PARIS — French daily newspaper Le Monde is expanding its lifestyle vertical with the launch of its first physical event inspired by weekend magazine M and its subsidiary Le Goût de M.
Le Goût de M Festival, which will be held at the École Duperré school of fashion and applied arts in Paris this weekend, will feature speeches by designers Simon Porte Jacquemus, Matthieu Blazy, Marine Serre, Julien Dossena, Rabih Kayrouz and Pierre Hardy, as well as designers. various other areas around the theme of sustainability.
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Marie-Pierre Lannelongue, deputy editor-in-chief of Le Monde and M le magazin du Monde, said that she and her team will meet with readers for the first time since the weekly magazine started publication 13 years ago to cover news and lifestyle.
“We are trying to provide a live M experience with this event and the goal is to grow the M brand,” he explained. “Having the activity in a school allows us to organize it like a table of contents in a magazine. “There are shorter formats and longer formats, so it’s like a 3D magazine.”
The two-day festival takes its name from Le Goût de M, which started life as a podcast and has featured as a dedicated vertical on Le Monde’s homepage since 2022. A paper supplement featuring four separate covers devoted to fashion, design, food and travel is published three times a year.
Lannelongue, who started her career at Elle magazine, said that when M was first founded, there was a strong bias against fashion journalism in the newsroom, especially given Le Monde’s reputation as the newspaper of choice for France’s left-wing intellectual elite.
M magazine has seen steady growth in print and online, with the growth of the luxury sector as well as increasing interest in lifestyle issues among young and female readers.
It currently reaches 1.6 million readers per week, with a circulation of approximately 490,000 copies in the second half of 2023, according to the Alliance for Print and Media Data (ACPM). Le Monde and the magazine have a total of 607,000 subscribers.
“It works because we report these stories with the same journalistic integrity as we report the news. Readers are beginning to see Le Monde as a trusted source for lifestyle topics and a guarantee of quality. “Another reason why it works is that people are looking for light relief, and that’s something we’ve seen very clearly since Covid-19,” he said.
“You can talk about fashion, food and travel while being aware of the terrible events in the world, from wars to the rise of the far right and climate change. In this context, doing a fashion cover is not always easy, but now I feel more comfortable doing it because people want it. “Le Monde has made great progress,” he added.
Elisabeth Cialdella, managing director of M Publicité at Groupe Le Monde, reported that M magazine’s advertising revenues will increase by 18 percent in 2023 compared to 2019.
“Its success is based on a base of loyal brands representing 60 percent of the portfolio and its capacity to conquer new advertisers thanks to its dedicated readership and originality of its editorial content,” he said.
It is expected that 2 thousand visitors will come to the festival with events themed “second life, repair, glorification”. Serre will lead a workshop on upcycling, while Blazy from Bottega Veneta will talk about combining craftsmanship and innovation. Rabanne’s creative director Dossena will chat with director and actress Géraldine Nakache.
A few lucky participants will have their portraits taken by Brigitte Lacombe and Malick Bodian, while experts will give demonstrations on weaving, embroidery and engraving.
The event’s partners include Nespresso, which launched a compostable coffee capsule; Refashion, an eco-organization accredited by the French authorities to meet the textile industry’s legal obligation to sustainably manage waste; other brands, including resale platform Leboncoin and Diptyque, which recently launched its first refillable candle.
Lannelongue said the event was designed to reflect M’s editorial approach at a time when the boundaries between lifestyle journalists and influencers are increasingly blurring. “It’s less about celebrities and more about originality and objects that stand the test of time,” he said.
Noting that strong media brands are increasingly diversifying into new areas, including clothing, the festival’s M.
“If you’re a fairly large and powerful media brand today, you have to evolve your brand and potentially find other sources of revenue,” he said. “So the aim is to grow our brand and expand our scope. That’s why it’s important to have a strong editorial slant, so that both speakers and listeners can feel that this is truly an M experience.”
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