From Euphoria to Rationalization. The Daily Press in French-Speaking Belgium

Abstract

A constant erosion of sales and readership, a decline in the number of news-paper companies and titles, a move towards a highly concentrated structure of ownership, and the death of many partisan newspapers are the central features of the post-war evolution of the french speaking daily newspaper press in Belgium. In a rather small, but highly competitive regional market, since 1945 the press has undergone a transition from a strong partisan orientation to one wholly based on industrial and commercial considerations. This article lokks at this post-war development 'from heyday to decline', adressing both factors of crisis and strategies of adaptation such as the increased local orientation of the bulk of the french-speaking dailies. As problems of adaptation to the new logic of industrialism brought about a severe crisis of the traditional partisan newspaper, especially the leftist ones, the second part of this article offers a more detailed, historical case by case analyses of their decline.