Macadam

Street paper first created in 1993. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy features on the front cover of No. 71 (17 December 2009)

It’s come a long way since it started – a flimsy concoction with three bits of string on low-quality paper! Since publication started up again in 2007, Macadam is still getting by with its three bits of string, but has found a solid time of journalists and designers, who have given the leading French-speaking street newspaper a real magazine dimension. Coluche, the founder of the Restos du cœur, insisted on the importance of quality in charitable initiatives. Macadam applies his precept to the letter. Now in color, the paper that popularized the idea of equitably sharing the sales price between publisher and seller has allowed each seller to earn 1 euro per copy sold. Since its relaunch, Alain Souchon, Rama Yade, Bernard Giraudeau and Charles Berling have made the cover and Franz Olivier Giesbert and Gérard Miller have contributed. For this end-of-year issue, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy granted an exclusive interview to François Fillon, same name as the Prime Minister, but a real journalist, at the head of Macadam’s volunteer editorial team. Apart from France’s First Lady, the contents include Jean-François Kahn, Jacques Attali, Martin Hirsch and Bob Dylan – and we know how few interviews the latter gives! A way for the writer of Gotta Serve Somebody to give a helping hand. Macadam is a springboard for social reintegration. Supported by Secours Populaire, and in collaboration with Courrier international and Reporters d’espoirs, Macadam is a member of the International Network of Street Papers, which brings together 80 street papers in 34 countries on five continents. These papers, which publish 32 million papers every year, give work to 250,000 people.