France has over a hundred newspapers. Most of them are privately owned and not directly influenced by political parties.

A great heritage of information rooted in a consolidated market: it’s been estimated that nearly one out five French reads a national paper everyday and nearly one out of three a local paper. The main national dailies include the progressive Le Monde (www.lemonde.fr), the more conservative Le Figaro (www.lefigaro.fr), the metropolitan Le Parisien (www.leparisien.fr ), the socialist Libération (www.liberation.fr ) and the traditional Catholic leaning La Croix (www.la-croix.com ).
On the specialist front, the main players are Les Echos (www.lesechos.fr ) and La Tribune (www.latribune.fr), two eternal rivals at the centre of political debate over the independence of financial information in France given the influence wielded by big names in business.

Local papers also enjoy good circulation. Ouest France (www.ouest-france.fr ), for example, sells more than any other French paper. They are being threatened though by the free press, in which the Breton financier Vincent Bolloré has invested so much, having understood the free press’s appeal to travellers on the Paris metro. No coincidence then that France has seen the development of evening papers like France-Soir (www.france-soir.fr) and the free Direct Soir (www.directsoir.net). Of the sports papers the one with the biggest readership is undoubtedly L'Equipe (www.equipe.fr ), which the French see as a veritable institution and is often the centre of heated debate in cafes.

A dash of colour is provided by “Il Canard Enchainé” (www.canardenchaine.com), whose satirical/investigative journalism has caused many a scandal in France and even led to resignations by prominent politicians.
A number of foreign papers publish in France (Paris), notably the prestigious English language International Herald Tribune (www.iht.com).