France: Le Figaro's Pierre Conte on plans for its web-based future

Posted by Alisa Zykova on July 16, 2008 at 3:46 PM

Pierre Conte, director of France's Le Figaro media group, explained today that the company's recent shift towards the Web was aimed at Le Figaro becoming the premier information site in France. Le Figaro also wants to have 20% of its sales originating from the web by 2010, and to increase its number of unique visitors to 10 million within two years.

Le Figaro's site includes general news (lefigaro.fr), as well as other sections such as the female-oriented lefigaro.fr/madame, the economics-oriented lefigaro.fr/patrimoine and the events-oriented figaroscope.

The group also has a job and real estate classifieds section provided by Adenclassifieds, as well as an e-commerce hub called Ticketac and Bazarchic.

Future plans include developing video content that will be broadast on the Internet, mobile platforms and TV. Conte wants to build media partnerships with other firms, in the manner of MSNBC.

To boost online visitors to its site, Le Figaro intends to develop new ad formats, target specific audiences and increase the group's presence in e-commerce.

Source: Le Figaro through IFRA Executive News Service