Set a date with your audience

No. 130 — SEPTEMBER 24, 2026

Set a meeting

Hello, everyone,

To escape increasingly opaque platforms, many independent European media outlets are returning to the field. Whether it’s a festival, a live performance, or a joint event organized by several newsrooms, in this fourth episode of our case study series, we examine how about ten of them are using live journalism to reconnect with their audiences.

On the studio front, we're revisiting our work with La Croix to finally make its graphic guidelines usable on a day-to-day basis.

And also: high school students who read *Le Monde*, a call to action by 28 media outlets regarding AI, *Fracas* joining *StreetPress*, and the 10th anniversary of *Les Autres Possibles*.

Enjoy the read,

MARINE DOUX, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF MÉDIANES

The Strategy

Ideas for Your Media

Schedule a meeting with your audience

Bringing together 450 people in Toulouse, adapting its editorial approach to a ticketed festival, and uniting several local newsrooms for an event with national reach: live journalism takes many different forms, but above all, it addresses the same need to reconnect with its audience.

Finding Your Good Reason

It all starts with a need: to connect with your audience, to thank your donors, or to mark a major editorial milestone. The format comes next, and there are many options: a coffee gathering with readers, a guided walking tour, a festival, or a live performance can all serve this purpose equally well, regardless of the size of your editorial team.

Be realistic about the format

It’s better to start with what you have than to jump into an overly ambitious format just because it’s trendy. A one-time event creates a sense of exclusivity; a videoconference reaches beyond its local base; a recurring event establishes a habit but is costly to maintain over the long term: choose wisely.

Capitalizing on the Post-Event Period

Acknowledgments, a call to action, and collecting immediate feedback: what happens after the event is just as important as the event itself when it comes to turning a great experience into lasting engagement. Then it’s time to measure the impact!

This issue continues our monthly series of case studies on the independent European press. You can find the first three episodes on our website.

From the studio's perspective

A GLANCE AT A COMPLETED PROJECT

Your media outlet has a style guide. But is it actually being followed?

At La Croix, between the print edition, the website, newsletters, and campaigns, there had been a proliferation of interpretations: more than sixty shades of color, and a profusion of logos and post formats. The result: wasted time, and a readership that no longer always knew who was speaking to them.

The idea: to build on what already existed and the teams’ needs through a questionnaire, workshops with the relevant teams (subscriptions, donations, marketing, product, and communications), and an audit of working files and practices. The result: a common foundation and five sub-guidelines, validated step by step.

A style guide is only useful if it can be easily applied on a day-to-day basis and if it evolves with the media outlet. At La Croix, the usage rules are now incorporated into templates and stored in a shared library, and the various content sources are more clearly identified. For example, anything related to subscriptions is recognizable at a glance.

On Our Radar

What We're Reading Right Now

Young people don't read newspapers anymore? Not so fast.

SIMON BRIOLE, JULIA CAGÉ, ANDREA PRAT / VOXEU & CEPR

A study conducted in 243 French high schools, involving more than 9,600 students, shows that offering a free subscription to *Le Monde* encourages young people to read the news. Seventy percent of the students who were offered the subscription activated it, and the percentage of those who cited a newspaper as one of their main sources of news doubled, rising from 20% to over 40%. However, only *Le Monde* benefited from this: readership of other publications did not increase.

The music press is losing its enthusiasm

JIL MAPES / HEARING THINGS

Brooklyn Vegan, Alternative Press, Revolver: Several major independent music publications are laying off staff or drastically reducing their workforce. These publications seemed solid, with a very loyal and engaged audience. For the owners of these media outlets—some of whom are themselves affiliated with giants like Live Nation—audience numbers matter little when compared to growth and profitability.

Our Latest Posts

It's homemade

Resting: A Job in Its Own Right

Marine Doux / MÉDIANES

After a busy year, Marine Doux reflects on her unconventional leadership style. Drawing on her reading, personal experiences, and practical advice, this column makes the case for rest as essential to the healthy growth of a media outlet—both for oneself and for one’s team.

Stepping Away from Social Media, Taking the Stage

OWEN HUCHON / MIDFIELDERS

Faced with a web dominated by GAFAM, the media are returning to the front lines. By organizing events and taking the stage, they are freeing themselves from opaque intermediaries and reconnecting with their audience. But which audience?

In Brief

THAT WAY, YOU'LL KNOW

1. MOB, RSF, and euradio: These media outlets are hiring. Check out their job openings.

2. Les Autres Possibles, a media outlet supported by Médianes, is celebrating its 10th anniversary and launching a subscription campaign.

3. Fracas, a media outlet dedicated to environmental issues, joined StreetPress after facing several financial difficulties that nearly brought the project to an end.

2. Twenty-eight independent media outlets (including Mediapart, Reporterre, Vert, Basta!, and others) are issuing a call to civil society in the face of the “steamroller of artificial intelligence.”

5. Seven local investigative media outlets are launching “On a déjà essayé” to conduct joint investigations across France into the far right ahead of the upcoming presidential election.

See you on Monday!

for the next edition

Thank you for your messages, which have helped us enrich this newsletter. We’d also like to take this opportunity to welcome the teams at Le Courrier, Radio France, and Reporterre, as well as everyone who has recently joined us.

We’ll be back on Monday with the latest issue of our industry news newsletter, Les 10 Liens, and on October 22 with our edition of Coulisses. Not yet subscribed to all our publications? Update your preferences so you don’t miss them!

This newsletter was prepared by Dorine Planté and Agathe Kupfer, along with the team at Médianes.

Médianes

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