The re-education has begun
Creating Added Value: France’s Newspapers Are Testing the Future, Streamlining, and Upgrading. With government aid as well. By Jürg Altwegg, Geneva correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and author.
Are these the relaunches of the last chance? Libération and Le Figaro have significantly changed their content concept and layout this fall. Le Monde is adding a weekend magazine - the daily newspaper was already successfully relaunched a few months ago. There is a spirit of optimism in the editorial offices. The newspapers have become thinner, but by no means worse. They are desperately looking for coordination with the Internet: What belongs in print, what goes online?
If you surf through the Libération portal, every second or third click is now free: You leave the freely accessible area, this article is only accessible to subscribers or against individual payment. This is a completely new and frustrating experience for online users of this newspaper, which was once founded by Maoists around Jean-Paul Sartre. It's easy to be tempted to whip out your credit card. Access to the content costs six or twelve euros per month. Even the more expensive option is significantly cheaper than a six-month subscription to the printed newspaper and is obviously preferred by those who are prepared to pay at all. It creates a close bond with the newspaper - which can also be read as an e-paper many hours before it hits the newsstands or letterboxes.
In print, the new Libération is an attractive and dignified newspaper. The number of topics covered has been significantly reduced, but more space and more editorial effort has been devoted to them. More depth and more background, more opinion and more distance is the motto. Every day, the newspaper analyzes an event from the perspective of media criticism - the title of the section: "Desintox". How did the story get into the world, who launched it, what was said about it, by whom and where? This is a new approach and a very contemporary way of dealing with current affairs in the media age - especially in the realm of Sarkozy, who is taking the manipulation of public opinion to the extreme.
The number of legendary opinion pages has been increased to three a day. Although the response to a publication on the Internet is often greater, the authors want to be printed. This also applies to editors and journalists. Although they moan about the limited space available, they are pleased that the articles can be longer again.
After several waves of layoffs, editors are working harder than ever, but motivation is higher than it has been for a long time and the mood, which had been tending towards doom and gloom, is more confident again.
"Many newspapers will die," explains Etienne Mougeotte, head of Figaro. The conservative newspaper of aircraft manufacturer Serge Dassault also appears in a new guise. As elsewhere, there is talk of "added value". Mougeotte makes a fiery commitment to the printed word: the printed edition is to remain the flagship. The format has been slightly reduced, as has the volume: ten percent less material is offered. At the same time, however, the literary tradition is emphasized: The feather as Figaro's logo has returned to the newspaper head.
The portal will be changed in a few months - it is not yet known exactly which areas can only be viewed for a fee. More than any other newspaper, Figaro is interested in being able to report the most hits. Le Monde is the most advanced: the paper has several tens of thousands of online subscribers. The newspaper is available online for 6 euros per month, which also includes access to the archive - the e-paper, however, costs much more.
The situation in France is much more difficult for newspapers, most of which are underfunded, than in Germany and Switzerland: there is a strong free press and several information portals that are definitely worth taking seriously, mostly founded by renowned journalists who opted for the high severance payments in the waves of redundancies. A year ago, the government organized "general stands of the press". The number of outlets is to be increased and home delivery must be improved. One of the many measures that have been introduced in the meantime has had a big impact: the free subscriptions for young people - the state pays for them - have been a huge success. The quota was quickly exhausted and some publishers are continuing with exclusively self-financed campaigns. Although young people only receive the newspaper one day a week, there is hope that they will acquire a taste for it. The editorial teams have less of an impression of writing past the young generation. It's the fall when the leaves bloom in Paris - even if no one knows whether the fruit will sprout one day.
If you surf through the Libération portal, every second or third click is now free: You leave the freely accessible area, this article is only accessible to subscribers or against individual payment. This is a completely new and frustrating experience for online users of this newspaper, which was once founded by Maoists around Jean-Paul Sartre. It's easy to be tempted to whip out your credit card. Access to the content costs six or twelve euros per month. Even the more expensive option is significantly cheaper than a six-month subscription to the printed newspaper and is obviously preferred by those who are prepared to pay at all. It creates a close bond with the newspaper - which can also be read as an e-paper many hours before it hits the newsstands or letterboxes.
In print, the new Libération is an attractive and dignified newspaper. The number of topics covered has been significantly reduced, but more space and more editorial effort has been devoted to them. More depth and more background, more opinion and more distance is the motto. Every day, the newspaper analyzes an event from the perspective of media criticism - the title of the section: "Desintox". How did the story get into the world, who launched it, what was said about it, by whom and where? This is a new approach and a very contemporary way of dealing with current affairs in the media age - especially in the realm of Sarkozy, who is taking the manipulation of public opinion to the extreme.
The number of legendary opinion pages has been increased to three a day. Although the response to a publication on the Internet is often greater, the authors want to be printed. This also applies to editors and journalists. Although they moan about the limited space available, they are pleased that the articles can be longer again.
After several waves of layoffs, editors are working harder than ever, but motivation is higher than it has been for a long time and the mood, which had been tending towards doom and gloom, is more confident again.
"Many newspapers will die," explains Etienne Mougeotte, head of Figaro. The conservative newspaper of aircraft manufacturer Serge Dassault also appears in a new guise. As elsewhere, there is talk of "added value". Mougeotte makes a fiery commitment to the printed word: the printed edition is to remain the flagship. The format has been slightly reduced, as has the volume: ten percent less material is offered. At the same time, however, the literary tradition is emphasized: The feather as Figaro's logo has returned to the newspaper head.
The portal will be changed in a few months - it is not yet known exactly which areas can only be viewed for a fee. More than any other newspaper, Figaro is interested in being able to report the most hits. Le Monde is the most advanced: the paper has several tens of thousands of online subscribers. The newspaper is available online for 6 euros per month, which also includes access to the archive - the e-paper, however, costs much more.
The situation in France is much more difficult for newspapers, most of which are underfunded, than in Germany and Switzerland: there is a strong free press and several information portals that are definitely worth taking seriously, mostly founded by renowned journalists who opted for the high severance payments in the waves of redundancies. A year ago, the government organized "general stands of the press". The number of outlets is to be increased and home delivery must be improved. One of the many measures that have been introduced in the meantime has had a big impact: the free subscriptions for young people - the state pays for them - have been a huge success. The quota was quickly exhausted and some publishers are continuing with exclusively self-financed campaigns. Although young people only receive the newspaper one day a week, there is hope that they will acquire a taste for it. The editorial teams have less of an impression of writing past the young generation. It's the fall when the leaves bloom in Paris - even if no one knows whether the fruit will sprout one day.
