Times are hard very hard for the French press

Times are hard, very hard, for the French press. Advertising revenues plunge, sales drop and drive has more the same commitment that once his paper newspaper.

Emblematic of the violence of the crisis that struck at the end of last year, for ten months, savings plans, for sale, or even financial titles such as "The life" closures, born post-war under the name of "La Vie française", multiply in the press magazine which, this time, is more saved by falling turnover.

After years of fat cows, even the weekly and monthly are subject to strain, as the daily newspapers.

French publishers - the image of their foreign counterparts - questioned their economic model. After having thought that Internet would save the press, they understand that online advertising revenues would not offset the shortfall sustained on paper.

In constant euros, advertising revenue from newspapers, all categories combined, have dropped by 20 between the excellent year 2000 by the peak of the Internet-Telecom bubble and 2008 according to the Direction of the development of the media (DDM). During this same period, the turnover of the French press has melted by 16, always in constant euros. Without that, at the same time, the editors have resolved with the powerful Union of the book CGT the question of the extremely high weight of manufacturing and distribution costs, alone, representing 60 of daily loads. Dissemination has initiated a decade decline structural movement: between 1999 and 2007, the total distribution of pay media declined by 12, while it remained stable between 1985 and 1998.

No long-term fix

For the moment, hexagonal publishers respond to the crisis by reducing costs: reduce the paging and editors is obvious. In daily, it is for the prosecution of a movement started for a long time. For years already, the wickets of voluntary departures were chained to the "world", "Release" or in the newspapers of province.

In an undercapitalized daily press, the problems of ownership were also installed on the table. In the French tradition, which had already seen Lagardère become a large Publisher of magazines, French industrialists are invited to the capital of press titles. Serge Dassault has bought "Le Figaro", Bernard Arnault, "Les echos".

But a number of titles have not found a lasting solution. In the coming months, "The world" will be again forced to question his round table to recapitalize themselves, and the fate of "Liberation" is suspended to the goodwill of Edouard de Rothschild. In the regional daily press where a first wave of concentrations already took place, the situation is so unstable.

The corner of the Net

With the difficulties of paper, newspapers certainly took the corner of the Net by putting in place a real offer editorial on the canvas. The hearing is now in the appointment, but revenues have not kept up to expectations. For their part, some journalists have migrated on the Net to create websites of information, the image of Rue89, founded by former "Release", MediaPart, Bakchich or Slate. Without finding, for the moment, economic model.

Without visibility, newspapers, relied on the public power. By organizing the States General of the press, the President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, has shown that he was interested very closely to their fate releasing EUR 600 million over three years, in addition to the EUR 1 billion of State aid already paid in each year, to help cross this bad password.

But the French press does not drawn a future: at the end of the track publishers clung to mitigation measures (tax exemption...), giving him a stay, but little development prospects.