INFO LE FIGARO – From Monday September 9, the news edition changes dimension.
A small revolution awaits viewers of the 8pm news on France 2. Starting next Monday, September 9, the news program presented by Anne-Sophie Lapix during the week and Laurent Delahousse at the weekend will change dimension and will be extended by now stretching out over an hour, between 8pm and 9pm. That is a gain of about twenty minutes, the current duration of the news being about forty minutes.A major development in the history of 8pm newsbelieves Alexandre Kara, the director of information for France Télévisions, to Le Figaro. The uses of information have changed, notes the leader. Through social networks and continuous news channels, there is an acceleration of information, sometimes an excess of information, sometimes a lack of explanations, pedagogy and sometimes a lack of nuance. The diagnosis that everyone can make is the disaffection of a part of the French for newspapers, due to anxiety, infobesity, problems of trust… Faced with this situation, our order is clear: press the pause button in order to recontextualize the information, provide understanding and not leave the viewers alone.
Take the time to explain
The idea is not to multiply the number of subjects in the news, there will always be a dozen, but to “take the time to explain them well. We are in a complex world where it is becoming difficult to have keys to understanding. Sometimes, viewers come out of a news program feeling disarmed. Facts are not enough“, insists Alexandre Kara. Concretely for the 8 p.m. news on France 2, this means “more experts on set, more journalists in the field, longer reports, more testimonies… We will still be as pluralistic in the choice of subjects, but we will offer information that takes its time”.
Le feuilleton Such a big sun move
From a financial point of view, the cost of this change will be “marginal”, assure Alexandre Kara. “It will not lead to inflation of the cost of the box“. The strategy, around this new format, does not have as its main objective to compete with the TF1 news, the clear leader, which has also been extended in recent years. “This is not an audience goal, insists Alexandre Kara. It’s not about competition but about differentiation”.
To devote more space to its 8pm news, the audiovisual group had to move the furniture on France 2. Thus, the daily soap opera Such a big sun, broadcast since its debut in 2018 after the television news, is moving to France 3.
