[kictanet] Fw: [international_alumni] FRANCE: Sarkozy pledges EUR 600m to help newspapers

[dmakali at yahoo.com]

How about this, daktari. 
Things we like to see and read.
Gudday.
David


Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

-----Original Message-----
From: sree sreenivasan <ss221 at columbia.edu>

Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:17:36 
To: International Alumni<international_alumni at lists.jrn.columbia.edu>
Subject: [international_alumni] FRANCE: Sarkozy pledges EUR 600m to help newspapers


Am curious if any other country is doing anything similar...

France: Sarkozy pledges EUR 600m to newspapers
<http://www.ejc.net/media_news/france_sarkozy_pledges_eur_600m_to_newspapers/>

The French president Nicolas Sarkozy Friday announced EUR 600m in
emergency aid for his country's troubled newspaper industry and
declared that every 18-year-old in France would get a year's free
subscription to the paper of their choice to boost reading habits. The
crisis-hit French press is among the least profitable in Europe,
stifled by rigid communist print unions, a lack of kiosks selling
papers and a declining readership far below that of the UK or Germany.
Sarkozy said the aid package was not an attack on press freedom. The
French state gives EUR 1.5bn in direct and indirect state aid to the
press each year. Sarkozy likened the press to any other industry in
need of aid, such as the automobile sector. Sarkozy's measures
included a year's free, state-subsidised newspaper subscription for
all teenagers from their 18th birthday. He extended tax breaks for
investors in online journalism and said the state would double its
advertising in print and online papers. Rules would be changed to
allow investors outside Europe to take higher stakes in French titles.
Papers in France are sold almost exclusively in a limited number of
kiosks or specialist shops and there is a lack of newsagents. Sarkozy
said he would increase sales points, loosen rules and pump aid into
distributing papers to readers' front doors. The number one problem is
the cost of printing in France, with printworks tightly controlled by
the communist union, Le Livre, which has rigid hours and protections.
Sarkozy said the state would support negotiations with printers'
unions to reduce the costs by 30-40 percent.

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