L’Edition du Soir, launched by Ouest-France was the first digital-only newspaper in France and has now become one of the most read digital-only editions in Europe. At Twipe we are proud to be part of this success story, from the humble beginning in 2013 to the astounding success of this ongoing collaboration with Ouest-France.
From Zero to 10 Million
This new product idea came from a trend the team saw in their audience’s reading habits, with more reading happening in the evening. To leverage this new moment of consumption, we worked with Ouest-France to co-create a whole new edition to meet the changing needs of their readers.
Edouard Reis Carona
Quickly, we saw that there was a developing market for news at the end of the day. The usage of tablets and smartphones indicated that people were willing to read things after work. We decided to create a 100% digital newspaper.
In just 9 years, this product built up an audience of 5 million monthly readers with steady and continuous growth. Find out how you can replicate this digital success within your organisation with our NextGen technology.
Engage and retain your audience with interactive content
Not only did Ouest-France create a new product for their evening readers, but they also created entirely new content that is optimised for the interests of readers during this time period. That means there are more games and puzzles to help readers relax, in addition to reading the news.
Additionally, there are quizzes, both related to the news of the day as well are more pop-culture related quizzes, which Edouard Reis Carona calls ‘essential’ for the large number of page views they generate. In a recent interview, we asked him if and how the content in the evening edition had changed since its inception seven years ago:
Edouard Reis Carona
The spirit remains the same: offbeat news and relaxation. We have strengthened the games part, emphasising the quizzes. We also improved the reading comfort, by offering more enrichments: more videos, podcasts etc.
A sandbox for innovation
L’Edition du Soir was initially conceived as an experimental tool to innovate in the emerging digital news market. Édouard Reis Carona, Digital Editor at Ouest-France tells us:
Fabrice Bazard
L’Edition du Soir is a wonderful internal tool and an excellent laboratory to instill a new mentality in our newsroom.
Although l’Edition du Soir still serves as a laboratory for innovation and data-driven approaches for Ouest-France, it has also become a vital part of Ouest-France’s overall digital strategy. Present on the web and through native Android and iOS apps, L’EdS reaches more than 5 million readers each month, making it a successful case of digital-only editions.
