By offering specific pricing, individuals, companies or associations participated in the “influence of French culture“. Sending Books as well as brochures throughout the world was carried out at a cost proportional to the weight of the shipment.
A popular solution
For publishers distributing their works abroad, this service was of notable interest: by reducing shipping costs, French books became more competitive in the territories. However, price adjustments have been observed in recent years, notably the reduction of the maximum weight threshold from 5 kg to 2 kg for standard shipments, forcing professionals to use special bags for packages beyond this limit.
But here it is: from January 1, 2025, the “bag” offer will disappear and on the following July 1, it is the Books and Brochures offer which will stop, permanently, we read on the dedicated page. A radical decision, which takes part of the book industry by surprise.
Too expensive to continue
On the La Poste side, no details on this sudden brake, nor any alternatives, but the economic motive seems obvious: a report presented in April 2018 to the Cultural Affairs Commission cited representatives of the group. It emerged that “this rate is so advantageous for the end customer that it did not even allow La Poste to cover the costs that it must reimburse its foreign counterparts for them to deliver to the end recipient».
Jacques Damade, president of the association of independent publishers L’Autre livre deplores this measure. “It is relevant to judge a government by its Book policy. (Education, reflection, freedom). Without fanfare, nor trumpet, nor the slightest reason given, the government will suppress Books and Brochures. Advantageous postal rates for books abroad, which the book sector requested to be extended to France. This allowed greater circulation of works at all levels.. »
And to add: “So not only was this request not followed, but this tariff is in the process of being eliminated. Double blow for the book of which the international aspect is an important aspect. With this measure, we assess the health of books and the dissemination of French culture. Only Amazon, a poor taxpayer, can rejoice.»
Valois or Matignon powerless
The association therefore asks the government to intervene so that the La Poste group reverses its decision. But does he have the power? A public limited company made up of 100% public capital, La Poste has two shareholders: Caisse des Dépôts with 66%, and the State with 34%. However, the Books and Brochures offer completely escapes its public service mission and the obligations of the Universal Postal Convention of 2004.
As such, the Ministry of Culture, questioned several times on the subject, ended up writing an automatic response. “This is a free offer proposed by the La Poste Group which does not result from any legal obligation under the universal postal service. The Group’s objective is to maintain an economical service while continuing the effort to reduce the deficit generated by this offer, which it supports in full.» Conclusion: nothing to do.
Now that Amazon has implemented its solution to circumvent the application of mandatory shipping costs on book shipments and exempt its customers, the killing of the Books and Brochures offer represents a new blow. Remember that quite ingeniously, the American firm relies on a click and collect model, via its collection points, to eliminate shipping costs.
What the industry will conclude, with confidence from now on, is that the prospect of reduced pricing for the French territory, inspired by the Books and Brochures solution, is not on the agenda. Not for lack, for years, of having multiplied interventions and forums to ask the different governments to take action on the issue…
We are awaiting reactions from the Federation of Independent Editions and the National Publishing Union. This article will be updated accordingly.
Photo credits: zoetnet, CC BY
By Nicolas Gary
Contact : [email protected]
