Case Study: How Digital Media Start-ups in Italy and France are Building Credibility

Even though France and Italy have well-developed media landscapes, by international standards they both rank low in terms of people’s trust in the media, and their independence from vested political and business interests.1 Against this backdrop, a contingent of emerging digital outlets in these two countries is championing editorial standards and transparent structures with a community of loyal readers. While the landscape for new ventures remains fragile, their best practices highlight strategies for building credibility in low-trust environments.

Pledging honesty and clarity

Since launching Il Post in 2010, editor in chief Luca Sofri has built a base of paying members by prioritizing clarity of information and a commitment to strong editorial standards. Notably, the outlet has upheld a responsibility to issue corrections if they make mistakes; such acknowledgments are rare in Italy. “When we created Il Post, we decided that we wanted to do something different, something that you could sum up in three different approaches. One was to be trustworthy. Second, we wanted to be clear and work on explanatory journalism in Italian news. And third, we wanted to be more contemporary about what is happening. This is something that worked for us because nobody was doing this in Italy,” explained Sofri.2

The value of trustworthy information became a matter of life and death when the COVID-19 pandemic first began to emerge in Italy, and national media outlets scrambled to report on the unfolding crisis. When Italy locked down in February 2020, the initial media response was riddled with sensationalist and contradictory information.3 Il Post launched a free daily newsletter focused on providing accurate and data-driven information about the pandemic. Sofri recounted how 70,000 people from all walks of life subscribed to the newsletter in the first two weeks of its existence, expanding Il Post’s reach beyond the small niche of readers they had cultivated over the previous decade. Sofri noted the importance of striking the right balance between the outlet’s own editorial identity and pursuing a more relatable and inclusive tone, as a broader range of people entered the fold.

Building community

Some outlets are experimenting with community-building initiatives to stay connected and relevant to their readers. Participation is at the center of the reader-funded French investigative publication Mediacités, launched in 2016 with a mission to provide “useful journalism that helps readers to participate actively and freely in the life of their city.”4 Covering the cities of Lille, Lyon, Toulouse, and Nantes, Mediacités regularly invites their members to public meetings and to participate in surveys. At the end of 2019, it launched a platform called #DansMaVille (“In My City”), which encouraged reader contributions (survey participation, personal accounts, and professional expertise, for example), in editorial campaigns for change at the local level.5

Championing independence and transparency

Trust is not only earned through quality content and engagement: it is also increasingly linked to business models and forms of governance. A trailblazer in the French independent media scene is the investigative news portal Mediapart, created in 2008, which publishes everything from declarations of interests of its journalists to subscriber numbers and turnover.6 The outlet has championed its successful subscriptions-based model as a firm guarantor of autonomy from vested economic interests, which has enabled the outlet to grow with no advertising revenue or public subsidies.7 In 2019, the founders reinforced safeguards against potential takeovers by transferring their shares to a nonprofit “fund for a free press.”8

• 1Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Digital News Report 2022, https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2022.
• 2Interview with Luca Sofri, editor in chief of Il Post, January 10, 2023.
• 3Philip Di Salvo and Antonio Nucci, “Italy: Coronavirus and the media,” European Journalism Observatory (EJO), April 6, 2020, https://en.ejo.ch/ethics-quality/italy-coronavirus-and-the-media.
• 4“Our manifesto,” Mediacités, updated April 26, 2018, https://www.mediacites.fr/forum/national/2016/11/30/notre-manifeste/.
• 5Pierre Leibovici, “#DansMaVille, a new platform to investigate our metropolises with you,” Mediacités, December 13, 2019, https://www.mediacites.fr/la-fabrique/national/2019/12/13/dansmaville-u….
• 6Edwy Plenel, “Mediapart turns 15: discover its latest figures, projects and events” (blog), Le Club de Mediapart, March 21, 2023, https://blogs.mediapart.fr/edwy-plenel/blog/210323/mediapart-turns-15-d….
• 7Marthe Rubio, “How France’s Mediapart Built a Successful News Model Around Investigative Journalism,” Global Investigative Journalism Network, March 16, 2022, https://gijn.org/2022/03/16/france-mediapart-successful-model-investiga….
• 8“Principles and objectives,” Fonds pour une Presse Libre, https://fondspresselibre.org/en/about.

Les Jours was one of the first media outlets in France to test “equity crowdfunding” as a way to diversify its capital and bolster its independence.1 This model allows readers to make a donation in exchange for an equity share in the outlet. As cofounder Augustin Naepels explained, “From the start we committed to the principle that media should be a glass house. We try to involve our community directly in our capital. And we try to be as transparent as we can about most aspects of our business, including publishing all the subsidies we receive.”2 Indeed, tax schemes introduced in France have sought to encourage more diversified investments in media: in 2015, a specific status of “entreprise solidaire de presse d’information” (solidarity press company) was introduced, granting beneficial tax deductions for individual donations.3 Alongside regular reporting on its finances, participatory financing models can be a way to build collective ownership that protects an outlet’s independence.

In their own ways, these outlets have sought to remedy some of the causes of reader disenchantment by rethinking business and editorial practices. Their commitments to more transparency, accountability, audience engagement, and quality content are key ingredients in the struggle to rebuild public trust and defend factual information in the midst of disinformation and propaganda. While they still operate within ecosystems dominated by bigger players, some are eyeing broader reach as the ultimate challenge. “Our small success is still a niche success. When we launched, I said that we wanted to be an elite product for the masses. We still have to reach the masses,” said Sofri.

• 1“The Society of Friends of the ‘Days’,” Les Jours, https://lesjours.fr/les-jours-c-quoi/amis-des-jours.
• 2Interview with Augustin Naepels, co-founder and general manager at Les Jours, and member of the board of the French independent media association SPIIL, January 27, 2023.
• 3See Law 2015-433 and Law 2016-1524; Aude Carasco, “The advantages of the solidarity press company status,” La Croix, July 2, 2017, https://www.la-croix.com/Economie/Medias/Les-avantages-statut-dentrepri….