Presse locale et organisations territoriales : la Presse Hebdomadaire Régionale//Local weeklies and spatial structure

Abstract

The French local weekiy press has not been investigated as much as the great national or regional dailies. Nevertheless, the French weekly press is important: 250 titles, 3 million newpapers, for an estimated readership of 15 million. A cartographic analysis shows the places where the weekly local press is most present: isolated and rural areas (south of the Massif Central), rural parts of industrial regions in the north of France. In some places, the weekly local press is the most widely read (sometimes by more than 80 % of the inhabitants). Conversely, there is no weekly regional press in some regions : Champagne, Lorraine. It is possible to assume that the areas covered by such papers shows some geographical cohesion. However, the analysis of Haute Normandie (the French region where the density of weeklies is one of the most important) shows a more complex reality. The local newpapers' diffusion areas often correspond with well-identified sub-regional units. But they are not very present in the places which have undergone significant demographic changes, like the suburban areas. In a context of globalisation, the weekly regional press may appear anachronistic, but the increasing number of titles in France shows that the weekly regional press has become an important element of local Systems in France. A real local development implies local democracy, and there is no democracy if citizens do not have a plurality of sources of information.