition

The value proposition is the vision behind the media outlet. It represents the “why” behind the project. To refine your value proposition, you need to define your editorial line and formats, and draft your manifesto. Check out our dedicated guide to help you through this step: Defining Your Value Proposition.

Prepare for the launch of your project

Whether you plan to launch in three months, six months, or a year, it's important to prepare thoroughly for the launch of your project. To do so, here are a few tasks:

Developing a Roadmap

A roadmap is the same as a plan. It should include your goals for the next 6 months to a year, an estimate of the time required and the people needed, a list of the challenges you’ll face, and the costs associated with each goal. To help you through this step, check out our dedicated guide, “Building Your Roadmap.”

Set Your Reverse Schedule

Reverse scheduling is one of the fundamental tools needed for effective project management. It is a practical document that allows you to plan your work by tasks, subtasks, and timeline. It is the key to developing your project step by step, day by day. To help you develop this approach, check out our practical guide designed for this purpose: Creating Your Backward Planning Schedule.

Tell us about your project

It’s essential to master the art of persuading and convincing others about your media project. Developing a framework for presenting your project is key to supporting its launch. We’ve developed a method to help you craft your pitch—check out our dedicated guide, “Presenting Your Project.”

Define Your Communication Strategy

Your communication strategy will depend on your audiences, your values, and your human, material, technical, and financial resources. It is essential for raising awareness of your media outlet and ensuring it reaches the audiences you wish to target. You should therefore start with your personas (see Defining Your Personas) and the associated framework (see Building a Framework) to determine the best way to engage your audiences.

Think about the tone you’ll use when addressing them, the style of communication, how often you plan to communicate with them, the kind of relationship you want to build with them, and, consequently, the types of content you’ll offer them. Communication is influenced by the tastes, cultural and social practices, mindsets, and sensibilities of your audience. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes!

You should also consider potential partners you could reach out to for help in reaching your audiences. This will allow you to expand your communication strategy by complementing the “You-Your Audiences” dialogue with a “You-Your Partner-Your Audiences” dialogue. Gaining the support of another media outlet or another organization (private or public) that already has a loyal community and audience is a major asset in raising the profile of your media outlet.

Based on these elements, you can begin to develop your strategy. It should be based on a target audience, a communication channel, and content tailored to that audience to promote your media outlet and showcase your content. You’ll need an editorial calendar and a comprehensive communication plan (a resource sheet will be available soon!).

👉 To learn more, check out our guides on Creating a Roadmap, Creating a Reverse Schedule, Presenting Your Project, Defining Your Personas, Creating a Canvas, and Defining Your Value Proposition.

Additional Resources

Creating My Own Media Outlet, Step by Step ✏️

A practical guide to applying the lessons from this worksheet to your own project. Click the button below to get it for free and start using it.

Use the resource

Learn more 🔎

Read, listen, learn, and gain knowledge to develop a media project.

🤗 Building a Network — There are individuals, collectives, and organizations you can turn to for support when you’re working on a media project.

• SPIIL: the Union of Independent Online News Media. It represents independent media companies that are not controlled by a majority shareholder from outside the media industry.
• The CCI: The Chamber of Commerce and Industry offers support services for business start-up projects.
• Profession: Pigiste, a nonprofit network of freelance journalists. Whether you’re a journalist, designer, or developer, there are many collectives that can help you explore your ideas.
• Media incubators and clusters: Creatis, Hotel71, Ouest Médialab, La Compagnie Rotative… there are many in France, depending on your region, your format, and your need for support. A great way to break out of isolation!

👂 What to Listen To — Here, we’re sharing the podcasts we listen to that help us develop our projects every day.

• To learn about the journeys of various founders of media projects, check out the “Chemins” podcast, produced by Médianes. Six founders of independent media outlets share how they launched their projects. The podcast features practical advice and insights from their experiences.
• To dive into the world of media entrepreneurship, listen to the StartUp podcast: a documentary series launched in 2014 that chronicles the launch of a media company that would go on to become one of the biggest success stories in audio—the podcast studio Gimlet. [In English]
• To stay even more in tune with women and their projects—whether artistic, community-based, or entrepreneurial—we recommend Génération XX, the podcast and community created by Siham Jibril. 100 episodes and just as many fascinating stories.
• To learn all about innovations and new trends in the media, as told by the people shaping them in an interview with François Defossez, head to your favorite streaming platforms to listen to Mediarama, a podcast from CosaVostra.
• Are you ready to take it to the next level? We recommend School of Splice, a themed audio series designed to help you develop your media project, launched by Splice, the Asian equivalent of Médianes [In English].

📩 Recommended Reading — Here, we’re sharing our top reads that help us stay informed on a daily basis.

• The Médianes newsletter (of course!) features the best of our industry watch, the projects that have caught our eye, and every two weeks we break down a strategy using three media outlets as examples.
• The Nieman Lab newsletter, from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Strategy, format, business model: analysis and insights into what shapes journalism today and tomorrow [In English].
• The INA’s Revue des Médias, Poynter, the Columbia Journalism Review, and Digiday are also sources of fascinating articles. You can also check out the media and tech sections of your favorite daily newspapers. And to dive into the world of entrepreneurship and innovation, Maddyness will provide you with plenty of insights.
• Splice's newsletters [in English], featuring tools and analysis on new and traditional media, launched by Splice, the Asian equivalent of Médianes. [In English]
• The Facebook group "Open Newsroom" was launched by Damien Van Achter. It's a group for discussing innovation in the media and sharing projects.
• Selon le format, support ou thématique que vous choisirez, informez-vous précisément. Vous lancez une newsletter ? Inscrivez-vous à Not a Newsletter, la newsletter mensuelle de Dan Oshinsky avec des bonnes pratiques et des outils [En anglais]. Plutôt podcast ? La newsletter Eeko Factory d’Anne-Claire Lecat vous sera utile. Plutôt média de proximité ? Suivez la veille du Festival de l’Info Locale de Ouest Médialab, la newsletter de La Compagnie Rotative ou la newsletter de LION Publishers, un réseau d’éditeurs locaux. [En anglais]
• The latest innovations in media, tools, and grants—IJNET, the International Journalists' Network, offers free advice for journalists in eight languages, including French!
• The Medialyte media newsletter. In it, American journalist Mark Stenberg explores innovators, innovations, and reasons to be optimistic about the media industry. We really identify with his analyses! [In English]
• The Ghost newsletter, from the tool of the same name, provides a weekly roundup of emerging trends, products, and ideas in the creator economy. [In English]
• Looking for great ideas on layout and design? We recommend Kéliane Martenon’s “Sur les Internets” newsletter and the “Médias” newsletter from the Datagif agency.

💻 Check it out — Below, we've shared some additional resources and tools to help you develop your project.

• When it comes to audiences, audience engagement, and—more broadly—the business and editorial model of membership, we highly recommend the Membership Guide from the Membership Puzzle Project.
• A key source is the Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. This annual report contains a wealth of data and analysis on specific formats (newsletters, podcasts, social media) and specific regions (France, the United States, etc.) [In English]

Before you go…

🛠 Have you finished reading and filling out this form? We'd love to hear your feedback! Send us a note at [email protected]. Thank you for your help, the Médianes team.