We met on a cold Friday morning, in a noisy café in Paris’ 15th arrondissement. Coffee in hand, Bérénice Lajouranie, Managing Director of the daily business newspaper Les Echos, accompanied by Violaine Degas, Digital Director, begins to share the inside story of their recent quest to reach new audiences. Recounting the context and vision behind this major digital project, I learn about the reasoning behind this work, how it unfolded, the KPIs measured and results attained.
Bérénice, thank you for agreeing to this interview! So you’re in charge of Les Echos, and your digital edition seems to be doing rather well – audience figures are still very high…
…and you rank 3rd among French business sites in the ACPM rankings, with 25 million visits in October 2023, far ahead of others in the industry, and very close to the top 2, which have significantly fewer, if any, premium articles closed to non-subscribers.
Why did you decide that you needed to reach new audiences?
Bérénice, Managing Director: It’s true that when people read us, they like us. Once we’ve managed to attract a reader, we keep them! We have two types of subscriptions: individual subscribers (who pay for it themselves), and B2B subscriptions for companies who offer a subscription to employees.
