The newly tabled press aid reform aims to equalise support across media types, but might end up undermining the viability of Le Quotidien, the nation's only French daily newspaper.

Shortly before the Chamber of Deputies started its annual summer break, lawmakers proposed a new press aid reform, which appears to favour some media institutions more than others. Similar as with the 2021 reform, the new proposal has left print media, most notably Le Quotidien, the only French daily newspaper in Luxembourg, in a tough spot.

2021 reform

The leitmotif of the 2021 press aid reform was supporting journalism through the introduction of lump sum payments per media title. These amount to €226,000, plus an additional €30,000 per year per journalist with a press accreditation.

Major beneficiaries of this reform were Paperjam, Maison moderne, and L'essentiel, monthly and free newspapers were made eligible for press aid. This was also advantageous for online platforms like Reporter.lu and Journal.lu – the former DP newspaper that halted its print editions in 2021.

At the time it became clear that Le Quotidien would not survive in this new ecosystem, with the daily suffering a loss in support of close to €400,000. For this reason, a transitional grace period, running until 2026, was introduced. This meant that financial press support was to be maintained at its pre-pandemic level.

Since then, the aid packages have been left unchanged.

2024 reform

The recently deposed reform is even more far-reaching. At the moment, there are still different support caps for the individual publications. They are staggered from close to €500,000 per year for online platforms to more than €800,000 for weekly newspapers and up to €1.6 million for dailies.

In the future, the €1.6 million will be the universal cap for all types of publications.

According to the draft law, this change is intended to improve technological neutrality, regardless of the fact that printing and distributing media is significantly more costly than running a website. This means that online outlets and non-daily publications are once again the major beneficiaries as their caps increase while dailies like Le Quotidien are unable to take advantage.

Following a request for comment, Delegate Media Minister Elisabeth Margue conveyed that she met with the Editors' Association in autumn to discuss the project. She further noted that adjustments to the current law can still be made via amendments.