The feminist magazine “Causette” becomes 100% digital but does not want to “leave out the readers of the paper version”

Christine Turk is the new editorial and digital director of the Hildegarde group, which has the magazine in its portfolio Chat, created 15 years ago, and which has seen its paper version disappear in favor of a digital-only version. She assures that the magazine will continue its work of highlighting all the subjects that revolve around women and feminism and appeals for subscriptions or donations so that the title continues.

franceinfo: It’s always a little sad to see a title disappear from newsstands. It was no longer financially possible to continue the paper?

Christine Turk: It was complicated. Today everyone heard that there was a crisis on paper that affects the entire profession. For Chat, this represented more than €150,000 over a single year. There is the price, but also the distribution because the kiosks, unfortunately, disappear one after the other. And when you are a media outlet, you have to be able to speak to as many people as possible, to be easy to access and we were no longer able to be that way.

The first feminist media in France, in 2009, was you!

Exactly, 15 years ago. We were considered to be the bible of feminism in France by an English newspaper at the time. We were quite proud. We were the first even before #MeToo. Chat also made it possible to treat general information in a different light, with something different on subjects like money.

Now, there are feminist topics everywhere, including in the general press. There is still room for Chat ?

There is a place that is extremely important. One of the reasons why we went 100% digital was obviously this paper crisis. But a crisis, sometimes, can also be an opportunity to modernize and enable superior developments. What we save on paper will allow us to go more digitally. Today, it is essential. When you talk about the proliferation of content on feminism, we can talk about the media, but we can also talk about influencers. We can talk about everything that’s happening digitally and there are a lot of extremely popular topics. We clearly feel that there is an appetite for that.

So there aren’t too many people?

There are a lot of people and that’s a good thing. But we need to have someone who sheds light. We need to have someone who will take a step back and Chat being IPG (General Press Information) since its creation as The worldfranceinfo…

Do you receive state aid?

We receive aid, but above all it is because we are considered an essential media in the landscape. Sometimes we need to take a step back and we need to have journalistic teams that work differently, both in an emergency and by taking the time to deal with the subjects, to investigate, to investigate. and that’s what we’re going to continue by offering it digitally.

Is this transition to all digital a chance to rejuvenate your readership?

“We preferred to invest in our editorial team because otherwise, we would have had to reduce this presence and we preferred to maintain the content and unfortunately stop the paper.”

Christine Turk, editorial and digital director of the Hildegarde group

at franceinfo

It is a chance. But it’s true that where we are a little sad and I want to say it to our readers who learned the news in the last magazine, is that we don’t at all want to leave them behind. side. We know that there is a sadness among paper lovers. We were forced. If we could have kept everything, we would have. As soon as we can, we may put end-of-year albums, special issues and special issues back on the newsstands. But we still need to find a certain balance.

You also say our readers! So there are readers of Chat ?

Exactly. There are around 10 to 15%. What we want is to reach as many people as possible and support this revolution.

It’s important that men get involved in this movement!

I think it’s an important fight, that we take them with us in this change in society. Chat was created for that, to think a little more feminine, feminist and to change ideas on certain subjects which are important and serious. We need to evolve, for example, on all subjects that concern incest, it needs to stop and we need to do it together. Obviously women must fight, but men must hear and fight alongside them. Digital will allow simpler access.

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