He continued, "The press has ten years left. Production costs will become unsustainable."

Lagadère has reason to worry. Many titles in the French press, be them national or regional, are on the brink of a crisis, if not in one already such as is the case at Libération. 

As for new media, Lagadère said that "Our adaptation will not consist of making a systematic and mechanic transfer of our press to the Internet. That would be a mistake. Our advantage will remain in the richness of our content. We will not submit to the mutation of modes of consumption; on the other hand we will play a part in their evolution."

Here, Lagadère's digital ambitions should be heeded by the French press which seems to be having problems connecting with readers and will lose its younger readership if it does not establish a powerful online presence soon. Already it has been seen that efforts to reach out to readers have not been particularly successful. Still, Le Monde is the most popular French language website in the world attracting about 1 million readers daily. Such high statistics should help motivate the rest of French newspapers in their transition to the Internet.

Source: AFP through Yahoo News (in French)