IFRA

Philippe Jannet is general manager responsible for the Internet and digital activities of the DI Group (the media branch of LVMH, shareholder of the business daily newspaper, Les Echos).

IFRA: You juggle with practically all the possible formats for reading your newspaper. Does that mean a lot of work in preparing the data for the different formats (other than paper)? Have you discovered how to automate some production processes?

Philippe Jannet: Everything is automated, we started out from the editorial system at Les Echos (editor’s note: Wedia) that we had developed to suit our requirements. Our in-house IT team and the newspaper’s web team came up with a very suitable XML. We are working also with SDV Plurimedia who are helping us to adapt the XSLT. In the final instance, today is not very complicated to automate a production workflow.

IFRA: Which ‘digital’ distribution carrier(s) should a publisher favour if he wishes to offer mobile-based reading of his newspaper?

Philippe Jannet: It is not necessary to select a carrier. We do not have the choice, we must be available to our readers wherever they are and whenever they need our content. If XML is well structured from the beginning, putting on a mobile, website or e-paper version costs practically nothing. We must stay in contact with our readers. It is vital, for example, to avoid having to go through mobile phone operators. It is necessary to keep direct contact. With the Internet and mobile Internet, we have found this direct contact and even more so with e-paper. The big temptation of the phone operators is to get the subscribers, but be careful!

IFRA: How do you see the future for e-paper products such as those offered by NewspaperDirect of Pressmart? And especially their developments (digital kiosk, interactive advertising)? Are you satisfied with these tools Les Echos ?

Philippe Jannet: For me, the real e-paper is on an e-reader. The other forms are PC-based digital editions. We offer these digital editions, but they are not the big success of the year and are not what readers will call for in the future. The danger is also to add an intermediary for the newspaper. I prefer it when it is me who sells directly.

IFRA: Do you think that advertisers can also find their place in these new reading spaces? Are the readers of ‘digital paper’ taken into account in the readership?

Philippe Jannet: Integrating advertising is not a real problem. We took due account of the fact that on our e-reader there should perhaps be fewer ads but that they should be more visible, larger, and we adjusted their presentation accordingly. We also developed a software that allows placing the ads on the pages, a bit like is done today on the Internet. However, this still means that the advertiser should offer a mini-site or advertorial to explain his product. Our e-paper readership is highly interesting in terms of business profile, in this way we attract some advertisers. But e-paper is not counted by the Audit Bureau of Circulation because it differs too much from the print version: for example, the print advertisers are not included. Advertising on e-paper or even the mobile phone is in the same situation that the Internet was in some ten years ago, it will still be some time before the advertisers are ready.