Definitely this beginning of September is my French “month”: many fairs, events and interviews in Paris and Lyon. Let’s start with the independant new magazine that rocks the French feminine press, Causette! Subtil and sexy cool for women with a brain “from 15 to 91 years old“, adds Berangere Portalier, the bubbly chief editor. “We make the paper we’d like to read“. And we “normal but not banal girls” (in the magazine charter), we do love Causette!
– Boys buy Causette for their girlfriend too. Greg and Gilles are the founders of the magazine. Greg is a press enthusiastic. He noticed his girlfriend didn’t have anything to read. He designed a false cover that women really liked. Then it took us one year and half from the idea to the magazine archievement. We were wondering : « will my sister read this? ». And we decided to develop more a human approach.
Is Causette a feminist magazine – I want to precise for me feminist is not an insult, neither against men? Yes, Causette is a feminist. The word has been misused, I really hope we’ll success to rehabilitate it! We really take care not being overlooked in politics associations. We could be nice partners, that’s it.
What is your background? Anthropology, Greg too. I’ve been a student during a long time, I am a great disciple (laughs). I didn’t learn journalism. I was a chief editor (video editing). Liliane, the other chief editor came from Charlie Hebdo (the famous French satirical comics magazine in the 70’s-80’s).
What’s making Causette different? Causette wants to favour a subjective writing. And to create an empathy and to make a literary effort, without giving any lesson to readers. The magazine sections change in every (or almost) issue! The magazine doesn’t look like what we were looking for at the beginning. I think it is better (smile). We do the paper we enjoy reading. We’ve reinvented almost everything. This hand made part makes us different. We need to keep that. We are free, cause we are shareholders of the magazine. We started six people with 90.000 euros. Today we believe more in Causette than two years ago!
Do you have time to write? I am the one who organizes everything. I write a little and I’m not sure about my writing. Liliane writes a lot. But I like both organizing and writing.
It seems to be not so far from editing? Yes, in English it’s the same word : chief editor ! It’s really near the editing, we work with different pieces to bring together and organize.
Causette in the future? We have so many ideas. We try to be a little be wise (laughs). Making things we really do know. For instance, it’s press. But we defenitely want to develop the website.
The press likes you, don’t you? Yes, they do. They really like us, we have lots of good articles. Journalists present Causette as a freedom space in the French press. We created a kind of niche. Now I say to myself: you can die (laughs).
A success story? Causette made me grown. It’s really rewarding for me. I have insomnia… I want to stay human, near people.
Now you can believe me : Causette rocks, doesn’t it? Big thanks Berangere!
Related posts : INTERVIEWS
