Vision of the news
Contexte provides and dissects political news where it happens.
Our ambition: to be useful to all readers who need accurate, incisive political information well in advance of public decision-making, so that they can do their job properly.
We talk about politics in a different way: beyond the small talk and the froth, we tell the story of what goes on inside the corridors of power, looking at the technical details and explaining what’s between the lines.
Clémentine Forissier, Editorial Director
In order to be useful, the news provided by Contexte must be the result of a meeting between the work of journalists and technology.
We believe that producing this information and making it accessible to all the stakeholders who help to make the decision or are affected by its ramifications helps to improve the way our democracies work.
The quality of the information provided by Contexte stems from two convictions:
- In-depth, thorough, long-term journalistic work is the root of useful information for our readers.
- Giving our news its full potential necessarily involves the use of technology. Artificial intelligence, open data, automation: the scope for innovation around information is becoming wider every year.
This combination is at the heart of the design strategy for our products and services.
Our method
Expert, thorough, pushy and independent journalists
Contexte is neither an opinion media outlet nor a press agency. Our goal is to unearth the politics behind technical questions and analyse it; to understand the technicality behind political decisions and analyse them.
The quality of our journalists’ work is not a given, it has to be built up day by day:
- Their sectoral and institutional specialisation and the time they are given to dig into their stories.
- Their investigative skills which enable them to carefully analyse and select the information they publish.
- Their decision not to publish information that has not been sufficiently cross-checked.
- Their commitment to taking collective responsibility for what they write.
- Their independence (100% of Contexte’s capital is owned by the staff) and a demanding and ambitious code of ethics.
- Strong ethical principles: our ethics charter is supported by individual declarations of interest, which each journalist makes as soon as they join Contexte. An internal working group is constantly discussing these issues.
- A constant concern: to provide quality information, the organisation and operation of the editorial team must constantly be rethought to focus on people.
Tools for monitoring and analysing information in real time
We aim to inform all public policy professionals in real time about the issues that matter to them. That’s why at Contexte the news is based on a synergy between journalistic work and technological tools.
Where our editorial coverage stops, our monitoring tools take over. Every day, hundreds of decisions are taken in places of power, thousands of subjects are debated and, to anticipate and respond, it’s essential to be informed as early as possible.
Clovis Picard, Chief Product and Tech Officer
So that our subscribers are alerted within the hour or can delve deeper into a specific issue, we aggregate publicly available data from institutional databases to create tools – legislative watch, keyword alerts, AI reports, etc. – enabling them to act more quickly.
Because laws are made by those who work in the institutions and circles of power, we also design interactive directories and organisation charts that detail political positions and balances of power, and provide alerts in the event of appointments or changes of role.
