For a long time, specialization in religious news rested on an obvious proximity between columnists to their sources. Professional and moral qualifications were intermingled and measured by loyalty to the institution, despite the application of critical expertise based on first-hand knowledge of the religious sphere. The gradual disappearance of a specific section for religious news and the de-institutionalization attending it, paved the way for a distant and sometimes critical journalism, based on inquiries and aimed at a public detached from religion. Reasons for "specialization" - conditions of access to the job, initial religious culture, signs of interest in spirituality - are still there today and can be explained by the place occupied by the religious press.