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Former Le Monde director to launch new French weekly

Eric Fottorino, former director of Le Monde is to launch a new weekly news magazine called Le 1 (The One), AFP has reported. The “weekly of ideas” will deal with just one theme, tackled from a variety of different angles, a combination of literary journalism and reportage. “We are a sort of enfant terrible of the Economist and The New Yorker” Fottorino quipped to the AFP.

by WAN-IFRA Staff executivenews@wan-ifra.org | March 11, 2014

The weekly will cost €2.80 and have a print run of 30 000.

The project was conceived by Fottorino with his former right hand man at Le Monde Laurent Greilsamer. Fottorino struck a note of optimism talking to AFP, “I think the print press, which is suffering from its content, has not had the last word. It’s a question of what is being offered.”

The move surprised many, with AFP describing his position as “atypical” and Les Échos stating that the economic climate was “not the most favourable”. The project has just one backer, Henry Hermand, who made his fortune in commercial real estate and previously financed the discontinued daily Le Matin de Paris.

But in a climate where there is a new weekly newspaper in Australia, Newsweek is returning to print, and traditionally online-only outlets such as PitchforkPolitico and Pando all establishing a print edition, it is reasonable to ask: is print undergoing a revival?

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