Partnerships are agreements which have spread a lot in our network, because they actually enable an antenna to become stronger and explore new opportunities for growth. Today, we are introducing an antenna that understands the importance of cooperation with other realities, namely AEGEE-Lyon, which recently signed a partnership with Le Journal International, an independent student media. Do you want to know more about it? Then check this article and meet Marine Betrancourt (President of AEGEE-Lyon) and Nathan Lautier (Editor in Chief at Le Journal International).
The AEGEEan: You signed a partnership with Le Journal International. How did you come up with this idea?
Nathan Lautier (Le Journal International): We are working in the same coworking space. With the good atmosphere there, it was impossible not to create links between our two associations which both share an international dimension.
Marine Betrancourt (AEGEE-Lyon): It was a cold monday of January and as usual, we were teasing each other on both of our associations. We had talked about it as a joke for a long time, but this time, we decided to make it happen! And here is how the magic happened! (She laughs)
Could you introduce your partner Le Journal International?
Nathan: Le Journal International is an independent media created in Lyon in 2008 by students. It went from a student-led media for students to an independent media targeting interested people in our editorial line. We write about international news that is little or not reported on by traditional media and respect three key words: international, neutral and original. It’s only available online for now. We have an average of 200 000 pages read and about 80 000 readers per month, which means a visitor read in average two articles, and we are pretty proud of it! We favour “long format” with articles of about 4000 letters, because we prefer to have quality analysis over a lot of articles.
Marine: Nathan introduced it better than I could. From my point of view, I would add that their strength is their international network of contributors and the quality of their articles in the perspective of their editorial line. It’s a really good alternative source of international news treated indepth by their contributors.
What does this partnership consist of?
Marine: Basically, AEGEE-Lyon agreed to provide with Le Journal International an article written every week by a member of AEGEE-Lyon or of our wide network. Our logo appears on their website and they reference the contributors. In this way we gain visibility. Meanwhile, we are sharing the articles as much as possible and try to raise awareness on the opportunity for members of AEGEE to contribute to Le Journal International by writing articles. We believe in the strength of AEGEEans willing to share and write about what’s happening in their community, region and country that is of interest, but is not or little treated by traditional international media. So far, we got quite some positive feedbacks of AEGEEans willing to contribute to the editorial line of Le Journal International. I want to underline that it is not a way to compete with the AEGEEan recruiting journalists for another cause. The editorial line is absolutely different. Le Journal International target consists of international news not or little treated by the traditional media.
How did you manage to sign this partnership?
Marine: We printed and signed two copies of the document. It states both our obligations to each others and all the legal aspects. Very easy since we agreed on the terms.
Would you suggest a partnership like the one you signed to other antennae?
Marine: I believe AEGEE locals definitely need to cooperate with other local organisations. The strength of our association is its wide network and range of topics targeted. In Lyon, our antenna is very small but our strength is found in the opportunity that the city council of Lyon offers us of having a students’ organisations coworking space where we get to know and work with other organisations and that is an amazing richness!
Written by Larisa Smajlagic, AEGEE-Verona