ROOTS

What ROOTS does

ROOTS, legally Roots Magazine, is a France-based privately held premium quarterly print magazine founded in 2012 and headquartered in Paris. It positions itself as the first and only free premium print publication dedicated to Afro-Caribbean culture and 'Black Excellence,' covering 10 editorial categories — Cover, Mode, Baby, Beauté, Racines, Business, Gastronomie, Culture/Art, and Sport — targeting readers in the African diaspora and Francophone African and Caribbean markets. Content is produced in French, with editorial reach spanning 50+ country tags across West Africa, Central Africa, the Caribbean, and increasingly the USA.

The company's core product is a free quarterly print magazine, distributed through physical points across France and French-speaking territories, and supplemented by a digital ecosystem comprising the rootsmagazine.fr website, Roots TV (a video content platform), and Roots Galerie (an editorial photography gallery). The underlying technology is a standard digital publishing stack, with Yumpu used to host digital flipbook editions of regional sub-brands (e.g., ROOTS AFRIQUE CENTRALE, ROOTS KARAYIB, ROOTS AFRIQUE DE L'OUEST). A new product, the MINDSET TV Series, was launched in 2025, signaling entry into original scripted video content.

ROOTS generates revenue exclusively through advertising and sponsorships from luxury fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands targeting the Afro-Caribbean demographic in France. The publication is free to readers, with no subscription, paywall, or e-commerce revenue stream. Engagement is reinforced through recurring cocktail events, editorial photo shoots, social media (notably Instagram with 1,435+ followers), and the Roots TV/Roots Galerie media properties. The business is independently owned with no disclosed parent company, external investors, or funding rounds.

Name

ROOTS

Legal name

Roots Magazine

Website

https://rootsmagazine.fr

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

ROOTS is a France-based, privately held premium quarterly print magazine founded in 2012, dedicated to Afro-Caribbean culture and Black Excellence. It serves Francophone African and Caribbean readers and advertisers via free print distribution, a digital website, Roots TV, and Roots Galerie, monetized through advertising.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Lifestyle Media

NAICS

Periodical Publishers (513120), Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (5131)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721), Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)

akta.pro primary industry

Online News & Magazine Publishing Platforms (CMS & Hosting) (MPAJAMAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Online Article & Blog Publishing Platforms (MPAJAMAF), Publishing Networks & Multi-Author Publications (MPACAIAG)

Keywords

• Lifestyle magazine
• Afro-Caribbean culture
• Black Excellence media
• Cultural publishing
• Fashion beauty content

Headquarters

HQ city

Rue

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Advertising and Sponsorship: The free quarterly print magazine is monetized through advertising partnerships with brands targeting the Afro-Caribbean demographic and lifestyle market. Premium positioning attracts high-end fashion, beauty, and lifestyle advertisers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

ROOTS publishes a free premium quarterly print magazine dedicated to Afro-Caribbean culture and Black Excellence, distributed across France and French-speaking territories through physical distributors. The publication is supported by a digital ecosystem including the rootsmagazine.fr editorial website, Roots TV video platform, Roots Galerie photography gallery, and social media channels, organized into 10 editorial categories covering fashion, beauty, heritage, business, gastronomy, culture, and sport. Revenue is generated primarily through advertising partnerships with luxury, fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands targeting the Afro-Caribbean demographic.

Product overview

ROOTS Magazine is a premium print and digital lifestyle publication focused on Afro-Caribbean culture and Black Excellence. The company operates primarily through its quarterly print magazine (distributed free in high-end format), supplemented by digital platforms including the rootsmagazine.fr website, Roots TV (video content), and Roots Galerie (photo galleries). The magazine covers diverse editorial categories spanning fashion, beauty, heritage, gastronomy, culture, sports, and business, profiling notable personalities from the African and Caribbean diaspora.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Roots TV: Video section featuring interviews, behind-the-scenes content and event coverage
• Roots Galerie

Products and services

• ROOTS Magazine (Print Edition) Free premium quarterly print magazine dedicated to Afro-Caribbean culture and Black Excellence, featuring interviews, fashion, beauty, heritage, business, gastronomy, culture, and sports content for readers in France and French-speaking territories.
• Roots TV

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• L'OréalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerL'Oréal partnered with Roots Magazine featured entrepreneur Aminata Konaté-Boune for the INSEP salon project, where L'Oréal's architecture team designed the salon interior for athletes at France's prestigious INSEP sports institute.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Black Beauty & Hair: Black Beauty & Hair is a UK-based print and digital publication dedicated to Black hair, beauty, and lifestyle. It shares Roots' editorial focus on Afro-diaspora beauty and lifestyle content with a comparable advertiser mix, making it a relevant peer for audience and monetization benchmarking.
• AfroPunk: AfroPunk is a digital-first media and events platform celebrating Black culture, music, fashion, and art. Like Roots, it monetizes through brand partnerships, events, and premium content targeting the global Black diaspora, making it a comparable emerging player in the multicultural media space.
• TRACE Magazine: TRACE operates multimedia properties spanning TV, digital, and print focused on African and Caribbean music, entertainment, and lifestyle. Like Roots, TRACE serves the Afro-diaspora audience with premium content and brand partnerships, competing for the same multicultural advertising budgets in France and internationally.
• Amina Magazine: Amina is a Paris-born magazine celebrating Black African and Caribbean women across fashion, beauty, and culture. It is one of the closest direct comparables to Roots in France, sharing the same premium free-distribution print model and Afro-diaspora audience focus, with overlapping advertiser targets in luxury and beauty.

Broad incumbents

• EBONY: EBONY is a long-established U.S. Black culture and lifestyle publication operating across digital and print. While geographically anchored in the U.S., EBONY's editorial positioning around Black Excellence and premium lifestyle content is structurally similar to Roots and represents an incumbent benchmark for monetization scale.
• Vanity Fair France: Vanity Fair France is a premium French edition of the global luxury-culture magazine. It competes for the same high-end brand advertising pool Roots targets, and serves as an incumbent benchmark for premium French print magazine economics.
• Grazia France: Grazia is a mainstream premium French lifestyle magazine covering fashion, beauty, and culture. As a broader incumbent in the same premium-lifestyle print advertising market in France, Grazia competes with Roots for luxury and beauty brand budgets while operating at much larger scale.
• ESSENCE: ESSENCE is the largest English-language Black lifestyle media brand spanning print, digital, and events. It operates in the same cultural segment as Roots but at significantly greater scale in North America, providing a comparable model for how a Black-excellence-focused publication can scale into a multi-platform, sponsorship-driven media business.

Regional players

• Vogue Africa: Vogue Africa is the Condé Nast-owned premium fashion publication covering the African continent. It overlaps with Roots' MODE category and competes for premium fashion advertiser interest, though it operates as a regional extension of a global incumbent rather than an independent diaspora-focused brand.

Emerging players

• The Root: The Root is a digital media platform covering African-American news, culture, and opinion. While U.S.-centric and digital-first, it competes for the same multicultural advertising dollars as Roots and represents how a Black-focused editorial brand can evolve into a digital content business.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/r00tsmagazine
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/rootsmagazine
• Facebookfacebook.com/rootsmagazineparis
• Instagraminstagram.com/rootsmagazine
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/roots-magazine

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ROOTS