A QUESTION OF TRUST

Growing mistrust, marked disinterest, generational divides... Does journalism still have a future at a time when 26% of French people, all generations combined, say they get their information on the Internet via social networks rather than through the media*? Why are they no longer interested? How can we repair a link that is weakening? What journalistic content should be offered to attract an increasingly critical readership? Edouard Reis Carona, editor-in-chief of Ouest-France, takes stock.

IS OUEST-FRANCE A REGIONAL NEWSPAPER OR A NATIONAL DAILY?

Both! Whether an event is happening nearby or on the other side of the world, our job is to cover it with the same rigour, with an editorial ambition that does not oppose the local, the national and the international, but that includes the village and the world. Ouest-France has always had international, national and European editorial departments that complement a particularly dense regional network. At the local level, Ouest-France can count on some sixty editorial offices spread throughout its territory and on a network of more than 3,000 local correspondents. At national and international level, the title relies on its various departments and a network of 200 freelance correspondents, spread throughout the world. This is what allows our readers to access all the information every day, without needing another newspaper. Ouest-France is a comprehensive, generalist, popular daily newspaper, accessible to all, with the lowest price per issue in France.

680 000

COPIES OF ITS PAPER EDITION EVERY DAY. INCLUDING ITS DIGITAL VERSIONS, THE TITLE REACHES

23 MILLIONS

READERS EACH MONTH.

THE PRESS IS SOMETIMES ACCUSED OF NOT OFFERING AN ACCURATE REFLECTION OF THE STATE OF THE WORLD. HAVE YOU SEEN CERTAIN PREVIOUSLY MARGINAL THEMES GAIN MORE EDITORIAL WEIGHT IN RECENT YEARS?

Two themes have taken on a new importance. The Yellow Vests crisis has highlighted a real gap between a section of citizens and the media, which is accused of being the sole voice of the powerful. We have sought to correct this perception by placing even greater emphasis on the notion of local reporting and investigations, by covering more issues of daily life, purchasing power... The other major topic that is emerging is the environment and the climate issue, which has become an essential cross-cutting angle of our editorial project. We are gradually training all our journalists to integrate this dimension into their daily work, at every stage. We provide them with a set of tools to help them do this. As with other issues such as gender or equality, we have also set up skills networks that bring together journalists who are experts in a given sub- ject. To take the example of the trial of the Bataclan attacks, all those who covered the subject in our columns are police-justice specialists.

LIKE OTHER PRINT MEDIA, OUESTFRANCE HAS GONE DIGITAL. HOW DOES YOUR ONLINE WORK FIT IN WITH THE PRINTED EDITION?

We do not want to oppose different forms of media and we do not write either for the print edition or for the web, but in order to produce quality journalistic content. Only when it is ready do we ask ourselves what is the best way to distribute it. We are fortunate to have different desks that handle events at different levels. The first one follows the information in real time and covers the news as closely as possible, in a web first logic. A few hours later, the initial information is reworked with the help of journalists and specialized departments, whose job is to enrich the viewpoint and bring expertise to a content that can be put online or directed to the print edition, depending on the case. The two universes complement each other and do not clash; neither medium cannibalizes the other. Even if the number of web subscribers should eventually exceed the number of print subscribers, the two curves are growing in parallel.

IT IS OFTEN SAID THAT JOURNALISTS LOOK ALIKE, COME FROM THE SAME SCHOOLS, SHARE THE SAME POINTS OF VIEW... HOW DO YOU ENSURE THE DIVERSITY OF THE TEAMS?

This issue is partly related to that of gender equality. In recent years, OuestFrance has implemented a proactive HR policy to work on equal pay, to allow more women journalists to reach management positions and to achieve a better balance in editorial departments that were once more male-dominated. Out of ten journalists recruited today at Ouest-France, six or seven are women. In terms of diver-

A Broken Link

According to the annual La Croix barometer, the relationship between the media and the French is not going well, and the French are less and less interested in the news. In 2022, only 62% of those surveyed were still interested in the media, a drop of five points in one year. The trend is even more pronounced among 18-24 years old, only 38% of whom are interested in current events, which is 13 points less than in 2021. In the hit parade of criticisms expressed by the respondents, it is the reliability of journalists’ work that is highlighted: only 44% of those questioned believe that the media provide reliable and verified information and 62% consider that journalists are not independent of political power. There is a paradox that also offers a glimmer of hope: despite this crisis of confidence, the media are still considered important tools for the proper functioning of democracy. 83% of those surveyed said they expect journalists «to point out false information that is being disseminated.” sity, we seek to recruit profiles that are as representative as possible of society as a whole. The journalism schools help us in this by recruiting students who are probably more different from each other than in the past. This also involves a form of internationalisation: I have personally recruited an Argentinean in digital, a Brazilian for social networks...

IS YOUR READERSHIP REPRESENTATIVE OF SOCIETY OR ARE CERTAIN PROFILES OVER-REPRESENTED?

The fact that 70% of the Internet users who visit our website do not live in the west of France shows that Ouest-France has become a national news player. In the regions and in print, our readership is still rather old and rural, very attached to a newspaper to which they often remain subscribers all their lives. The challenge is to make this audience younger, which requires both content and a suitable subscription offer: younger people do not always have €35 or €40 to spend each month on a medium.

*Opinion poll for La Croix, 2022.