“If companies have certainly contributed to pollution, we also believe that they can now represent a place of repair,”
says Pierre Louette, president and CEO of the Les Echos-Le Parisien group,
to Le
Figaro
. The press group is officially launching this Thursday a new digital media dedicated to ecological issues, 2050Now. On the menu, articles in French and English on a site devoid of advertising, and educational and awareness-raising videos on social networks, which will be accompanied by a free newsletter from June.
“Le Parisien like Les Échos have strengthened their coverage of subjects around the ecological transition over the past year, but we thought it was worth creating a specialized media,”
explains the press boss.
“2050Now will be a committed, but not militant, media which has the conviction that economic development and growth can be compatible with planetary limits
,” summarizes Vincent Giret, editorial director of 2050NOW and former information director of Radio France. This new born retains the liberal and pro-business DNA of the press group.
“The idea for us is to do solutions journalism by showing positive resolutions and initiatives
,” slips Pierre Louette, who hopes to attract younger audiences.
The media will also offer paid content, intended for the general public with “microlearning”
formats
and access to a platform bringing together job offers in France around sustainable development. Companies are not forgotten with daily professional letters addressed for example to the energy sector. 2050Now allows 12 to 18 months to deploy all of these offers.
7 to 10 million euros investment
In the midst of a recruitment phase, the media is targeting around fifteen employees on permanent contracts, including journalists. It will also constitute a network of contributors in the scientific world, engineers and impact entrepreneurs, in order to embody certain content.
“We are addressing the 'ecological class', these 14 million French people concerned by these themes in their personal and professional lives, very eager for reliable information and acquired knowledge, and equally wary of greenwashing,”
explains Vincent Giret.
The media is backed by a
“house of knowledge and acceleration of sustainable transformation”
. This “hub”, which counts Veolia, Bouygues, BNP Paribas and BCG among its founding members, will organize meetings at the Grand Palais, UNESCO or Station F and will offer training workshops in business schools or companies. . It will notably integrate the ChangeNow event, of which the press group is one of the shareholders. 2050Now and 2050 La Maison have the status of mission-driven company, and sit on a scientific orientation committee made up of a dozen experts from the academic world (Bocconi, Polytechnique, Stanford, etc.) and the research.
Overall, this represents an investment of 7 to 10 million euros over five years.
“Our shareholder, and in particular Antoine Arnault, is very involved in this new project
,” Pierre Louette would like to emphasize. The project does not start from scratch, since the partners of Netexpo, one of the assets of the Les Echos-Le Parisien group specialized in the global observation of business trends and which has a turnover of 5 million euros , become partners of 2050Now. The group has also entered into exclusive negotiations to become a major player in specialized information around sustainable development.
By 2028, the objective is to achieve financial balance, to attract 200,000 subscribers to the free 2050Now newsletter, and 2,000 subscribers to the paid verticals for businesses.