Sales slump hits French press

The French newspaper industry is facing cuts and job losses as circulation figures plummet and major publications report financial difficulties.

Leading titles including Le Monde, France-Soir and Le Parisien have recently disclosed losses running into millions of euros. Le Monde has announced plans to lay off up to 100 staff.

Meanwhile, journalists at France's leading conservative daily Le Figaro have voted on a resolution warning the paper's new owner against interfering in news coverage.

'Archaic' practices

The industry's ailing state is attributed by analysts to several factors, including archaic business and distribution practices and the power of the trade unions in impeding attempts at modernisation.

Competition from broadcast media, growing use of the internet to access news sources online, the rise of free papers - all have made inroads into the profitability of traditional newspaper publishing.

There are also perceptions that the appeal of the Paris-based national dailies has diminished for provincial readers, who are said to prefer regionally and locally-based papers.

Disquiet

At Le Monde, which has been hit by a 10.5% fall in sales, managing director Herve Pinet is blunt about his intentions for the ailing daily: "My assignment is clear: to bring the newspaper back into profitability."

One plan is for Le Monde to become a morning paper instead of an evening publication - a move which would be likely to have uncertain consequences for its circulation figures, as well as impacting on those of other newspapers.

Staff unrest at Le Figaro is directed at the title's new proprietor, with journalists fearing the paper may lose editorial independence.

Industrialist Serge Dassault bought the paper in March 2004 and also owns the Dassault company that builds military aircraft. He recently won a seat in the French Senate for President Jacques Chirac's UMP Party.

Disquiet has grown following decisions to block the publication of interviews and articles containing references to Mr Dassault's military businesses. Staff are also alarmed at his threat to close titles in the Socpresse group.

Mr Dassault's response has been to tighten his grip on Le Figaro, choosing a new director-general and appointing Nicolas Beytout, formerly editor of Les Echos, as editor-in-chief.

Trust

Mr Beytout has pledged to keep Le Figaro free from interference, and said that editorial recruitment would be his responsibility.

Speaking to Le Monde, he said his priority is to "get the situation to calm down, and get the editorial office to concentrate more on the newspaper than its own problems", before deciding "what the newspaper is to become".

Ironically, recent polls indicate that the French trust the press more than other media for their daily news. Despite this reassuring fact, the problem remains that fewer and fewer people in France are actually buying newspapers.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.