Marsactu Wireless

Someone who will log into our website from the Wi-Fi of the place won’t see our paywall. Community centers would then allow their users to enjoy quality journalism for free.

Marsactu Wireless aims to bring online investigation to the most concerned citizens. We will open free reading points in their everyday places like cafés and community centers, with specific work to make this offer visible, including workshops with journalists.

Target group

As local media who cares about its impact, that question is critical. Observing the geographical distribution of our members is a source of humility. Our 2000 paying subscribers in Marseilles city center represent 1 % of the population (less than 15 years excluded). Quite good for an independent media like Marsactu. Yet, in the north of the city, which gathers unemployment and precarity, we reach seven times less people. This rate is almost as low in the east, more mixed from a social point of view but also peripheral to the city.

Goals of the project

Our main ambition with Marsactu Wireless is to bring our work to a broader audience, focusing on districts we cover but are less read. In the partnered social centers, Marseilles inhabitants of very different backgrounds and wealth will have free access to high quality information. We plan to open Marsactu Wireless in about thirty places, and have hosted a dozen workshops, to reach several thousands of new readers.

About the media outlet

Marsactu is a local independant online media, based in Marseille. Since 2010, we cover all general interest topics such as housing, transport, education, environment with a focus on investigation and field report, going beyond PR discourses. We employ seven fulltime journalists and work with a dozen of freelance to publish a daily edition, a weekly newsletter and a podcast. Our main revenue source is our 5000 subscribers and we refuse ads and local subsidies.