Distribution strike hits French newspapers

A strike by distribution workers kept French national papers off news-stands yesterday, forcing readers to turn to the internet.

The strike was the latest action in a campaign by workers against plans to overhaul NMPP, the cooperative that has distributed most French national papers since 1947.

Newspapers from the left-wing Liberation to the conservative Le Figaro were affected. Most offered downloadable pdf copies of yesterday's paper free of charge on their websites, in addition to their usual online versions. Like print media in other countries, the French press has been suffering from slack advertising revenue, declining profitability and growing challenges from the internet. But French papers also suffer from a distribution system that publishers have long condemned as costly and inefficient.