France: Can national dailies survive?

Posted by John Burke on July 20, 2006 at 12:22 PM

Jeff Mignon at Média Café asks this pressing question about the state of the French press noting that the costs of producing the top national French dailies continues to outweigh revenues from advetisements and paid copies. If it weren't for subsidies and generous investors, Mignon wonders if these papers would have made it this far.

He asks what the advantages of a French national are, questions that could be applied to most papers in the world:

"Exclusivity? Less and less. We find almost everything... on the Net and for free.

"Speed of information? Paper has become the slowest medium.

"Volume of information? There is 'a thousand times' as much on the Web.

"Quality of analysis and explanation? It is without a doubt the last big advantage of paper. But the Web is beginning to challenge its dominance.

"Vehicle of quality advertising? Apparently advertisers still believe this. A little less. But very little. However, paper remains a medium through which the efficiency of advertising is hard to guage. The Net, on the other hand, is the surest tool for calculating effectiveness.

"Price? Paper is one of the last sources of information for which the consumer must pay."

Source: Média Café (in French)

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