About Médianes

Bringing out new voices, sustainably

Founded in 2020, Médianes is a not-for-profit media as well as a strategy consulting, marketing and graphic design company aimed at both established and emerging media, using its expertise to facilitate the production of quality journalism, its monetization with audiences, and the implementation of sustainable business models, with over 5,000 players in the sector. Médianes has published a book, “Créer un média”, and publishes three monitoring newsletters, a feedback podcast, and analytical articles. Médianes consulting agency, advises over a hundred organisations, including La Déferlante, POLITICO, Vert, StreetPress, Contexte, RFI, Disclose, Beaux Arts Magazine, Arrêt sur images, AOC and Reporters Without Borders.

Our vision

Since our creation in 2020, we've been supporting established and new independent media executives at every stage of their development with a strategy, marketing and design consultancy.

We like to launch new projects as much as we like to get involved in existing ones. We work with editorial and business teams who place their communities at the heart of their proposals. When you launch a project, there are many ways to get there. Médianes helps you create your own.

Newsletters, podcasts, videos, print or digital products, social media: whatever formats you promote, we can help you grow, develop, engage and monetize your audiences.

We collaborate with media in which we believe in, and hold to strong values and principles. In France and Europe, we are proud to collaborate with those who place ecological and social impact at the heart of their business.

About our media

Articles, books, strategic monitoring newsletters, practical guides, podcasts, and events: over 5,000 founders, news executives, journalists, and students turn to Médianes to develop their projects and grow their audiences.

Marketing, finance, design, management: Médianes aims to make accessible the tools needed to develop media and highlight those seeking to create a positive societal impact.

What we do

We share strategies to develop new independent media and transform established ones.

• Publishing medianes.org: A website dedicated to sharing strategies, tools, and experiences for media creation and management.
• Newsletters: Producing strategic and monitoring newsletters for media professionals, reaching over 5,000 subscribers. Every month, we share a selection of monitoring insights, tips, analyses, best practices and job offers through our strategy newsletter (Stratégie) and our monitoring newsletter (10 liens).
• Podcast: Creating Chemins, a podcast featuring experience-sharing from media professionals
• Book publishing: Released Créer un média ("Create a media outlet"), a practical guide for launching independent and socially-engaged media projects. Published in 2024, this project brings together our methodology, advice and feedback from media founders.
• Organizing events: such as The Festival Imprimé for socially-engaged journalism (2021, 2022, 2023), Media Off-Site retreats for media leaders. In 2023, we also organized our first event in New York and participated in the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, highlighting independent and socially committed media on the international stage.
• Creating practical guides and thematic resources for media project development.
• Conducting interventions in journalism schools to educate future media professionals.

About our studio

Médianes supports media leaders with marketing, design, technical, and organizational strategies to produce and fund quality journalism that resonates with audiences.

Focusing on team well-being and sustainability, we help craft strategies that align with editorial goals and audience needs.

Through various formats—newsletters, podcasts, videos, print products, events and social media—we help media grow, engage, and monetize their audiences independently.

What we do

We supports leaders and their teams with marketing, design, technical, and organizational strategies

• Strategic consulting: Guiding media organizations to build sustainable and ethical business models.
• Marketing and audience engagement: Helping media grow, engage, and monetize their audiences.
• Design services: Crafting visual identities, websites, newsletters, and print materials for media clients.
• Technical support: Building digital products and platforms tailored for media organizations.
• Training and education: Providing workshops, masterclasses, and the dedicated "Le Programme Médianes" for emerging media projects.
• Content creation: Producing resources on media entrepreneurship and management.

Our references

We work with over 100 newsrooms, with at least 70% being impact-driven projects.

From major media outlets to independent creators, journalism schools, and incubators, we have partnered with a diverse range of clients across France and Europe, including: RFI, France 24, POLITICO, Libération, euradio, Mediabask, 60 Millions de Consommateurs, Beaux Arts Magazine, Reporters Without Borders, La Déferlante, Vert, StreetPress, Disclose, Contexte, Arrêt sur images, AOC, The Balkans Voices (CFI), The Dial, Basta, Kometa, Les Jours, etc.

⟶ To discover our work, you can have a look at our case studies [French]

Le Programme Médianes

In 2024, we launched Le Programme Médianes, a collective support program dedicated to the founders of emerging, independent, and socially engaged media outlets.

In each edition of the program, ten selected founders receive support for nine months from our team and a network of media experts to develop their projects through masterclasses, workshops, and individual follow-up.

Covering areas such as marketing, administrative and financial management, leadership, monetization, communication, and visual identity, Le Programme Médianes empowers leaders to step back, deepen their knowledge in essential areas for their media's development, and elevate their projects to the next level.

But also...

• Pays, a magazine about territories. In 2020, we co-founded the biannual magazine Pays, a journalistic guide that focuses on a new territory with each issue. This experience allows us to stay closely connected to the realities of the media we support.
• Media Off-Site, exploring new paths for the media sector. In June 2024, we launched the first edition of Media Off-Site with our partners: a two-day retreat bringing together media leaders outside their newsrooms to share their challenges, taking the time to reflect and debate openly.
• A newsletter of case studies and behind-the-scenes insights. To keep up with Médianes' news, announcements, projects, and expertise, we share a monthly newsletter with over 2,000 media leaders, marketing, digital, and product managers, offering a look behind the scenes of our work.

Our value proposition

Building sustainable, ethical models with full independence.

Audiences first.

We guide media in building economic models focused on audience support—through donations, subscriptions, or memberships—rather than relying on advertising or shareholders. This approach ensures quality journalism that is both sustainable and audience-driven.

Focus on management.

We believe that a sustainable business depends on stable teams. We prioritize mental health, organization, and transparent, methodical, and supportive work cultures. Our goal is to align the ambitions of leaders with the needs of both their audiences and teams.

A product-based approach to media.

We are convinced that editorial projects should be conceived at the crossroads of journalism, design, marketing and technology, at the service of audiences.

A toolbox.

We believe media should be independent of platforms, third parties, and even providers like us. Through training and knowledge-sharing, we empower newsrooms to adopt our methods and become fully self-reliant, with the resources to build sustainable models.

Our principles

We no longer identify with today's news outlet models—be it their content or their strategic, economic, and managerial approaches.

In France and Europe, Médianes proudly supports independent media that prioritize environmental and social impact and serve disadvantaged and minority communities. We are dedicated to fostering more equitable journalism and helping build new, sustainable models that ensure quality journalism responsive to its audience.

Our mission is rooted in three core principles: pluralism, freedom to inform, and independence—vital to a healthy democracy, especially amid rising threats and media consolidation.

We advocate for values such as feminism, ecology, anti-racism, inclusivity, and regional representation. Our focus is on partnering with the new generation of media leaders who are redefining both content and formats.

Media are businesses, and we prioritize labor rights, mutual support, transparency, and workplace well-being as essential for a sustainable and equitable media future.

Our team

For nearly 10 years, Médianes founders has been developing projects at the crossroads of entrepreneurship, journalism and media. With complementary skills, they joined forces in 2020 to create Médianes. A team that has since grown to cover and support socially engaged journalism.

• Marine Doux, Cofounder, Editorial and Marketing Director.
• Baptiste Thevelein, Cofounder, Project Director.
• Christelle Perrin, Cofounder, Artistic Director.
• Francesca Festa, Development Director
• Juliette Cahen, Editorial manager
• Pauline Butel, Support and training manager
• Mathilde Carlier, Project manager in charge of Communications.
• Marine Slavitch, Journalist and feature editor.
• Owen Huchon, Journalist.
• Hélène Pillon, Journalist in charge of European projects.
• Gabrielle Goyer-Mével, Administrative and financial coordinator.
• Fanny Blanchard, Junior marketing and communications project manager.
• Elia Faverie, Junior UX/UI graphic designer.
• Sixtine Yung, Junior project manager.

We also benefit from the support of media professionals, whether occasionally or more regularly, on specific assignments and internal projects. Among them

• Agathe Kupfer, a media and society journalist, analyzes the marketing and editorial strategies of media outlets for Médianes.
• Maxime Loisel has worked with us in recent months on UX web projects for POLITICO, INA, and La Déferlante.
• Julia Lasry collaborates with us on projects with Fracas, La Déferlante, and Kometa.
• Julia Borel, a graphic designer and illustrator, works with us on assignments for Beaux Arts Magazine and StreetPress.

A team of freelancers also works daily on the coordination of Sphera network, which has been managed by Médianes since 2024:

• Sasha Tyan, editor-in-chief of Sphera
• Quentin Ariès, journalist
• Quentin Teissier, film and video director
• Meredith Ruleman, English journalist and translator
• Marco Carlone, Italian journalist and translator

Our business model

Médianes' core business is twofold, consisting of a for-profit studio and a non-profit media organization:

• Médianes SAS: a strategy, marketing, and graphic design studio dedicated to independent and socially-engaged media outlets. Apart from the journalists, the majority of the team is employed under this structure. Médianes SAS is funded through consulting projects the creation of digital tools for media clients, as well as a grant from the French Ministry of Culture.
• Association Médianes: a non-profit association that runs an independent media outlet recognized by the French Ministry of Culture (CPPAP). Our journalists are employed under this structure. The Médianes association is funded through media monitoring projects, translations, teaching courses at journalism schools, a grant from the French Ministry of Culture, and partial support from Médianes, the Studio. The team is currently working on increasing direct monetization sources to ensure the media's economic independence.

Contact us

• Email [email protected] and will be in touch !
• You can also follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and X.