Cécile Sourd is the new CEO of the independent French investigative online newspaper Mediapart. Created 15 years ago by Edwy Plenel, the newspaper had more than 200,000 paying subscribers at the end of 2022 and has been owned since 2019 by the Fonds pour une presse libre which is a not-for-profit structure dedicated to serving the freedom and plurality of news organisations. Cécile became Chief Financial Officer at Mediapart in 2018 and was named chief executive in February 2023. Previously, she was teaching and researching on gender, politics and journalism and was also chief of staff in the public administration for 10 years.
With high inflation and a looming recession, legacy revenues in accelerated decline, online advertising primarily going to platforms, and digital reader revenues growing only at some titles in a winne...