Created ten years ago, Contexte, the digital media on public policies has found its audience and a profitable model. Refusing any takeover, it is developing solo.
Jean-Christophe Boulanger and Clémentine Forissier had a good nose, about ten years ago, by investing in the niche of the production of public policies. The subject, dry at first glance, allows to tell from the inside, in Paris or Brussels, the path of public decisions. The fifty journalists of the editorial staff of Contexte, a pure player digital media, decipher technical documents, internal positions or declarations of parliamentarians. And their analyses sell at a high price: the average cost of a subscription is 7,000 euros.
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Contexte’s core target is companies that gravitate around regulation decided by the public sphere. Lobbying firms, lawyers, consultants, investment funds, etc. account for 65% of the 1,400 subscribing organizations. The remaining 35% are public actors (administration, parliamentary assistants, ministerial offices). The online media claims 12,500 paying subscribers to its newsletters, sent every morning before 8 a.m.
“No need for a billionaire”
At 44, Jean-Christophe Boulanger, the CEO, savors his success from the headquarters of Contexte, in the Xe arrondissement of Paris. “We went against the discourse that it is impossible to create a quality independent media and be profitable. I am proud to show that we do not need a billionaire to have a media that works.”
Created in 2013, the group achieved profitability for the first time in 2021, before repeating the feat in 2022. But the heavy investments made last year, including 25 recruitments (to exceed one hundred employees), put it in the red: 1.5 million euros of loss for 8 million in turnover.
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However, the title claims more than 40% growth on average over the past three years. And it has launched three new[…]
- challenges.fr
