– Press provides women with stupid things only! says Elisabeth Lefebvre, the editorial director of the new French women’s magazine, Eclectique. Today, the third issue is on newsstands.
– I receive messages of readers saying “At last: a magazine without celebs!”. Eclectique is for women with a higher level of education. And women who are accustomed to read the financial press and the women’s press. To every curious girls who need aestheticism and clever content. It’s a paper that respects its readers, “the latest trends far from diktats”. With Anne Lefèvre, my accomplice for many years, we’ve wondered : what can we offer?
For 30 years, Elisabeth’s created about fifteen magazines, most of them became really famous, like Côté Sud, Côté Ouest, Côté Est. She’s always kept the same principle : “never doing the same thing than the others. I am a free electron“. Young mother, she launches “Enfants Magazine still existing today“. In 1980, Elisabeth is an active woman and she doesn’t find a magazine that represents the active women like her. So she creates : “Biba, the first magazine of women working and enjoying it!“. In the 90’s, when she has her house built in the South of France, she releases Côté Sud (one of the best lifestyle and decoration magazines around the world!) : “Thanks to Côté Sud, I’ve discovered a lot about the South I didn’t know before“. And she launches Côté Ouest in 94, and Côté Est, in 99. Then Atmosphère, “the first
women’s magazine of the art of living“. She sells all of her magazines and creates in 2007, JV for the French who live in Belgium and the Belgian who like France. The list is impressive!
It is with deep humility Elisabeth answers :
– I feel more like a potential reader than a journalist. I do love my job. A job of curiosity that allows to defend my own values : roots, authenticity, curiosity and travels. In life, we are eclectic. And even more so when we travel. I like everything and I’m not only “luxury” or “adventure”.
Elisabeth and Anne have questioned the evolution of society :
– The big change is the globalisation. Today women are turning to overseas, they are more European than Franco-French. We see a big desire to leave Paris, due to the cost of property and the quality of life and the cultural life’s rebirth of provincial towns. The crisis has trivialized Tanguy’s phenomenon, family is a a crossroads of generations helping each other in a network. There is a total lack of the 50 years old women’s representation in the press.
Eclectique is transgenerational. In each issue, we discover the portrait of a woman who is “a model of intelligence and sensitivity“. In the issue out today, the Eclectique Woman is Patricia Tartour, a pioneer of travels in China and the founder of Maison de la Chine (a travel agency).
– We want to show exclusive subjects. For exemple for travel topics, I like the relationship between travel and literature. I also look for aesthetim in photos. Eclectique is a small refine magazine, a niche magazine like Côté Sud, trying to accomodate its readers. A lifestyle women’s magazine.
Many thanks Elisabeth! Today, the Eclectique third issue is on newsstands in France, Belgium and Switzerland.
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