Rarely has a press title aroused such enthusiasm when it was announced. One week after unveiling the monthly launch at the end of June Epsiloon, the 28,000 subscriptions have already been reached, proof of the interest of the French in science. At the origin of this project: Emmanuel Mounier, boss of the Unique Héritage Média (UHM) press group, already owner of children’s publications (Papum, Apricot, Mickey’s Diary, Scrooge Magazine…) and scientists for 8-25 year olds (How it works, Understand everything junior). “When I was 10, I was already reading ‘Science et Vie’. Later, I tried to buy it from Mondadori but they were already in advanced discussions with Reworld Media, they did not follow up. “ affirms Emmanuel Mounier. The takeover by Reworld created strong tensions within the editorial staff, whose director Hervé Poirier preferred to leave in September 2020, followed in January by the editor-in-chief Mathilde Fontez then nine tenured journalists. We find them all in the adventure Epsiloon. “We bet on the idea that there was a demand for scientific news, Mathilde Fontez notes. AT cause of the Covid and before that, of global warming. These scientific questions are no longer separate. We thought we had to offer readers something more radical, more modern, more anchored in the world. “
We feel that the readers have a lot of expectations, it puts a lot of pressure. But we are experienced journalists, we have 10, 20 years of science journalism behind us.
Mathilde Fontezto franceinfo
“We are also quite calm about our ability to tell stories, check information, make phone calls to researchers, says the editor-in-chief. And with UHM, we have the assurance of having the means to produce quality, original, certified information. “ In the 1st issue, which will appear at the end of June, readers will find a survey of universal adolescence. This period of life does not only affect humans, vertebrate animals also go through this mutation. For example, mice abuse alcohol and chimpanzees go out in groups.
This departure on the hats of wheels, “which we absolutely did not expect”, will allow a faster development of the brand Epsiloon : “The objective is to go further than the magazine alone. ‘Epsiloon’ will be deployed on other types of content: podcasts or videos. Given the success of this campaign, we will be able to accelerate diversification, probably from this year”, rejoices Emmanuel Mounier.
