Invest in French Morning! – French Morning

French Morning launches today a new fundraising campaign. And as always, it is to you, our readers, that we appeal.

After a first campaign in 2017, which raised nearly $ 300,000 and launched in Canada and the United Kingdom, we are preparing for a new phase of growth. Objective: open in Asia but also develop video.

When we solicited you two years ago, you answered the call: almost 200 investors joined us to help launch French Morning outside the US. That's what we did: we are now based in Montreal and London. In Quebec, where our site is called Maudits Français, we now have 70,000 unique monthly visitors and as many in London. In total, we now have some 500,000 unique visitors per month, or 120% increase from 2017 to 2018.

Why invest in French Morning?

Of course because you like French Morning (and Maudits Français in Canada) and want to support the local journalism that we defend. But also – especially – because French Morning Media Group continues to grow and have ambitions.

The success of Maudits Français and French Morning London has shown that our "American" model is reproducible and sustainable. In 2018, our turnover has increased by about 20% over the previous year and growth is not limited to new editions. Our site Frenchly.us, which is aimed at Francophile Americans, has seen its audience grow by 130% in one year. And the diversification of our content has also been a success: our videos show millions of views (more than 6 million in June on YouTube for example) and now generate advertising revenue.

What will we do with this money?

As we did with the previous round, the money raised will be invested in growth, mainly in Asia, which is our next goal. We will open editions in several major cities of the continent to develop in the same model that we have been applying for 12 years in the United States: quality local journalism, supported by a clear business model based on the advertising and events (which generate approximately 25% of our revenues).

This raise will also allow us to invest in video, with the planned hiring of a video-journalist in London.

The equity-crowdfunding how does it work?

Crowdfunding is now well known (thanks to Kickstarter for example, or Ulule and KissKissBankBank in France). Equity crowdfunding is based on the same principle of public appeal, but instead of just giving money, it is investing. By participating, you will become shareholders of French Morning Media Group. No need to be rich: you can participate from $ 100 ($ 105.91 exactly, threshold set by law), but you have the right to go far beyond …

The shares are sold at $ 6.23 The campaign is open today, and will last 6 weeks. We raise up to $ 200,000, for 6.25% of the capital. This is the maximum, but the campaign will be confirmed if we reach the threshold of $ 50,000. Do not delay and join the French Morning adventure here.