On December 2nd 2007, a new website appeared under the improbable name of Mediapart. It was, to be more precise, a pre-site, where we presented our editorial project, the journalists who were behind it and where we began a dialogue with our very first readers.
This was followed by the true launch of Mediapart, as an active online daily journal, on March 16th 2008.
The choice of name, we explained, was because it was to be a “participative” media model, and one that was very different to other media, from which it stood “apart”. Click here to view the pre-site of December 2007
Our intentions were clear and have never changed since. “We need a new press in France, and Mediapart is that project”, wrote Editor-in-Chief Edwy Plenel five years ago. “Born from an encounter between professionals from the world of journalism and specialists of the web, it aims to offer a response to the three crises – democratic, economic and moral– that undermine the quality, the utility, the honesty and the freedom of the news media in France.”
Today, this first goal has been achieved. Mediapart’s 60,000 subscribers have created its economic equilibrium, providing its total independence. An ad-free online journal managed by a company whose capital is controlled by its founders, its workforce and its partner shareholders, Mediapart can offer its readers every guarantee that its editorial choices are made by solely by its staff of journalists.
This is today an exception among the French news media which is stricken by the economic crisis and exposed to predators of all sorts who are now grabbing hold of the principal press titles. Over the last decade, prestigious newspapers have collapsed and editorial teams have been decimated by redundancy plans and recurrent financial problems.
In even less than ten years, two leading French newspapers which had previously been under the indirect control of their journalistic staff have fallen into the net of investors with no professional experience in the press or news reporting. One is Libération, bought up by banker Édouard de Rothschild, and the other is Le Monde, taken over by billionaire Pierre Bergé, banker Matthieu Pigasse and telecommunications businessman Xavier Niel. A third title, Les Échos – now the only economic and financial news daily in France – was purchased by Bernard Arnault, head of luxury goods company LVMH. There is also the example of Le Figaro, now owned by a businessman from the arms industry, Serge Dassault.
Meanwhile, there was the disappearance of the daily tabloid France Soir and financial daily La Tribune.
If anyone still had doubts about the gravity of this crisis in the press, French tycoon Bernard Tapie, the wheeling-dealing survivor of scandals, court cases and prison, who has announced his interest in buying up what’s left of the Hersant-médias group, namely its four regional dailies in southern France, La Provence, Var Matin, Nice Matin and Corse Matin, amid a battleground of political and financial conflicts (see Mediapart’s report on this here).
This capitalistic structure of the press is a deadly one for both journalists and citizens, given that what is at stake is the diversity - the pluralism - of the sources of news and information. This pluralism is unceasingly diminished by influence peddling, political interests, journalistic conformity and a lack of investment for the creation and development of new editorial content.
While prestigious press titles have also disappeared abroad, the French press is today one of the weakest in Europe. The responsibility for this is not only that of journalists. A symptom and illustration of the crisis affecting the country in its entirety, of an economic and social slide, this press now on its knees can but maintain a shallow and mediocre public debate. Just when editorial teams and their publishers should be investing significantly in resources to report, explain and debate a world that is in turmoil, the day to day life within newspapers is dominated by redundancy plans and the pressures great and small exerted on staff.
Invigorating and combative
Ever since its creation, Mediapart has consistently sounded an alarm to this state of affairs. Not to haughtily give lessons to our colleagues, but so that this debate centring essentially on issues of democracy is finally held in public. We have repeatedly maintained that the liberty of the press is not the privilege of journalists, but is the right of citizens. Just as we have often warned against a situation that sees oligarchs increasing their hold on the media, and editorial teams resigned to the status quo. This while the political powers show concern, above all else, in keeping their degree of control over the profession through a crazy system of state subsidies for the press, which this year will total 1.2 billion euros. The public, meanwhile, is increasingly deserting the newsstands.
During these past five years, Mediapart has tried to demonstrate that there is another path that can be followed. Of course, we haven’t succeeded in everything (and our readers are quick to point this out), but with the means at our disposal – including a team of 27 journalists – we have managed to create a site that offers incisive reporting and lively debate, and which is invigorating, combative and of quality.
Combative, because of the priority that is given to investigative journalism – which most other media have abandoned and, in some cases, even vilified – which allowed us to unmask the true nature of Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency. It also allowed us to expose the threat to French society that comes from the oligarchy that wants to confiscate it, operating in an alliance that brings together business and political interests and the highest offices of state. Conflicts of interest (a prudish phrase that often designates corruption) are at the heart of this new French system, where networks and cosy agreements can only flourish when they are hidden from the eyes of the public. Mediapart’s investigations have, at least, contributed to awakening a democratic debate on these issues.
Invigorating, because we have succeeded in offering an alternative to the conformism that dominates most editorial lines across the French media. Mediapart has a clearly different editorial voice, and our regular opinion-led articles provide insightful views into events that pierce well beyond the ‘right-thinking’ commentaries that abound elsewhere. Here too, the absence of engagement and pluralism of opinion among the mass media, and most notably the state-run broadcasting media, is particularly shocking.
Mediapart is a site of debate where different opinions are confronted, in which our reader-subscribers are the main participants, via both their numerous contributions to the Club section and their posted comments on articles. The diversity of arguments expressed, of interests and positions and the differences of opinions with what a journalist has written, all serve to enrich and feed constant debate.
This constant participation by our readers liberates us, the journalists, in decisions regarding our editorial line, because we are immediately involved in discussion about our choices in the commentary exchanges. Our criticism of the NATO military intervention in Libya, for example, was set out clearly, and there ensued a long debate with readers, some of whom were critical of it, others who expressed surprise or who wanted further explanation.
This dialogue is at the heart of a new journalism that we have set out to build over the past five years. It is one of equality in debate between readers and journalists, of freedom of speech for all, and of independence, with an editorial team exposed to the reactions of readers.
This first success in Mediapart’s creation must now be consolidated, to give us the means to develop our editorial content as well as the participative arena that is the Club. A number of projects are underway and important changes will appear during the first three months of 2013, beginning in January.
This development is founded solely on the support of our readers, as has our progress since December 2007; for 95% of Mediapart’s financial income is provided by subscriptions, and we must continue to attract new readers. In this, your help is crucial.
There are almost 1,000 articles and news briefs in the archives of Mediapart English (a reference to which is found at bottom of the homepage). We hope you will continue to enjoy reading Mediapart. Do spread the word!
François Bonnet, Editor of Mediapart.
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English version: Graham Tearse