La Tribune Dimanche goes on sale in landscape of declining print sales, culture wars and scrutiny of billionaire proprietors
In a small office in northern Paris, journalists are preparing for an extremely rare and somewhat risky event: the launch of the first new print newspaper in“With the Covid crisis, people rediscovered long-form articles and books – they want a special moment of reading time at the weekend, which is what we’re appealing to,” said Jean-Christophe Tortora, president of La Tribune Dimanche, a new Sunday paper that goes on sale this weekend.
Tortora stressed that the launch of La Tribune Dimanche was a longstanding project and was not about going to war with rival papers, but it enters the market at the moment when France’s only standalone Sunday paper, Sales figures for Le Journal du Dimanche have been kept closely guarded. It lost €1.5m through the 40-day strike and was already considered in difficulty before the takeover. Sales for the first issue under the new regime in August were reported by Le Figaro as about 61,000 – considered respectable and put down to an element of curiosity. The satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné reported this week that sales were down to about 49,000 but this figure was not confirmed.
Tortora had just finished a tour of France, meeting readers in bistros and bars from Toulouse to Saint Malo. “We found there’s a demand for a paper whose tone is calm and not anxiety inducing, which is not an opinion paper, which is not courting voters, doesn’t play on fears and is sincere and independent. On a Sunday, French people eat with family and friends, they don’t want us to divide the nation. The issue of independence was mentioned a lot.
Billionaires do not invest in French newspapers for a strong return on their money, as most are loss-making, said Nicolas Kaciaf, a media sociologist at Sciences Po Lille university. Instead acquiring newspapers could be seen as a form of prestige or leverage.
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