Le Parisien draws one million viewers in 24 hours with Sarkozy video: grasping the YouTube effect

A video of the outburst of French President Nicolas Sarkozy against a journalist, shot by a journalist from Le Parisien, has drawn over a million viewers in 24 hours.

Sarkozy's outburst occurred at the annual farm fair in Paris on Saturday, after he offered his hand to a man who said: “Don't touch me, you are soiling me." Sarkozy replied: "Get lost, dumb ass."

The video was posted on Le Parisien's website and by midday Sunday 350,000 people had already viewed it. By 10:30pm on Sunday, more than one million people had viewed Sarkozy's video.

It seems the power of online buzz is just as effective when it comes to news items. The success of Le Parisien's video should prompt newspapers to equip journalists with video cameras and illustrates the highly viral nature of such video content.

Source: Le Parisien (link in French) - Reuters