France: press to benefit from individual donors

Posted by Cyril Gros on December 13, 2007 at 4:22 PM

Starting next Wednesday, a new fundsraising association, “Press and Pluralism," will be created in France to help the press develop. Through this association, individual investors as well as firms will be able to make donations to press companies.

Daily newspapers publishers and global news magazines publishers have requested that kind of funding system for the last five years.

Five press syndicates, including representatives of the daily national French press, the regional press and the global news magazine, will meet on Wednesday to give the go-ahead to the Press and Pluralism association told Denis Bouchez, director of the Daily Regional Press Syndicate (SPQN).

The donation providers will benefit from tax deductions due to their tribute/contribution to French culture. Those tax deductions will be 66% of the donation amount for individuals and 60% for the firms.

According to François d’Orcival, president of the weekly magazine Valeurs actuelles’ publishing committee and of the Press Magazine Professional Syndicate (SPPMO) and likely to become the Press and Pluralism association president, the distribution of the donations could be done in two different ways.

Either the money will be given to the newspaper the donor elected or it will be committed to a specially created commission, which would be in charge of the funds distribution.

If the second solution is chosen, the raised funds will generally back projects in favor of more general printed press concerns like easier access to subscription for students, newspaper delivery in specific/sensitive areas, news kiosk purchases and more.

The Press and Pluralism association funding system will help to relieve a real lack of capital in the French printed press, which suffers from the current state of the advertising market.

Source: Le Figaro.fr