A free 96-page glossy daily newspaper, published in French and English, and completed every day since the Cannes Film Festival. Half of the editorial staff of Gala magazine, relocated for almost two weeks to the Côte d’Azur, begins this marathon on Tuesday which will end on May 25, the day the Palme d’Or is awarded. If the concept, launched in 2010 on only 24 pages, is now well established, it has continued to gain in scale. Thus, this event edition will be accessible this year from the Figaro website, the group having acquired Gala at the end of 2023. “The PDF version will be downloadable free of charge from the Figaro digital kiosk, whether you subscribe to the newspaper or not,” specifies Matthias Gurtler, editorial director of Gala.
Festival-goers will be able to get their hands on the 15,000 copies of Gala Croisette at the Palais des Festivals, but also in the city’s restaurants and major hotels. “We are also distributed in the rooms of the palaces of the Croisette”, where actors and directors stay, but also the guests of the major brand partners of the event, he continues. For luxury, jewelry and beauty advertisers, Gala Croisette is indeed a showcase. In addition to the advertising pages, which represent a third of the pagination, their jewelry, dresses and costumes appear in large format in the fifteen pages dedicated to photos of the climb of the stairs.
The rest of the magazine is made up of reviews of the films in competition and interviews, great stories about the legend of the festival and, finally, photos from the Croisette evenings where stars of the big screen, VIPs and influencers mingle. These images are also found in videos on social networks and particularly on TikTok, where Gala is followed by more than 10 million Internet users. “We film the stars up close, at parties or in hotels. These off-screen moments are popular with the public,” emphasizes Matthias Gurtler. The best videos will also be featured on the front page of the Figaro website, as well as on Canal. The magazine actually produces a 2-minute clip for the channel, which broadcasts it unencrypted every day at 8:30 p.m.
Closing up in the middle of the night, Gala Croisette is also a logistical feat. Building on this experience, the magazine will use the same recipe this summer during the Olympic Games. Named Gala Paris, this free bilingual daily, and again distributed in strategic locations, will document the glamorous side of this sporting fortnight. The editorial team will in fact be present at the evenings organized across the capital by major groups and official partners of the Olympic Games, where international stars will be invited.