How will we read: Newspapers

There are many more ways to read news material these days, thanks to the internet.  The internet makes news easy to get, requiring nothing more than the click of a mouse or the touch of your finger.  The internet gives us many more places to get our news, whether that is the online version of our favorite newspaper, our favorite blog, or one of many social media outlets.  The internet also allows us to focus in more depth on the news that really matters to us and simply ignore all the news that doesn’t.  Since 2008, more people have gotten their news from the internet than from newspapers, and the latter continue to decline. So what does this mean for the future of those printed newspapers that keep piling up on the kitchen table or being thrown out often unopened?  And if the adults are reading less of the printed versions, what will the younger generations be doing in the not too distant future? If you are creative and innovative enough, you can re-invent any business in decline, right?  Even the struggling business of printed newspapers? The creators of America’s bestselling curriculum-based product, Brain Quest, are proving that when it comes to kids and even their parents – yes, you can. Using the funds made in America from Brain Quest sales (the phenomenon celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with 36 million copies in print), Play Bac launched Mon Quotidien, the first daily newspaper for kids, in 1995. Le Petit Quotidien and L’Actu followed in 1998.  The three dailies currently have about 150,000 subscribers and 2 million readers in France. Editor in Chief and co-founder of Play Bac, Francois Dufour, recently chatted with me about his follow up to Brain Quest and why he believes there is a future for printed dailies for kids. What do you believe is so unique about your proposition for kids? We have no competition in France.  Le Petit Quotidien (7 years and up), Mon Quotidien (10 – 14 years), and L’Actu (14 and up) are the only daily papers available for kids aged 7 to 17, 6 days a week.   Our concept is about getting kids to read for at least 10 minutes a day. In terms of our uniqueness?   How about 99% of our readers keep all the issues.  And how about 1 father out of 2 and 2 moms out of 3 also read our newspapers for kids.