The French press: the dailies

French dailies ( "Les quotidiens")

•     Le Figaro, the best-selling of the three, is the only one that is clearly a conservative newspaper. It is also the oldest of France's daily papers, and was founded in 1826. It tends to appeal to well-off educated readers, people with good jobs, particularly in the private sector. It is at the same time the closest French equivalent of the Daily Telegraph and of the Times; yet its average circulation in 2010 (copies sold per day in France) was only 317,000 - only about half of the figure for Britain's Daily Telegraph. (Total daily diffusion, including free copies and copies sold abroad, was 649,000 in 2010). 
•     Le Monde, founded in 1944, is the paper of the establishment, though a paper that is closer in its political positioning to the Guardian in the UK, than it is to the Times. It is the preferred daily of French intellectuals, civil servants, academics, particularly those in the higher echelons. It is the newspaper that gives the most detailed coverage of world events and of politics, and a paper which is a major forum for political and intellectual debate and discussion. Being the newspaper of the establishment, it is also the newspaper that best reflects French opinion on international issues, and the French daily that is most read outside France. It is an evening paper. In 2010 Le Monde's daily sales in France were just 286,000. The paper was the subject of a bitter refinancing clash in 2010, and was eventually  taken over by a trio of top businessmen with left-leaning sympathies.  In autumn 2011, it announced a return to profitability.
•     Libération was founded in 1973 by Jean-Paul Sartre and other left-wing intellectuals, as a newspaper for the '68 generation. Initially it was a newspaper of the far-left, though not one that toed the line of any political party. Over the years, as its readership grew older, "Libé" matured into a more centre-left newspaper, similar in many ways to Britain's "Guardian". It's centrist position became more pronounced after it was saved from collapse by Edouard de Rothschild. However, Rothschild's involvement led to severe tensions among editors and journalists, and the newspaper is still struggling, selling only an average of 113,000 copies a day in 2010.
•     This is much better than a fourth well-known daily, l'Humanité –  founded by the early socialist leader Jean Jaurès.in 1904. From 1920 to 1999, L'Humanité was the unofficial, then official, newspaper of the French Communist Party; since 1999, it has been editorially independent, but is still largely written, produced and promoted by Communist Party members or sympathisers. Its circulation is about 48,000.

• L'Equipe: A newspaper devoted almost exclusively to sport, L'Equipe is one of the best selling of France's national dailies, with a circulation of about  302,000 – not far off that of le Figaro.
• Le Parisien / Aujourd'hui en France : These mid-market tabloids, one for Paris, the other for the rest of France, are more or less the same newspaper with different regional editions: they appeal to the same kind of readership as Britain's Daily Mail, or America's USA Today, and pay plenty of attention to "people" and the glitterati, as well as anecdotal news. Between them in 2009, they had a circulation of 477,000, which would make them the best-selling national title in France if they were a single title. 
• Les Echos: France's equivalent of the Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal, a major national financial and economics daily, with an average circulation of about 120,000. Similar to Les Echos, but with a smaller readership, is La Tribune.
• France Soir:  Once the most popular paper in France, France Soir, a mid-market evening paper,  seems to be in terminal decline; by 2012 its circulation had fallen to about 74,000..... compared to over a million in the 1950's, its heyday. In December 2011, the printed version of France Soir ceased publication. The paper continues to appear as a 100% online newspaper. Website 
• La Croix: though by tradition a Catholic daily, La Croix has in recent years become much more of a mainstream newspaper. With a paid circulation of over 90,000 in 2008 and 94,000 in 2010, it is one of the rare French daily papers to have increased its readership since the start of the century.
• Metro: the leading French free daily, similar to editions of the same title in other countries. Over 300,000 copies distributed in the ten major French cities.

• Ouest France, published in Rennes, is the biggest-selling daily in France, with an average circulation of 758,000 (copies bought) in 2009, down on the previous year.. It is sold, with area variations, in the regions of Brittany, Normandy, and Pays de la Loire
• Sud Ouest: regional daily published in Bordeaux, and distributed throughout Aquitaine, and in parts of Poitou-Charentes and Midi-Pyrénées. With a circulation of over 300,000, it is one of the largest French regional dailies.
• Les Dépêches du Midi: published in Toulouse and sold mostly in the Midi-Pyrénées region, this big-selling regional daily (185,000 copies) reflects the centre-left "radical" political tradition which is strongly anchored in this region.
• L'Est Républicain; regional daily published in Nancy, covering the regions of Lorraine and Franche-Comté; circulation over 200,000
• Midi Libre, published in Montpellier, is sold throughout Languedoc Roussillon and the Aveyron.
• Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace; the regional daily for Alsace

The Sunday press in France

• France Dimanche (published each Friday),  which is largely a people magazine published by the Hachette  group; and
• le JDD, Journal du Dimanche, which could honestly advertise itself using the slogan once misused by one of the UK Sunday papers, as  "Le JDD is the Sunday Papers"  in France. The JDD is a serious Sunday newspaper, and is also published by Hachette.  It is much read in the business community.