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Le Figaro launches rich tablet journalism with Méthode

Monday 21. September 2015 - The French daily brings the power of digital media to long-form journalism in a new tablet format created with EidosMedia's integrated digital publishing platform.

Can digital media deliver the same in-depth treatment of complex news topics as printed newspapers and magazines? Leading French daily Le Figaro thinks they can and, by way of demonstration, has launched a new tablet periodical that applies the power of digital multimedia to serious journalistic storytelling. The first number of Le Figaro Grands Formats was published on June 29th and takes as its subject l’Etat Islamique – Islamic State.

In nearly 50 pages of in-depth articles, video, photo galleries, infographics, pop-ups and animations, the reader is taken on an exploration of this highly current topic that combines striking photo and video testimony with expert analysis and explanation.

“We used our Méthode editorial platform to create a new experience for our readers based on the quality content produced by our journalists,” said Pierre Bayle, Le Figaro’s Art Director. “It was a valuable and stimulating experience that drew on sources from throughout the newsroom.”

Le Figaro Grands Formats was created using the same digital publishing platform – EidosMedia Méthode – that the daily uses for its print editions and magazines.

“Méthode’s strength in creating this kind of authored product for tablets is that staff can assemble the tablet product just as they do a print edition of the newspaper or magazine,” said Massimo Barsotti, EidosMedia Chief Marketing Officer. “Pages are built up by dragging elements into a template where they reformat to fit. Images, videos and animations are dragged into the page in the same way as text and headlines.”

At any time, staff can get a preview of the page they are working on, complete with animations and effects: “Staff can get a good idea of what the pages will look like without having to publish or compile the edition – this is very much a hands-on editing experience,” said Massimo Barsotti.

Méthode tablet editions use standard formats like PDF, HTML5 and Javascript. As well as creating very light tablet editions (video apart, the Grands Formats weigh in at around 70 megabytes), the use of standard technologies allows other objects to be included in their pages – such as the library of HTML widgets that Le Figaro staff have created in order to have a range of animations and effects available for this and future issues.

“Le Figaro has used Méthode to break new ground in terms of editorial value,” said Massimo Barsotti. “It’s an impressive example of what high-level journalism can do with the right technological resources.”