The latest scandal-exposing machine in France is an online site unafraid to tackle secret government:
Mediapart operates from a newsroom in the Bastille area of Paris. It has 46 full-time investigative journalists and 75,000 subscribers who pay 90 euros ($117) for a one-year subscription. Mediapart cleared $1.5 million in profit last year. The feisty startup is beating the more established newspapers like Le Figaro and Liberation, which are limping along with the help of government subsidies but just half the number of subscribers.
Two very Dish-like features:
Plenel says that to his surprise, people read even lengthy pieces, and they comment on them. He says there is a dialogue between Mediapart and its community of subscribers. That flies in the face of the advice he was given at the outset: that the information had to be short, flashy and free, or nobody would bother reading it.
“Internet is a chance for journalism, not the death, a chance,” he says. “Because you can organize better journalism — more sources, more documented, deeper journalism.” Plenel says the site is shooting for 100,000 subscribers, but in its quest to get there, it will never accept advertising.
We haven’t taken such an absolutist stand, but we prefer being without ads. And it looks as if we may be able to finance ourselves without them – if you keep up the subscriptions. [tinypass_offer text=”Subscribe!”]
The Dish 