Paris (AFP)
A more complicated job, an uncertain distribution and advertising revenues at half mast, but readers eager for local information: at the time of the coronavirus, the regional press reduced the airfoil and opted for digital, in particular to organize mutual aid.
"From the start of the crisis, we clearly saw that there was an issue of social connection with our readers. For the Telegram, it's about helping people to get through this crisis and understand it", believes its editor-in-chief Samuel Petit.
Like most headlines in the regional daily press (PQR), it has drastically reduced the number of local editions and reduced pagination.
Between journalists affected by the virus, those forced to stop (for family reasons or encouraged to take holidays), widespread telework, and the drop in news outside the coronavirus, the newsrooms must review their organization.
"All the local information has disappeared. News in all the departments only revolves around the coronavirus and we risked running in a loop. At the same time, advertising dropped from 100 to zero", explains Jean-Pierre Dorian , editor in chief of Sud Ouest, went from 16 to a single edition.
-Sports and equestrianism -
A drop in advertising which explains that the "Latest news from Alsace" seems less thick, because the editorial volume has remained the same, says its editor Dominique Jung.
In this region particularly hit by the virus, several journalists have been infected. "Our two daily meetings of department heads are done by Skype now, even for people who are in the office. This is another way to avoid too much concentration," he explains.
His counterpart of Progress Xavier Antoyé reduced "all the information-service, which was reduced to the bare minimum, and the sport. We kept our Friday leisure booklet which we renamed + when we can't go out +" .
Due to a lack of races, the horse racing pages have disappeared from Corse-Matin which nevertheless keeps its sports pages by being "less about competition and more about people and the uncertainties about upcoming competitions", specifies Roger Antech, editor in chief.
In Provence, "the escape page has been deleted, it seemed out of place at the moment," said editor Albert Lugassy, whose newspaper reports a drop in sales of around 4,000 paper copies per day.
Some titles had to resort to partial unemployment, such as Midi-Libre, the Telegram, Ouest-France or Le Parisien.
"We have a drop in paper sales because points of sale have closed and people have left, but on the other hand a significant increase in paper subscriptions and a very strong increase in online subscriptions", nuance Guy Abonnenc du Dauphiné Libéré.
- "Legitimate" -
"We remain legitimate", considers Lionel Laparade of La Dépêche, because there remains "a strong demand for local information and clarity on the implementation of national measures", in particular "the question of markets or that of curfews" or "the agricultural problem very present" in his region.
Everywhere, the increase in subscriptions is significant, especially in digital: tripling of the audience at DNA, where web copywriting has been reinforced, almost 50% more audience at Center-France, doubly at La Voix du Nord, almost threefold for the Telegram, "150 to 200 new web subscribers a day compared to 30 previously" in South West, a hundred more a day in La Dépêche, several hundred more a day in Le Progrès ...
On the web, local news organizations organize mutual aid, in particular via Facebook groups. Ouest-France - whose digital content has been switched to free - has for example set up a service exchange operation with the AlloVoisins site.
As for the journalists of France-Antilles, saved in extremis from the liquidation, they work voluntarily on the coronavirus on the net while waiting for the effective recovery of the newspaper.
burs-sr / alu / dlm
© 2020 AFP