Information has a cost, and it’s not the co-founders of the online information site Days who will say the opposite. Eight years after embarking on the adventure of independent journalism, the former pens of Release Isabelle Roberts and Raphaël Garrigos are counting on a subscription campaign to welcome, by mid-March, 2,000 new faithful.
“During our previous campaign, at the end of 2020, we exceeded 10,000 subscribersdetail the two leaders. We even recorded a photo with 13,000 subscribers in March 2021, when we revealed the cuts in Marie Portolano’s documentary, I’m not a bitch, I’m a journalist. Since then, we have observed a constant slight erosion, to which we must respond with an electroshock. »
Under penalty of being in deficit in 2024 (unlike the three previous financial years and while the two current loans will be repaid), the pure player would like to quickly get back above 11,000 faithful, where, today, it has “around 9,500”. Days derive 98% of their revenue from subscriptions, 70% reinvested in episode surveys, called “obsessions” (270 to date, compared to 6 at the launch of the site), who forget their identity. “You have to keep in mind that if you screw up, it’s for good”summarize the journalists, who aim rather to “grow and hire”.
The company has 12 permanent employees including 8 journalists, the other 80 collaborators, photojournalists or editors, being occasional. The 5 co-founders (out of 9 initially) hold 69% of the capital, the Société des amis des Jours 10%, the rest going to the initial private shareholders (the individual shareholder of World Xavier Niel, the former industry boss Olivier Legrain, the banker Matthieu Pigasse, etc.).
Court costs
Beyond the need to attract new paying subscribers (from 8.90 euros per month to 150 euros annually for a rate » Support «), Days are preparing to launch a call for donations, in order to meet legal costs generated by a procedure initiated by the judge of the National Court of Asylum, Jean-Marie Argoud, implicated in an investigation by the “On the Other Side of the Counter” series.
A legal action which follows another, brought by the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon (series “Tempête sur le diocese”), at the origin of a previous call for donations. “In an economy like ours, these procedures really put us in danger”they insist.
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