After Maverick, the weekly directed by Christophe Barbier and expected for mid-November, the kiosks will welcome a newcomer from 1er December. Launched by two former journalists from the Reuters agency, William Emmanuel and François Thomazeau, respectively publishing director and editorial director, Bastille wants to be “Humanist” and “Benevolent”.
Aspiring to “Tell the world through people”, the monthly wants to be devoid of any ideological posture and of any desire to deal with the presidential campaign which is opening up, but open to long-term stories, and determined to carry “Special attention to those who are committed to improving the lot of humanity”. “The French offer of news magazines is very vast, but we had difficulty finding the one we really wanted to read”, justify Mr. Emmanuel and Mr. Thomazeau, citing, among their references, The New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar or Vanity Fair.
A pre-subscription campaign (the one-year commitment costs 88 euros) opened on Monday, October 18, on the magazine’s website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook, with the hope of quickly reaching between 15,000 and 20,000 subscribers. The first printing is expected to amount to 25,000 copies, while each issue will be sold at a unit price of 8 euros.
The capital of the company, wholly owned by William Emmanuel, who continues his activity as a financial consultant, amounts to 37,000 euros. “Investors, including three former directors of the CAC 40, have made a commitment to support us in case of need”, he announces, affirming that he will remain, whatever happens, the majority shareholder. Among these potential supporters is the businessman Hervé Vinciguerra, generous donor of the anti-corruption association Anticor, which has long remained anonymous and whose participation in the financing of the information site Blast, led by Denis Robert, had been controversial in the spring.
Update long formats
Since then, according to our information, Mr. Vinciguerra has invested, through the Endowment Fund for the freedom to inform Héliee that he created, in the online media Streetpress, and offered his help, in vain, to QG – Free media, by Aude Lancelin. “If there was to be the slightest desire to influence the editorial line of the magazine, I would go”, warns François Thomazeau.
Long matured (a first pilot issue would have been designed in 2014), this magazine of around one hundred pages aims to bring long formats and writers’ articles up to date, “Like those of [Albert] London, [Antoine de] Saint-Exupéry, [Joseph] Kessel, [André] Malraux… ”, continues the journalist, himself the author of multiple books, including many detective stories.
Jean-Christophe Rufin (2001 Goncourt Prize for “Rouge Brazil”) will chair the editorial committee, which is currently being set up, while Régis Jauffret (“Sévère”, “Claustria”) will sign the main article of the first issue. Screenwriters and writers Patrick Raynal and Jean-Paul Delfino, as well as novelists Louise Chennevière and Clarisse Gorokhoff, will be among the magazine’s ten regular authors. The writer Eric Faye will host the cultural section, where we will notably find the signatures of Michel Palmiéri on cinema and Pierre Sérisier for television series. “In a year, whoever has read all the Bastille will have a fairly accurate idea of the world in which he lives ”, claim its founders.