On the occasion of the 77th World News Media Congress organized in Marseille, a Toluna Harris Interactive survey reveals a more reassuring reality than it seems: the French continue to trust the press, but expect a profound transformation from it to respond to new digital uses.
It is a rare event that Marseille will host from tomorrow Monday and for three days, thirty years after the last edition organized in France: the 77th World News Media Congress, organized at the Palais du Pharo by the World Newspaper Association (WAN-IFRA) with the CMA group Media. This international meeting, which will bring together media executives from around the world, editors, editorial staff and digital players, will address the changes in a sector shaken by disinformation, artificial intelligence or new ways of obtaining information. It is also to better understand how the French obtain information that a major Toluna Harris Interactive survey for CMA Media was carried out. An invigorating investigation for the profession, because it tells a reality that is very different from the often alarmist story about the future of the media.
Contrary to a widely held idea, the press has not disappeared from the daily lives of the French. The results of this study carried out among 1,059 French people paint, in fact, a much more nuanced landscape than the often alarmist narrative surrounding the future of the media. Nearly eight in ten French people (77%) say they continue to get information from newspapers and magazines, whether they are consulted on paper or in digital form. Even more significant, 68% consider that the press remains essential for understanding current events. Even when it is no longer the first reflex of information, it retains an essential role of deciphering and putting into perspective.
AI perceived as a threat
This credibility is found in the confidence indicators. As the 2027 presidential election approaches, newspapers and magazines appear to be the second medium considered most reliable for following the electoral campaign (37%), behind television (64%), but ahead of radio (33%). They are far ahead of social networks, influencers and artificial intelligence (AI) tools, whose growth fuels more questions than support. Because the other major lesson of the study concerns precisely AI. More than one in two users (51%) say they use it more than two years ago to get information. However, only 39% say they trust her and 63% of French people consider her a threat to the press.
A paradox which reinforces, implicitly, the added value of journalistic work. In a universe saturated with content, the missions of verification, prioritization and contextualization – that is to say the very essence of journalism – appear more necessary than ever.
The desire for press still there
It is precisely this question that will be at the heart of the debates at the Palais du Pharo. The study also invites us to overcome certain preconceived ideas about the younger generations. 18-24 year olds are not deserting information; they are changing their consumption patterns. Short videos, mobile content, social networks and visual formats now constitute their main gateways to news. The challenge for publishers is therefore not to convince young people to be interested in information, but to offer them formats adapted to their uses.
The conclusion of the survey undoubtedly comes down to a formula: the French do not want less press; they want a different press. A press capable of preserving its fundamentals – independence, expertise, investigation and verification – while fully investing in a wide range of formats. When asked about the formats to be developed as a priority, the responses are divided between paper (28%), video (26%), explanation and decryption formats (25%), as well as social and live network formats (24%). More than a crisis of survival, it is therefore a crisis of adaptation and legitimacy that the sector is going through today.
More than 1,000 participants including the group La Dépêche
This question will be precisely at the heart of the Marseille debates of the congress. Nearly 1,000 participants from more than 60 countries and representing more than 450 press groups are expected at the Palais du Pharo. Among the speakers announced are several major personalities from the sector, including Arthur Mensch (Mistral AI), AG Sulzberger (New York Times), Almar Latour (Dow Jones and Wall Street Journal), Katharine Viner (The Guardian), Xavier Niel and Louis Dreyfus (Le Monde) Among the French leaders will also be Jean-Nicolas Baylet, the general director of the La Dépêche group. activities of press companies.
Beyond the prestigious interventions, the stakes of the conference are in any case considerable. Faced with the rise of artificial intelligence, the fragmentation of audiences and competition from digital platforms, publishers must reinvent their economic models while preserving their democratic mission. The conclusions of the French survey offer a rather encouraging message in this regard: the confidence placed in the press remains real. In Marseille, for three days, it is ultimately the same question that will be asked of the entire profession: how to maintain this confidence in a media world in full restructuring? It now remains to transform this heritage into a capacity for innovation to maintain a central place in the public debate over the coming decades.
