By supporting the dissemination of the press, the Ministry of Culture helps to guarantee freedom of the press, pluralism of expression, information for the citizen and the conditions of democratic debate.
Presentation of the device
What is aid to national daily political and general news with low advertising resources?
Support for national daily political and general information with low advertising resources aims to support titles that benefit structurally from low advertising revenues given their editorial positioning and titles that are experiencing cyclical financial difficulties.
Support for national daily political and general information with low advertising resources is divided into three sections.
- The aid granted under Section 1 benefits dailies meeting certain conditions relating to the average selling price, distribution and circulation and, finally, the percentage of advertising revenue in their total revenue (less than 25%).
- Aid granted under Section 2 shall be granted to dailies which are not eligible for Section 1 on the basis of the price criterion.
- Aid granted under Section 3 shall be granted to dailies which have received aid under Section 1 for at least three years but may no longer benefit from it on account of their price or advertising revenue, and whose advertising revenues represent less than 35% of the company’s total revenues.
Am I concerned by this approach?
The aid is reserved for national daily newspapers with a minimum publication of 5x/week, recognised by the Joint Commission on Publications and News Agencies as having a political and general information character.
Eligibility criteria vary depending on the fund’s sections:
*Section 1*
- To have a selling price per issue between 80% and 130% of the average selling price weighted by the annual distribution in France of national daily political and general information, the said average selling price is calculated from the number selling price on 1 January of the year in which the aid was granted;
- Have an average circulation not exceeding 250,000 copies and an average circulation in France not exceeding 150,000 copies in the fiscal year preceding the year of grant;
- Having advertising revenues that accounted for less than 25% of total revenues.
*Section 2*
- Not be eligible for the 1st section of the fund;
- To have a selling price per issue of less than 130% of the average selling price weighted by the annual distribution in France of national daily political and general information;
- Have an average circulation not exceeding 250,000 copies and a paid circulation in France not exceeding 150,000 copies in the fiscal year preceding the year of grant;
- Having advertising revenues that accounted for less than 25% of total revenues.
*Section 3*
- Have received aid under the 1st section for at least 3 years;
- To have a selling price per issue of less than 80% of the average selling price weighted by the annual distribution in France of national daily political and general information;
- Have advertising revenues that accounted for less than 35% of total revenues.
No aid may be paid to publications:
- the contents of which resulted in a conviction by the Director of the publication which became final in the five years preceding the application for aid, pursuant to articles 24 or 24 bis the law of 29 July 1881 on press freedom;
- who do not meet the conditions laid down in the first paragraph of Article 30 of Decree No. 55-486 of 30 April 1955*;
- who have received support for the National Book Centre’s journals in the year preceding the year in which the support was granted;
- which are a selection of articles already published in other titles.
*Article 30, paragraph 1 of the Decree of 30 April 1955: "Natural or legal persons who apply for grants, grants, loans and guarantees of an economic or social nature provided for by the legislation and regulations in force must show that the situation is in order, both with regard to the bodies responsible for managing social security services and with regard to the administrations responsible for collecting taxes and taxes".
Proceeding
The amount of the grant is approximately €10.35 million, distributed among 8 beneficiaries.
In 2021, aid to national daily political and general information newspapers with low advertising resources benefited 8 dailies for a total amount of €10,273,239.
The grant takes the form of operating aid. It is awarded annually to each publishing structure on behalf of its publication(s). It’s a one-time payment in the fall of 2023.
The aid fund is divided into three sections. The allocation of appropriations between these sections is made by the Director-General for Media and Cultural Industries.
*Section 1*
A unit subsidy rate is obtained by dividing the appropriations available under Section 1 by the circulation figure, corrected, of all eligible dailies in Section 1.
For each daily newspaper, the corrected distribution figure corresponds to the difference between twice a reference value, fixed annually by joint decree of the Minister responsible for the budget and the Minister responsible for communication, and the number of copies actually sold by that daily in the year preceding the year in which the aid was granted.
The aid allocated to each daily is equal to the unit rate of subsidy multiplied by the distribution figure for that daily’s adjusted data.
*Section 2*
A unit subsidy rate shall be obtained by dividing the appropriations available under Section 2 by the number of copies actually sold in the year preceding the year in which the aid was granted by all the dailies eligible under Section 2.
The aid allocated to each daily shall be equal to the unit rate of subsidy multiplied by the number of copies actually sold by that daily in the year preceding the year in which the aid was granted.
*Section 3*
A unit subsidy rate shall be obtained by dividing the appropriations available under Section 3 by the number of copies actually sold, in the year preceding the year in which the aid was granted, by all the dailies eligible for Section 3.
The aid allocated to each daily shall be equal to the unit rate of subsidy multiplied by the number of copies actually sold by that daily in the year preceding the year in which the aid was granted.
The amount of aid granted to a publication may not exceed 25% of its total revenue, excluding public subsidies, for the year preceding the year in which the aid was granted.
- Filing opens: May 19, 2023
- Application deadline: June 30, 2023, at 11:59 pm (Paris time). No files can be considered after this date.
- Announcement of results: Fall 2023, by mail and email.
- To access the online form, click on the "Access the online form" button at the bottom of the page.
- Log in or create an account, then let yourself be guided.
A question?
If you have any questions about support for national daily political and general information with low advertising resources, please contact the Office of the Economic Regime:
Media and Cultural Industries Branch (CMIB)
Office for the Economic Regime of the Press
pluralisme.presse@culture.gouv.fr
01 40 15 33 70
182 Rue Saint-Honoré, 75001 Paris
Other aid for media pluralism
In order to guarantee the pluralism of the press, the Ministry of Culture offers various aids to the press services:
- Support for the pluralism of regional and local periodicals
- Support for pluralism in all-online news services
- Aid for the pluralism of overseas titles
- Support for national publications of political and general information with low advertising resources (PFRP)
- Support for national daily political and general information with low advertising resources (QFRP): on this page
- Assistance to regional, departmental and local daily newspapers of political and general information with low resources of classifieds (QFRPA)