The sports press market - France

The sports press includes titles dealing with sports and sports news. Sports press titles can be found in both the magazine and newspaper segments, with a wide variety of formats (newspaper or magazine) and publication frequencies: daily, weekly or monthly. The sports press does not include the automotive and motorcycle press. The global press market is very continent-specific. The paper format is very popular in China and India, two giants in terms of audience. However, in Europe and North America, the paper format is gradually losing ground to digital. In France, the sports press is a sub-segment of the press market. In fact, paid circulation in France for the sports press represents 0.77% of paid circulation for all mainstream press. Nonetheless, this niche has a number of special features that make it particularly interesting in today's changing press sector. Indeed, following the trend in the magazine market (for which a Businesscootstudy is available here), the sports press is experiencing a decline in physical sales. Paid circulation (number of sales), up 61.5% between 2021 and 2022 , conceals the reality of a sector that has struggled to recover from the pandemic, and is still reporting 22% fewer sales than in 2019. Publishers' advertising revenues are also in decline, and the transition to digital is generating losses from advertisers who are not yet convinced by the new formats. However, revenues from online presence can offset the decline in revenues from traditional press formats. We can also observe that players in the sports press market are engaged in a strategy of refocusing on their core business, as illustrated by the sale of Le Parisien to LVMH by the Amaur group. The Amaury group's sale of Le Parisien to LVMH is a case in point, but they are also developing their digital offering, and specializing their product range to meet a highly diverse demand. What's more, despite the decline in print circulation, the French continue to be drawn to sporting activities and newspapers, while the market is regularly renewed by the emergence of new practices and international events.