Before leaving

DECEMBER 2025 ISSUE

Before leaving

Hello, everyone,

Just like for you, these past few days have been quite busy here at Médianes. Five years after we got started, and as we approach the end of the year, we wanted to take the time to pause, reflect on how far we’ve come… and look ahead during a team meeting.

Bringing the team together in Paris—with members coming from Brittany, Toulouse, Lille, Paris, Biarritz, and Florence—was a valuable opportunity to reconnect, align our perspectives, and put the team back at the heart of what we do.

This newsletter is part of this pivotal moment. It explores what has driven us from the very beginning: supporting media organizations through their transformations, rethinking independence beyond formats, and highlighting the editorial, strategic, and aesthetic choices that enable projects to endure over time.

From the story of how our logo came to be to fundraising campaigns, from redesigned workspaces to emerging European networks—these are all ways to resist and build.

As the year draws to a close, we wanted to share these stories with you. Because reading, supporting, creating, and guiding are all part of the same movement. And because, after five years, we are more convinced than ever that independent journalism is built collectively, over the long term.

Enjoy the read,

MARINE DOUX, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF MÉDIANES

Over in Médianes

ABOUT US

Where does the logo come from?Médianes

Five years ago, Médianes got its start: no website, no readership, no office — but late-night discussions, notebooks filled with keywords and sketches, intuitions that were sometimes vague, yet a tenacious desire: to support those who make media, across the full diversity of their professions, with high standards and kindness.

To mark our anniversary, Christelle Perrin, design director and co-founder of Médianes, tells us where our logo comes from. We didn't conceive of it as a decorative visual symbol, but rather as an attempt to give shape to what we wanted to build: a collective project, in motion, attentive to others, moving forward step by step. Before arriving at the current logo, there were trials, detours, and ideas (thankfully!) that were abandoned — which we're happy to share with you here.

In this behind-the-scenes article

, we look back at the origins of the Médianes logo, and at what it still conveys, five years on, about our approach, our support, and how we weather the ups and downs together.

To go further

• Media, studio, network: Wondering exactly what we do? Check out our About page!

• Do you need support with your artistic direction and graphic design projects? Learn more about our expertise in this area.

From the media's perspective

OUR LATEST PUBLICATIONS

Our Team's Gift Guide

BY OWEN HUCHON & THE MÉDIANES TEAM

Time is running out if you're buying gifts for the holidays. Good news: the Médianes team has put together a selection of things to give (or treat yourself to), spotted at media outlets, publishing houses, and graphic design studios. A great way to spread joy while supporting independent businesses. What more could you ask for?

Transparency, dialogue, values: how media outlets are reinventing their offices

BY OWEN HUCHON

What if media offices had become a manifesto? At a time when journalism is reinventing itself, newsrooms are rethinking their workspaces to affirm their values, their relationship with the public, and their vision of democracy.

The Team's Cultural Recommendations

BY HÉLÈNE PILLON & THE MÉDIANES TEAM

It’s the end of the year—we haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions yet, but we do have a few cultural recommendations for you. Our reporter Hélène Pillon has rounded up the team’s top picks for books, TV shows, and movies to help you wrap up the year on a high note. Not subscribed yet? Twice a month, In Vivo gives you an up-close look at European current events. Sign up!

Our approach

STUDIO NEWS

Socialter Launches Its New Campaign

Socialter, a media outlet dedicated to radical criticism and alternative perspectives, is launching a pre-order campaign for its special issue, “Resisting New Forms of Fascism,” featuring Salomé Saqué.

For this issue, Médianes, the studio, designed the graphic layouts and handled the integration of the new pre-order and crowdfunding section. Check out the page and pre-order the special issue at campagne.socialter.fr.

This launch marks the first step in a more comprehensive redesign of the Socialter website, which we are also pleased to be helping with.

To go further

• We are also pleased to support the Socialter team on other issues: this winter, we will assist the media outlet with its strategic planning and business model.

• Fundraising campaigns, website redesign, strategic transformation, project management: learn more about our studio's areas of expertise on our website.

Advertisements

THAT WAY, YOU'LL KNOW

→ Better Information to Preserve Democracy: An Interview with Francesca Festa

How can newsrooms respond to the rise of reactionary rhetoric without giving ground? Francesca Festa, director of development at [name of organization]Médianes, shared her thoughts with the teams at La Fronde, Prenons la Une, and Equipop.

→ 500 members for Vertige Media

Ils l’ont fait ! La première campagne de dons de Vertige Media, alumni du Programme Médianes vient de se clôturer avec 500 donateur·ices régulier·es. Une bonne nouvelle pour un journalisme libre, engagé et exigeant sur l’escalade… dont nous avons signé la direction artistique.

→ Sphera: Off to Milan!

StreetPress, VD News, El Salto, 444, Krytyka Polityczna… In mid-January, the Médianes team will be meeting with our nine partners to launch the 5th edition of Sphera, our European network. More information about the network is available on our “About” page.

→ The Program Comes to a Close Médianes

Vert, Les 3 Ours, Disclose, L'informé, Le Cri, Fracas, À fond, Vent debout… Last night, about 50 of us — media founders — gathered for drinks to wrap up the 4th and final edition of the Programme Médianes.

→ Les Autres Possibles trust us

We’re thrilled to begin a project with the team at Les Autres Possibles, a local, eco-friendly, and socially conscious media outlet, to strengthen the magazine’s marketing strategy. Want to learn more? Check out our previous projects in this area.

Médianes

We are a media outlet, a studio, and a network dedicated to independent journalism.