France: Les Echos launched e-paper

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on September 13, 2007 at 3:00 PM

Business daily Les Echos launched its e-paper offer, a one-of-its-kind service. Subscribers can read the paper digitally on one of the two readers offered by Les Echos.

One of them was produced by Ganaxa, weighs 176 grams, and information can be downloaded using a USB key connected to a computer. The annual subscription (along with the reader) costs €649.

Irex also offers a 389-gram reader, which can even be used to read books (thanks to partnerships with book publishers) and has WiFi access. The Irex reader costs €769.

These prices are evidently more expensive than the €416 annual print subscription, or €365 for the online edition.

200 people have already subscribed to the e-paper. The goal is to have between 1,500 and 2,000 subscribers by the end of the year. The cost of the technology and its selective usage still limits the audience of e-paper. But this will change in the years to come.

Newspaper companies should be closely following the development of e-paper and analogous platforms – Canadian scientists just developed new technology to obtain better color resolution.

Source: Ecran.fr