Will free papers be able to save deteriorating sales?

Struggling newspaper sales have been a topic of conversation all over the world, and that includes France, but the French approach to saving this diminishing market is much different from that of others.

Eric Pfanner, of the New York Times, wrote about France’s plan to win back newspaper subscriptions and revenue; to give away newspapers in an attempt to gain regular consumers. This plan, called “My Free Newspaper,” offers 18 to 24-year-olds a free, yearlong subscription to a newspaper of their choice, with hopes that they will then continue to buy and read the newspapers when that year ends.

This may seem like a drastic measure, but France is facing drastic circumstances, even in comparison to the dwindling sales everywhere else; on a per-capita basis, only about half as many papers are sold in France then are in Germany and Britain, according to the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers in Paris.

France’s newspapers, much like elsewhere, are in crisis mode due to an advertising slump and readers’ movement to the internet for news sources, but customers are especially low among young people. A government study found that in 2007, only 10 percent of people aged 15 to 24 are reading a paid-for newspaper daily, which is only half of what that number was 10 years ago.

This certainly sounds like an innovative idea to me, but I had many questions upon reading the first paragraph, like, how will they pay for this, because if this doesn’t turn out customers after the year ends like they are hoping it will, how will they make up for what sounds like a pretty significant loss? The article said that the costs of the project will be shared by the government and the newspapers, with the government contributing $22.5 million over three years, which will certainly help.

Another problem that I found with the idea is that I would imagine that many of the people that will subscribe to this free year’s worth of newspapers are people that already pay to read papers daily, so, essentially, the newspapers might simply maintain consumers, rather than gain consumers. In response to that, the article said that over 30,000 people have already signed up for the free subscriptions, so let’s hope that these people keep their subscription when it comes time to pay for it.

This certainly sounds very interesting, but hopefully it will prove to be a success, more importantly. I receive a newspaper daily, and I enjoy reading it, and I can only hope that sales will increase so we don’t have to face possibly losing such a long-standing tradition.