Urbania is 20 years old. The age of reason for this megaphone of youthful irreverence.
“It’s the age of reason at the entrepreneurial level, yes, because we have indeed built something,” calmly notes its president and co-founder Philippe Lamarre. “There are 80 people in Montreal. We are no longer the small project with just eight friends around a table. We have become a real company with activities in several sectors. »
In addition to its emblematic magazine, digital only since 2020, the Urbania Group has launched into audiovisual production, multiplatform content creation, and derivative media products. An office was opened in Paris three years ago.
Urbania 20, a book which retraces his journey with lots of illustrations and graphic design, has just been published, under the lively pen of Tatiana Polevoy.
“But I dare to believe that this is not the age of reason, in the sense that I think that the URBANIA brand is still rebellious, still wants to shake up the cage,” immediately adds the tamer of traditions and stereotypes.
As proof: on October 10, the Group will announce the creation of a talent representation agency. From “digital content creators,” more precisely.
“It’s another phenomenon in the world of media: now, individuals who have strong presences on social networks are becoming minimedia,” explains Philippe Lamarre. It’s like a media that is carried by an individual. There are people who call them influencers. We call them intelligent content creators. »
It is assumed that this adjective applies to both creator and content.
Named Valides, the new entity is launched in partnership with the management and representation agency Hainault.
For the always lively, but now venerable company, it is a way of connecting with the vital force of youth.
“The goal is to be close to young talents who have audiences on social networks, to collaborate with them and support them in the development of their careers,” describes Philippe Lamarre.
“It’s galvanizing because youth forces us to question ourselves. As we age, we become more attached to comfort. Youth is discomfort, it is challenge, it is refusing the status quo. My way of kicking myself in the butt is to hold on to youth and make a project of it. »
Urbania thinks big in small formats. Shortly before founding an agency for these mini media that are influencers, the company launched the weekly mini magazine Urbania for mobile devices, aptly called Micromag.
“We’re bringing back magazine topics, but with uses that resemble Snapchat, Instagram or TikTok, with vertical videos. »
It’s also a way of continuing to attract young readers (because it’s not contradictory).
A graphic designer by training, Philippe Lamarre grew up in a family of entrepreneurs.
“I really had a rebellious temperament. I was indomitable, I didn’t like authority. »
In his mid-20s, he launched his own agency, only to find that every client “was sort of his boss.”
“So, in a perpetual flight from authority, I launched a magazine, telling myself that finally, I would have a project where I could express what I wanted to express without constraint. »
But we cannot avoid all authority. The most restrictive is perhaps that of the market. A magazine does not exist without readers. A media cannot survive without advertising.
Urbania magazine would no longer live on its own income alone.
“As a group, Urbania is profitable, we are solid. But if I isolate the media alone, it is certain that there is an economic engine behind it, which is the kind of clever mix that we make between audiovisual production, the content creation studio and all our activities of services and advertising. »
So Urbania is 20 years old. And a readership that is perhaps also getting older, in the same way that the audience of the (regretted) Michel Louvain had aged with him.
“It’s sure that it’s a challenge to renew your audience,” recognizes Philippe Lamarre. There are people from the very beginning who look at what we do today and who no longer recognize themselves.
“And indeed, this is the case, because apart from Hugo Meunier, who is our wise man in residence, most of our journalists are young. They have the concerns of people their age. »
Concerns, working methods and ways of being that they share with the target readership of 25 to 35 year olds.
“You have to accept that sometimes there are things that aren’t perfect the first time, that mistakes will be made. It’s part of the way of doing things, and you have to accept him as your boss,” notes the boss.
“The values of the new generation are not 100% aligned with mine,” he admits. I’m 48 years old. »
But Lamarre is not abandoned.
“I’d rather be pushed around by young people than become a whiny old man who has little nostalgia for the good old days. »
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