What is going on with French Newspaper Industry?

Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, is working on the launch of meetings and consultations in order to alleviate the crisis that knows the France’s newspaper industry. In fact, the circulation and distribution of newspapers are facing problems as well as its edition. This could be explained by the censorship and restrictions imposed to the French press as stated clearly in the article “it is routine for politicians’ offices to change copy and write their own question-and-answer interviews for publication”. Therefore, the content of French newspapers is biased and controlled closely by political parties and politicians and consequently this prevents readers from buying newspapers. Another problem is the cost of printing in France which is high comparing to the one in other European countries as UK or Germany. Furthermore, the control over the newspapers kiosks by Labyrinthine state is also considered as a simulator of the crisis. Another crucial point is the competition that French newspapers are dealing with either from free papers or from internet. People nowadays get more used to internet and all its functions including reading news online. Thus, internet becomes a substitute for newspapers as a source of information. One of the solutions to the French newspaper industry crisis could be decreasing the cost of newspapers and make them more attractive by offering interesting sections to be read by different segments and therefore push them to shift from internet to national newspapers. Moreover, readers should no longer feel this dependency of journalists on political parties in writing articles. This will emphasize the freedom of French press and encourage more people to buy more newspapers. Newspapers are a mass medium reaching a large audience; hence, newspapers should be improved and supported to convey and communicate free thoughts and authentic news.