Define your value proposition

A practical guide to defining your value proposition, the essential foundation for building your media's identity.

1. The Value Proposition: What Is It?

Your value proposition is the promise of the value you will deliver to your readers and customers. It must concretely address your audience's needs and align with the vision your media outlet embodies.

The value proposition is the “why” behind your project. It is a key concept that addresses the media outlet’s purpose—that is, the factors that motivated the founder to get started (and to keep going!). By reflecting on the mission that drives the project leader—what they hope to achieve—the goal is to identify the problem that the media outlet is designed to solve. In fact, you cannot define it without keeping in mind the audience you wish to serve.

Defining your value proposition is not a secondary practice: you must always be able to return to it and remain consistent with it, even if you refine it over time. It is what defines the identity of your media project in all respects (editorial, visual, marketing…)

2. Why Define Your Value Proposition?

To define your project’s value proposition, you need to answer the following question: What key need does my project address, and what makes it indispensable?

By answering this question, you define both your project’s mission and the values it upholds. This is an essential prerequisite for:

• Grasp the editorial and visual identity of your project ;
• Define your positioning;
• Identify your editorial markers ;
• Refine your project's editorial direction and be able to summarize its editorial line;
• Write your media's manifesto.

3. Developing Your Value Proposition

To define the vision and mission of your project and clarify the media outlet’s value proposition, you can use an educational resource: the Value Proposition Canvas.

This means addressing:

• The project's vision and mission;
• The project's targets, their needs and their uses ;
• The editorial product;
• The values that drive your project, the areas of interest you cover, your editorial direction;
• Editorial markers, which constitute your media's brand;
• Editorial and visual identity;
• Its positioning, tone, and brand embodiment;
• Your project's manifesto.

Defining Editorial Guidelines

Positioning, tone, format, persona, signature style, colors, logo, typefaces… To define your media brand, you need to ask yourself the following questions: What are the editorial hallmarks of your project? What makes it unique and so special?

Editorial markers refer to all identity markers that are:

• Editorials: angle, tone, formats, byline.
• Visual elements: colors, logo, typefaces.
• Sound: ambient sound, music selection.

Defining Your Project's Identity

This step is important because it helps you stand out in the media landscape. Readability, clear hierarchy, and accessibility are key factors in making your media platform appealing. This allows you to build a strong media brand and, in turn, demonstrate the strength of your value proposition.

1. Editorial Identity: To define your editorial identity, you need to ask yourself who your target audiences are; to do this, we encourage you to create personas. Next, you need to answer the following questions: What are your editorial territories? Positioning, formats, angles, competitive landscape? Tone? Brand persona? Editorial line?

2. Visual identity: logo, colors, typefaces, paper, format, layout, type of illustrations or photographs, graphic design of the website and newsletter, and social media thumbnails—all of these elements contribute to building the media outlet’s visual identity and making it recognizable.

3. The Manifesto: Finally, drafting your manifesto is an essential step that aims to articulate in writing the purpose of your media outlet. It will then be published on your website or in your “About” section.

4. Our Educational Resource

The Médianes team has prepared a handy document to help you apply the lessons from this fact sheet to your own project.

5. Learn More

• To define the mission and vision of your project—two key elements of your value proposition—the News Product Alliance has published a short guide to help you develop your editorial product.
• On starting a media venture: Check out our guide on the 5 key steps to follow when launching your project.
• On identifying and understanding your audiences: check out our practical guide on personas.