Kan het coöperatieve model de media redden?

Médor is a quarterly Belgian and cooperative investigative and news report magazine. It was first published in 2015 and has already received a large number of awards in recognition of the quality of its content and economic and social model. Cicopa.coop interviewed one of the founders of Médor, Tiffany Lasserre, to get a better understanding of the advantages of the cooperative model in this highly particular and difficult sector, namely that of the journalistic press.

Tiffany Lasserrre is the only founding member who is also a full-time employee of the cooperative. She has been involved in Médor since its very beginning and she is now its head of communication and publication. As such, she is an ideal person to talk to us about the creation of this magazine, which is unique in its kind in the French-speaking part of Belgium.

Indeed, whilst the majority of Médor’s members are its readers and the arrangements for the involvement of the self-employed workers (the journalists) would appear to be of a hybrid nature or even foreign to the typologies of cooperatives represented by CICOPA, their experience resonates strongly with the cooperative model as a tool at the service of the needs of the journalists and an independent press.

Today, on average, Médor has 2,500 subscribers and sells 4,500 copies of each issue through bookshops. When asked how Médor is doing in 2018, Tiffany replies that, “now the challenge is to take things to the next level!"