And between 2000 and 2006 sales fell by 10

After the audiovisual, Nicolas Sarkozy tackles the crisis of newspapers. This morning, the head of State launches since the Elysee the States General of the press. With a big question: will he leave his sleeve of ads surprises for the kick-off of this work (as it had done with the removal of the pub on France television) or well is simply there to install the track Organized under the aegis of Emmanuelle Mignon, Adviser to the President, these States General will give rise to a consultation of professionals for two months. The reflection will comprise four themes: aspects economic and industrial sector, the digital, the future of journalism, finally the societal issues. One of the challenges will be to avoid an umpteenth reflection without day. And the stumbling block to a new development under perfusion of the press used by the State for years to "tend the sébile" (284 million euros in direct aid to the budgeted in 2009 press). To do this, Nicolas Sarkozy decides to take structural measures

In recent years, reports have accumulated to identify the causes of the crisis and propose remedies. Without ever lead to implementing concrete measures to restore the economy of the newspapers, including the dailies of information. Detail of the evils of the French press review...

• The alienation of the readership

As elsewhere, the daily newspapers of political and general information in France a regular erosion of their dissemination since the beginning of the 1980s. But the movement has accelerated. Several titles have disappeared ("the morning", "The daily in Paris", "Info Matin"...). And, between 2000 and 2006, sales fell by 10.7 according to Diffusion control. To regain readers, patterns of newspapers and journalists questioned the evolution of the editorial offer. Because, despite price increases, turnover derived from the distribution (kiosks and subscriptions) has increased by 3.9 in 17 years, according to the Direction of the development of the media (DDM)!

• The decline in advertising revenues

From year to year, the relative weight of the press in the advertisers spending decreased. In 2007, revenues from commercial advertising declined 10.1 percent for dailies and 3.2 for magazines according to the Irep. The migration of the ads on the Internet has arranged there.

Between the decline of sales and advertising revenues of the national dailies fell of 1,145 billion euros in 2000 to 848 million in 2007.

• High printing costs

With the distribution, manufacture should be one of the central issues of the States General. Printing costs of the dailies are regularly picks to explain costs highest in France and abroad. Shown the finger, the weight of the Union of the CGT book... recently described as "wart" of the French press by Alain Minc. This close to Nicolas Sarkozy says "disaster State" newspapers by the monopoly of the book inherited from the post-war period.

In a 2006 report, the Institute Montaigne denounced Legion personnel and indicates that on average a worker of the book won 46,000 euros per year versus a median salary of 33.600 for journalists. One thing is certain, the French dailies are often twice as expensive in booths than their British or German.

• Distribution reform

The distribution of newspapers is one of the topics of choice for Nicolas Sarkozy for whom "it is the problem of the press." The French distribution network is much less dense than that of the other major European countries, which penalizes the sales. Since 2006, outlets finally reopened, but the effort must continue. All the players expect the Government boost to develop the portage home widespread among our neighbours. Magazine publishers want for their part that the press is more present in the hypers.

• Competition from Internet and free information

The press is in the Internet age. But revenues therefrom are still low. And especially they do not compensate shortfall pay newspapers competed by the commoditization of free information on the Web and elsewhere. Groups amendment also raised the sensitive issue of the rights of journalists on the Internet. But at the time where he should invest in new media, French press groups suffer particularly from a cruel lack of capital.