The French government hopes that by giving away newspapers to citizens aged 18-24 that they will build loyal newspaper readership in the future.

From the New York Times

Newspapers have tried many things to stave off a seemingly relentless decline in readers. Now France is pushing forward with a novel approach: giving away papers to young readers in an effort to turn them into regular customers.

The government Tuesday detailed plans of a project called “My Free Newspaper,” under which 18- to 24-year-olds will be offered a free, yearlong subscription to a newspaper of their choice.

“Winning back young readers is essential for the financial survival of the press, and for its civic dimension,” the culture minister, Frédéric Mitterrand, said.

The project is one of a number of measures, including direct financial subsidies, announced by the government last winter, after a study of the problems facing the newspaper industry.

While newspapers nearly everywhere in the developed world are in crisis, hurt by an advertising slump and readers’ defection to the Internet, the problems are particularly pronounced in France. On a per-capita basis, only about half as many papers are sold as in Britain or Germany, according to the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers in Paris.

Readership in France is especially low among young people. According to a government study, only 10 percent of those aged 15 to 24 read a paid-for newspaper daily in 2007, down from 20 percent a decade earlier.

About 60 publications are participating in the new project. In addition to papers like Le Monde and Le Figaro, they include a variety of local publications, as well as the Paris-based International Herald Tribune, the global edition of The New York Times. Even L’Équipe, a popular sports daily, is taking part.

Costs of the project are being shared by the newspapers and the state, with the government allocating €15 million, or $22.5 million, over three years.

The government said 30,000 people had already signed up for free subscriptions under a preregistration program with individual newspapers; a special Web site will be available soon to speed the process.

Emmanuel Schwartzenberg, a former media editor of Le Figaro who has written a book about the problems of the French press, said he was skeptical about the project. At a time when advertising is in steep decline, newspapers should instead be looking at ways to raise more revenue from readers, rather than giving papers away, he said.

“This just reinforces the belief that newspapers should be free, which is a very bad idea,” Mr. Schwartzenberg said.

French readers young and old already have plenty of free options from which to choose, including newspaper Web sites and the free papers handed out daily in many city centers.

Some bloggers said the new program might hold the most appeal to the few young people who do already read, and buy, newspapers.

The government plans to promote the program with an advertising campaign aimed at young readers and their parents. But, in a sign of the possible challenges involved in attracting young readers to print, the government said the primary outlet for the ads would be the Internet.

 

The government is under the impression that getting young people to sign up means that bthey will actually read the paper they select.  If this was the U.S. you might get some people to read the sports pages or what is left of the classifieds but not much else.  Maybe the French are different but I doubt it. The availability of news on the internet and through smartphones has transformed the newspaper industry.  If you don’t grow up reading a newspaper you are not very likely to suddenly embrace the printed page.

Giving away free newspapers will not solve the readership woes of the industry.  The government would have been better off subsidizing the electronic subscription price of newspapers that are available on e-readers or maybe the e-readers themselves.  The tradeoff would be that the reader would have to view some ads to qualify for the subsidy but it would be a small price to pay for them and a potential boost for the papers and advertisers to reach a key demographic.  But as is usual the government (any government for that matter) is far behind the curve instead of being on the leading edge and that doesn’t bode well for the French.

 

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