Mobile news gains ground in France
Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 5, 2010 at 5:48 PM
News applications for iPhone have met an undeniable success with French readers, but the task of monetising this through selling content, services and advertising still remains, according to Les Echos.
The director of electronic editions for Libération, Ludovic Blecher, said that the iPhone had revolutionised the consumption of news on mobile platforms. The Libération iPhone app was launched in the autumn, as was that of Le Figaro, and they have been downloaded 400,000 and 600,000 times respectively. "Around 30,000 people open it every day," Blecher said. Figures for Le Monde are even higher: it launched its app in November 2008 and has just reached 1.3 million unique downloads, attracting between 200,000 and 250,000 hits a day.
Like on the web, the challenge is now to monetise this audience, Les
Echos says. For now, editors have been launching free applications,
giving access to a feed of news articles that are often reformatted for
mobile.
Libération was one of the first to make the digital edition of the newspaper available for purchase from the night before it appears, in PDF format, for €0.79. But it only sells a few dozen copies a day. This may be because the process of purchasing it is somewhat complex, suggests Les Echos, as the user is redirected to the website, which can be difficult to use on a mobile device.
La Tribune will soon launch a similar application that gives access to the digital edition the night before, for €1.59 per edition or €7.99 per month.
The app for Les Echos will be available in coming weeks and will include a paid-for section that gives access to exclusive content.
Beyond content, many editors are considering offering paid services. The daily sports newspaper L'Equipe started doing this in the summer of 2009: for €0.79, the user can access a system of alerts for large sporting events. This app has already sold more than 150,000 units and continues to sell. The paper's digital version will be launched in the coming days.
The other means of monetising this new audience, advertising, is also taking off. Editors are counting on making some hundreds of thousands of Euros in mobile advertising this year, according to Les Echos, which will be enough to recoup their investments of around €30,000 to €40,000 but not enough to compensate for the decline of print.
In more news about mobiles from across the channel, freesheets Metro UK and Metro Herald have launched free iPhone apps, Journalism.co.uk reports. They offer scrolling editions, allowing users to browse or search a digital replica of the print edition. The apps have been developed by PageSuite, which produces digital online editions of newspapers. Readers can also use the apps to download articles or editions and read them offline.
Sources: Les Echos, Journalism.co.uk
Libération was one of the first to make the digital edition of the newspaper available for purchase from the night before it appears, in PDF format, for €0.79. But it only sells a few dozen copies a day. This may be because the process of purchasing it is somewhat complex, suggests Les Echos, as the user is redirected to the website, which can be difficult to use on a mobile device.
La Tribune will soon launch a similar application that gives access to the digital edition the night before, for €1.59 per edition or €7.99 per month.
The app for Les Echos will be available in coming weeks and will include a paid-for section that gives access to exclusive content.
Beyond content, many editors are considering offering paid services. The daily sports newspaper L'Equipe started doing this in the summer of 2009: for €0.79, the user can access a system of alerts for large sporting events. This app has already sold more than 150,000 units and continues to sell. The paper's digital version will be launched in the coming days.
The other means of monetising this new audience, advertising, is also taking off. Editors are counting on making some hundreds of thousands of Euros in mobile advertising this year, according to Les Echos, which will be enough to recoup their investments of around €30,000 to €40,000 but not enough to compensate for the decline of print.
In more news about mobiles from across the channel, freesheets Metro UK and Metro Herald have launched free iPhone apps, Journalism.co.uk reports. They offer scrolling editions, allowing users to browse or search a digital replica of the print edition. The apps have been developed by PageSuite, which produces digital online editions of newspapers. Readers can also use the apps to download articles or editions and read them offline.
Sources: Les Echos, Journalism.co.uk
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![Digg](http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.editorsweblog.org%2Fmultimedia%2F2010%2F02%2Fmobile_news_gains_ground_in_france.php&bodytext= <form mt:asset-id="5644" class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" style="display: inline;" contenteditable="false"><a href="http://www.editorsweblog.org/franceiphone.jpg"><img alt="franceiphone.jpg" src="http://www.editorsweblog.org/assets_c/2010/02/franceiphone-thumb-200x132-5644.jpg" class="mt-image-left" style="margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt; float: left;" height="132" width="200" /></a></form>News applications for iPhone have met an undeniable success with French readers, but the task of monetising this through selling content, services and advertising still remains, <a href="http://www.lesechos.fr/info/comm/020339374970-les-francais-commencent-a-lire-leurs-journaux-sur-l-iphone.htm">according to <i>Les Echos</i></a>.
<br /><br />The director of electronic editions for <i>Libération</i>, <b>Ludovic Blecher</b>, said that the iPhone had revolutionised the consumption of news on mobile platforms. The Libération iPhone app was launched in the autumn, as was that of <i>Le Figaro</i>, and they have been downloaded 400,000 and 600,000 times respectively. "Around 30,000 people open it every day," Blecher said. Figures for <i>Le Monde</i> are even higher: it launched its app in November 2008 and has just reached 1.3 million unique downloads, attracting between 200,000 and 250,000 hits a day.
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