French daily Les Echos for iLiad and STAReBook users

[Alexander Turcic]

It's been a long time coming, but the French daily newspaper Les Echos has finally launched its e-paper edition for the iRex iLiad and the STAReBook e-reader.

The e-paper edition will include the whole articles just like in the printed edition which is available at 6 o’clock in the morning, but unlike the printed edition; your e-paper will continue to receive updates during the course of the day and keep you up to date with the latest developments, hot off the press!

The last e-paper edition of the day, available at 9 o'clock in the evening will be the same edition as the printed edition of the next day, allowing you to read tomorrows news today!

Les Echos estimates 1'000 to 1'500 e-paper subscribers by the end of the year.

Pricelist:

• Les Echos e-paper/1yr + STAReBook = 649 EUR
• Les Echos e-paper/1yr + iRex iLiad = 769 EUR
• Les Echos e-paper/1yr = 365 EUR

Noteworthy links:

• Press release
• Official demonstration video
• Interview with Philippe Jannet (director of Les Echos' electronic publishing unit)
• Subscription form (PDF)

Related: Video and screenshots of Les Echos on the iLiad

[The GreatGonzo]

The first daily e-newspaper for the Iliad ... one of the reasons I bought the darn thing ... and it's in FRENCH! I can't read FRENCH! Aaargh ...

Does anybody know if any German, British or American newspapers are anywhere near signing up for this? Pretty please?

(Pulling RSS feeds with Mobipocket has become somewhat unsatisfactory...)

[watcha]

Why would one pay to subscribe to a newspaper when (with Mobipocket Reader) one can download feeds from hundreds of news sites (BBC, D Mail etc) to read? The only advantage I guess is that coming through the iRex server you can download at any wifi spot. I want this to happen through Mobipocket.

[Snas]

Yes you're right, with Mobipocket you can download feeds from hundreds of news sites.
But our e-paper version of our newspaper has been created and though for this new support.
The navigation is a mix between web and paper...
And with the iLiad, I don't need to turn on my computer.
Every morning before leaving home, I just hold the connect button, wait less than 2 minutes and I have the latest news on my iLiad.

[The GreatGonzo]

Not to mention that RSS feeds are hardly in-depth, well-researched and well-written articles. You know, old-fashioned journalism. They're just news bits.

I would subscribe to an e-newspaper for no other reason than being able to read two pages on any given topic instead of just one or two paragraphs.

[donkaarlos]

Among the amazing things are:
- download of continuously updated newspaper via iDS. Just push the button in the morning and you have fresh news at your breakfast table.
- This means you often read the news before you see it on TV!
- The days last update is the final version of the days newspaper, which will remain in your reader.
- The layout of the summary pages and the layout of the articles is fine.

The things, which need improvement are:
- navigation through 750 pages of les Echos is pretty bad (In my opinion)!
- back to previous "link" must be added (lets say you opt to read an article from a summary page - after having read the article one should be able to go back directly to the summary page where you made your selection without additional page flips).
- Reading the newspaper should happen by flipping from one summary page (title of article possibly with brief description) to the next, pretty much as with mobipocket rss feeds.

The present structure of the newspaper however is: front page, table of content (list of parts = links), summary of part I, articles of part I, summary of part II, articles of part II , ....

Putting the article titles of part I , part II, part III after the front page would be much more convenient. Given of cause that the back to "previous link" works after having read an article.

Without reasonable navigation and fully optimised format e-paper newspapers might have hard times. Will be interesting to see how the interface develops with les echos and other publishers.

I admit navigation gets even more crucial if you read a french newspaper without living in France...