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  4. Les Echos organize their first Hackathon at Sciences Po Paris

Les Echos organize their first Hackathon at Sciences Po Paris

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© Emmanuel Delaloy 2016

For the first time, the newspaper Les Echos organized a Hackathon with Sciences Po Paris. The challenge: to analyze the use of editorial data in the work of journalists within a time limit of 48 hours. An intellectual marathon…

On April 28th and 29th, the first ever Hackathon organized by Les Echos took place at Sciences Po Paris. For 48 hours, five teams of five or six people, supported by freelances, start-uppers and representatives of Les Echos, focused on the theme of data within the editorial work of journalists. There were two objectives: in addition to envisioning an innovative solution to facilitate the work of information professionals, the Hackathon was designed to promote contact between students and start-ups, in particular in the digital field.

Participants of different profiles were presented with a challenge in three stages. After forming teams, they were given access to a variety of data sources from the archives of Groupe Les Echos and Sciences Po press reviews. Taking this information, and with the assistance of expert mentors, each team then developed a project presenting a new approach to the journalistic profession, to the journalist-reader relationship, and to the utilization of content.

L'équipe gagnante du Hackathon © Emmanuel Delaloy 2016

Finally, each project was presented to a panel of judges made up of Francis Morel, President of Groupe Les Echos, Digital Village (freelances specializing in digital technology), and Gonzague de Blignières, Co-Founder of Raise. Jean-François Fogel, from the School of Journalism of Sciences Po, joined them to award first prize to the project “Moi Président”, a serious game inviting readers to imagine they were presidential candidates developing their economic manifesto on the basis of news published in Les Echos. The aim was to make economic news more attractive and accessible in order to build reader loyalty and reach out to a younger target. The winners will have the opportunity to put their ideas into action in partnership with Groupe Les Echos, which is already planning to repeat the experience next year.

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