Why read the regional press today?

Abstract

Although its audience continues to decline, the regional press sells more copies than national newspapers and newsmagazines and remains the reference for printed information in France. This article examines why one would read the regional press today by analysing interviews with readers. It is taken from my thesis and was preceded by a content analysis of the french regional press. The reading motivations appear to be stable over time. One does not choose his “favorite newspaper”. Most of the times a reader inherits a reading habit from his family, otherwise he reads what is available where he is used to lunch. It then exists two ways of reading the regional press: a geographical one, which is focused on the different scales of territory, and a thematical one, which relies on centers of interest (sport, classified ads, obituaries…). In both ways, the regional press is far from what it claims to be its mission, i.e. facilitating the public sphere, but it helps maintain social links by transmitting practical information and local news. It can not be considered as the public sphere itself, but remains an element of it. On the readers’ point of view, it appears to be complementary to other media, particularly digital, and to everyday conversations. This observation is an invitation to redefine the local public sphere in a more open, fragmented and dynamic way. It can be achieved by opening the concept of public sphere to new dimensions such as oral interactions (Arendt), cross-analysis of territory scales (Lacoste), and socialization processes (Elias, Percheron).