French newspaper goes electronic

It's not like this is the first e-newspaper we've seen, but France's Les Echos is now offering up an electronic flavor of its product to those with an iRex iLiad or STAReBook. Oh, and the Amazon Kindle, too as you'll recall from that little inadvertently mentioned tidbit from their press release. Reportedly, the e-paper edition "will include whole articles just like in the printed" version, but unlike the traditional medium, those with e-readers will receive constant updates of the day's hottest stories and will actually be able to read the 6:00AM print edition at 9:00PM the night prior. Notably, the newfangled Les Echos edition will cost a stiff €365 ($506) per year if you provide your own reader, and for those of us far, far away from the Eiffel Tower, check out a video demonstration after the jump.

[Via MobileRead]
Read - Press Release [PDF]
Read - Photos of Les Echos e-newspaper
Read - Videos of Les Echos e-newspaper

[Gil @ Sep 14th 2007 5:47AM]

That's 1€ per day. Big newspapers cost 1.50€

[niels @ Sep 14th 2007 5:53AM]

This means the paper+printing costs 50 cents?

[shaliron @ Sep 14th 2007 5:58AM]

I think this is a nice view into how we'll read newspapers in the future. It'll be a boon on public transport, so that reading the morning paper can be doe without elbowing the passengers next to you. Saves paper as well.

But nothing beats holding a real newspaper though.

[Jon @ Sep 14th 2007 6:11AM]

Except pesky papers that are still printed full size. Dailies needs to move to a smaller size, like the Berliner, which I love.

[matt @ Sep 14th 2007 6:02AM]

This is what I've always seen as the biggest market for e-readers. Take it a step further, and have multiple subscriptions to various newspapers (and if color e-ink comes to fruitation with good enough color) and have one device that constantly gets news updates throughout the day - like an RSS reader on paper. The first company that sets up an easy to use subscription purchase (along with getting the intial cost of the e-reader down, and making them with style) will make a minor fortune.

[eparody @ Sep 14th 2007 6:11AM]

All details are here (sorry in french) :
http://www.lesechos.fr/epaper

The subscribers also receive a separate newsfeed from AFP (a PDF file also updated every hour) and some books (for example travelers guides)

(Disclosure: I work for Les Echos just ask if you need more info)

[Bad Beaver @ Sep 14th 2007 7:02AM]

I think the more interesting part is that the iLiad just got updated! Too bad it is still so expensive... gets evermore attractive though.

What it strikingly absent from this video is the user taking notes or copying text from the paper...

[OlivierB @ Sep 14th 2007 7:03AM]

That price is ridiculous.
Le Monde offers a electronic sibscription to a FULL PDF of their paper, with none of this DRM crap for €15/month.

You can read it on almost anything, full color, full graphics. Exact smae laout as the print.
More importantly, you can save them on your hard drive and search for anything you like with Google Desktop for example.

DRM sucks, and I don't want to pay for content which could be unreadable in 3 or 5 years because the hardware manufacturer went bankrupt.

So in essnce. good idea but too expensive and DRm really gives it the blow of death

[Jon @ Sep 14th 2007 10:43AM]

RTFA.

[jaapv @ Sep 14th 2007 7:08AM]

How much it cost 'including' eReader?

[Bad Beaver @ Sep 14th 2007 7:11AM]

The reader is €649.

[eparody @ Sep 14th 2007 7:12AM]

Olivier: we have no DRM on that epaper, and by the way you can view the file on your PC as well. The point is not to have a full PDF of the newspaper (Les Echos also have a digital edition) but to keep the edition updated during the day with a lot of new features.
For example you when you read an article, you can check the updated stock market graph below the article on your device (even if you are offline of course).

[coffeepot64 @ Sep 14th 2007 7:51AM]

How do you get updates when you are not online?

[Will @ Sep 14th 2007 8:37AM]

How do you update anything if you're not on line?! :-p I'm pretty sure it's got wifi built in...

[eparody @ Sep 14th 2007 8:34AM]

I mean you udpate the content online and you keep the latest graphs and market datas when offline. May be it sounds not so impressive but you save a lot money compared to the cost of data transfer on a mobile phone.

[FrankTheCrank @ Sep 14th 2007 8:36AM]

Fa deux fa fa...

[NHAnimator @ Sep 14th 2007 9:59AM]

"will actually be able to read the 6:00AM print edition at 9:00PM the night prior"

So if an accident/fire/terrorist attack is going to happen at 10pm and later be reported in the next day's 6am edition, you'll know about it at 9pm and be able to avoid it. Awesome! (Now... about those lottery numbers...)

[oshean @ Sep 14th 2007 10:03AM]

Engadget reports news 24/7. What do you think about that froggy Les Echos?

[eparody @ Sep 14th 2007 10:39AM]

> Nope NHAnimator ... The same edition is updated every hour after 6am, it means the same file receive new stories till 9pm. In fact at 6am the edition is almost what you get with the print edition.

> Oshean, I m fine with Engadget but we're not talking about the same kind of stories. Even an Engadget reader can understand that, right?

[Alex @ Sep 14th 2007 5:09PM]

Is it a joke? Why would I carry this extra bulky device?

It's like an extra crappy laptop. I already have one, which can play videos in full color, store my entire photo collection, my email and the entire Internet with social networking. BTW, I paid $900 for this perfect TabletPC with touchscreen.

Somebody said we will read newspapers like this in future? I say future is much brighter then that ;-)

Have you seen HTC or iPhone lately? ePaper could have been of some use 5 years ago. Not today. Way tooooo late.

As for a single place with all the newspapers, nothing can beat http://www.PressDisplay.com and you pay just $9.95/month to access all 500 newspaper replicas. Think!

[jack loel @ Oct 26th 2007 6:48AM]

i need the email address for the french media . television and newspapers . story will follow thank you jack loel