Editors

French digital hub OWNI unveils innovative business model for news

World’s first hybrid for-profit and non-profit model for quality journalism announces new round of financing

Paris, France, April 27, 2010 – French digital hub and consulting firm 22mars announced a new round of financing with an offer of 10% of its capital for 600,000 euros to secure a sustainable stream of funding for its innovative hybrid model for quality journalism.

Founded in 2008 by influential 32-year old blogger Nicolas Voisin, the firm has an innovative hybrid structure composed of the for-profit pole, 22mars, and its non-profit pole OWNI which is focused on high-quality online content and aggregation of its experimental digital lab. The value-added of the non-profit structure is that it can, under French law, benefit from micro-financing which is eligible for tax rebates of up to 141%.

OWNI (which is a play on the French word for UFO – ovni – and refers to the fact that it exists in a niche of its own) is a collaborative media platform focused on the future of news, social engagement, journalism, tech and digital issues sourced from an alliance of more than 500 influential Francophone bloggers. Open source and published under a Creative Commons license, OWNI is a pioneer in link and database journalism (see interactive maps of French polling stations or CCTV-equipped high schools). OWNI has just re-launched a new look featuring cutting-edge design and user interface. Content is clustered around themes and times (with daily, weekly and monthly editions), allowing for a unique, in-depth browsing experience.

Voisin’s track record includes a highly successful citizen web TV rolled out during the last French presidential elections in 2008.

OWNI will soon scale up across Europe thanks to the current round of fund-raising, and thanks to the efforts of Adriano Farano, co-founder of pan-European media Café Babel and next year’s Knight Fellow at Stanford.

Profitable since 2009 with turnover of 234,000 euros, 22mars seeks to generate one million euros in revenue in 2012. The company was founded by Voisin, along with lawyer Franz Vasseur and Pierre Bilger, former CEO of transport and energy conglomerate Alstom.

The non-profit arms of the structure include the association OWNIeditors and the non-profit fund OWNIpedia that will finance other innovative news-related projects. 22mars will license the OWNI brand to OWNIeditors and provide technical know-how for free, while transferring 10,000 euros to OWNIpedia and lending 250,000 euros interest free to OWNIeditors.

Under French law, investments under 50,000 euros from certain categories of taxpayers (Impôt sur la fortune) are eligible for a 75% rebate because 22mars is a small to medium sized business. Furthermore, if investors donate their shares to non-profit OWNIpedia after five years, they will receive an extra 66% tax break.

“This innovative model of mixing profit and non-profit is – along with the Pulitzer-winning ProPublica – is a timely response to an industry in crisis. We believe that this model can not only be successful, but can be scaled up and adapted to many different contexts,” said Voisin.

“We are on the threshold of a new French Revolution in funding the news business,” he added.

CONTACT Nicolas Voisin nicolas@22mars