It’s no longer a secret. Digital media is changing traditional information. In just a few years, names like Vice, Buzzfeed and Vox have established themselves by attracting millions of young people who love original formats. For its part, Radio-Canada offers Rad, a new journalism offering aimed at millennials.

Michel Cormier, Radio-Canada’s information director, is retiring soon and has made no secret of his satisfaction that Rad is standing on its own two feet. During a meeting organized on Tuesday at the offices of the state-owned company with several media representatives and some of Rad’s thought leaders, the man expressed his pride in supporting the launch of this new form of journalism, closer to social networks than to television.

“Rad’s goal is to reach young adults who are not in front of the small screen and who should still be our next audience at Radio-Canada,” said Michel Cormier. We can say that Rad is a journalistic success because, in my opinion, we managed to produce verified, honest and credible journalism while reaching new audiences.”

Rad was organized in 2017 in laboratory mode and today brings together a multidisciplinary team of about fifteen people, including six journalists, professionals from the world of StartupMarketing experts and digital specialists.

“Initially we didn’t want Rad employees to be swallowed up by the ‘machine,'” Mr. Cormier said. So instead of installing them in the newsroom, we decided to isolate them in some kind of laboratory. In order to develop new journalistic formats, it was necessary to provide a new creative impulse. We let them work and the result is called Rad, an independent medium.”

Through varied reports, with topics ranging from computer hacking to Burnout The new voices of Quebec rap or medical euthanasia are shaking up “radio Canadian” journalistic habits, available on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

Michel Cormier even speaks of a real “buzz” that, according to the public broadcaster, has already reached more than 20 million people on social networks, with an average engagement rate (shares, comments, clicks, etc.) of 8%, which, according to Karim Boudiba, Digital Product Manager at Rad, is “double the general average.”

This content, offered on platforms other than Radio-Canada’s, seems ideal for attracting “digital citizens” but may be at risk when it comes to pushing content to private companies like Facebook. Mark Zukerberg’s American company is currently in turmoil for failing to protect the private data of 50 million of its users.

“It’s true that we are on Facebook a lot,” admitted Karim Boudiba. But you have to predict what will happen. Do we really want to keep the content there or do we want to revert it to our own platforms? That’s where we start.”

The fact that Rad is establishing itself in the digital reality is no doubt for the news director, who sees in this new journalist the future of the profession. “We are excited to see a community emerging around Rad outside of the usual Radio Canada networks. Even though we can’t really do without existing social networks, our strategy is to bring more people back to our own platforms.”

Rad’s reports can be viewed on the website Wheel approxas well as on social networks.