Nikos Smyrnaios and Franck Bousquet, In Ramón Salaverría (ed.), Diversity of Journalisms, Proceedings of the ECREA Journalism Studies Section and 26th International Conference of Communication (CICOM) at University of Navarra, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011, p. 347-358

1. Nikos Smyrnaios and Franck Bousquet LERASS, Université Toulouse 3 The development of local online journalism in South-Western France: the case of La Dépêche du Midi

3. The Daily Regional Press in France 61 local/regional dailies around the country Sales of 5 million newspapers everyday 17 million readers: most read daily newspaper in France => Ouest France Local monopolies in print, advertising, TV,radio Significant political, cultural and economic influence on territories Developping digital strategies but still far behind national media on the web Facing significant competition on the web (e.g. city-guides and journalistic pure-players)

4. La Dépêche du Midi Established in 1870, belongs to the Baylet family since 1927 Includes several print media and a participation in a TV channel. Owner: senator, head of Conseil Général and president of the Radical Party Newspaper covers area with a population of 3 million (biggest city Toulouse, 1 million), 18 local editions, daily sales of 190 000, 600 000 daily readers 2008: a deficit of 7,5M€ 2009: 80 lay offs on a total of 1040 employees Profit of 1,7M€ for a turnover of 118M€

5. La Dépêche Interactive Established in 1997, group’ s digital subsidiary initially was a web agency Paid by the group and by other clients for digital services 2007 strategic shift: La Dépêche Interactive buys the newspaper’s content and produces ladepeche.fr website Focus on increasing trafic and advertising Spectacular rise : from 167K UV in 2007 to 3M UV in 2011 Company broke even in 2009 8 employees in 2010: 4 « editorial webmasters », 2 executives, 1 SEO specialist, 1 advertiser Physically and symbolically separated from the newspaper staff, different status, different offices, no communication between journalists and webmasters purely marketing approach => website as « a trafic/money machine » Head of digital subsidiary also Director of marketing for the group

8. How does the digital newsroom work ? Various tasks performed daily in the digital newsroom: Content prioritization : composing the 26 news items for the newsletter, (100k subscribers) and the homepage Objective => strike a balance between generating traffic and defending the medium’ s image Systematically hightlighting high traffic potential content: sport, crime, scabrous stories But also… Equilibrating with politics, international affairs and cultural news Reflecting a territorial balance by putting forward news from different local editions Prioritization seen as an important responsability by webmasters => journalistic prerogative