Jérémie Clevy has just succeeded Alexandre Malsch as Chairman of Melty, the under-30s media company. Meet a journalist lost among the Millenials.
Adwise : Jérémie, you've just taken over from Alexandre Malsch as Chairman of Melty: in a few words, where are you from?
Jérémie Clevy : From the future since 1998 🙂
I trained as a radio journalist (ESJ-Lille), but I've always had a passion for computers. So I've been working exclusively on the Internet since 1998. Initially as a writer, then editor-in-chief, then publisher, and finally BU director.
I've managed Lycos in France, and I've also worked in digital management at Europe 1 and Mondadori Magazines. Alexandre Malsch chose me because of my ability to understand 'media' and also to manage a company.
Adwise : Every young person knows Melty... but not the over-30s: what is Melty?
Jérémie Clevy : It's a medium for Millenials, dealing exclusively with cultural subjects: cinema, music, TV series, video games, etc.
We are present on 3 main platforms: the classic web, with our 5 sites (melty.fr, fan2.fr, shoko.fr, meltystyle.fr and virginradio.fr); Facebook with our fifteen or so verticals and Snapchat with our channel in Discover, alongside l'Equipe, Le Monde and Paris Match.
In total, we record around 90 million monthly visits to our content, 75% of which are made by 18-34 year olds.
Adwise : For your readers, PCs and TVs have become virtually obsolete...
Jérémie Clevy : LOL
Our audience is at 94% mobile. We're going to get to a point where our PC audience will be done by Melty editors - it's more convenient to write an article on a computer though 🙂
As for our readers, for some time now they have considered the TV as the second screen. The smartphone being the first. They are still just as much in front of the TV, but they listen to it more than they watch it. And they surf on their social networks during programmes.
Adwise : How do you inform young people who spend no more than 3 seconds on a piece of news and are constantly zapping away?
Jérémie Clevy : Content and form: by carefully choosing the themes that will interest them and by being ultra-cool in the way we handle the news. On Snapchat, our readers each spend an average of around 2 and a half minutes a day on our daily edition.
Adwise : Alexandre left Melty at the age of 30, you're over 40; you run a group whose journalists don't even know David Bowie: isn't the cultural difference too violent?
Jérémie Clevy : Already: true story! The day I arrived was the day Bowie died. The news broke 2 minutes before I was due to introduce myself to the team. I go, "Shit, Bowie's dead" and my neighbour says "Who's Bowie?" ... Ok... we don't have the same values 🙂
Otherwise, I was lucky enough to have an atypical childhood (I moved around the world 4 times a year until I was about 10) and that forced me to develop a 'sponge' mode to survive socially. I quickly blend into any cultural environment. So I can be a bit of a joker and talk about video games and TV series.
The real difficulty is management. This really is a special generation. They don't tolerate any vagueness in their missions (which is a good thing), and they demand autonomy (which is also a good thing, but sometimes contradicts the previous point). I also find them less loyal to the company than the previous generation and less inclined to make an effort. You really, really have to give meaning to all your missions and find a thousand and one tricks to motivate Millennials!
