OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP
French Polynesia will soon no longer be able to read the national and international press (illustrative photo of the newspaper “Le Monde” in a printing house in Saint-Vulbas, in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, August 20, 2023).
FRENCH POLYNESIA – No more national press, no more international press. On January 1, 2025, the distribution of these newspapers will cease on newsstands. French Polynesia. Hachette Pacifique, the only local distributor, stops importing them. Only a few local magazines and the only daily newspaper in Polynesia will remain, Tahiti Info.
The sole distributor of the community, Hachette Pacifique announced in a simple note to tobacconists that it would stop delivering the national and international press after December 31. The company did not wish to respond to AFP but in March 2024, the subsidiary of the French publishing giant requested financial assistance from the French High Commission in Polynesia, arguing that it would provide “largely in deficit”.
The distribution crisis is not new in the immense territory of the Pacific which extends over an area comparable to that of the European Union. From 2020, in the midst of the pandemic Covid-19the daily newspapers had stopped being delivered. In October 2024, the distribution by air of weeklies and monthlies had also ceased but they continued to be delivered by boat, more than a month late in France.
600 titles will disappear
In Tahitian newsagents, the approximately 600 titles still on sale will therefore disappear from January 1st. The local government is not moved by this shortage of supply. Questioned by AFP, he simply stated that the community “does not have to replace private actors”.
Director of the press distribution giant France Messagerie, which ships 700,000 newspapers and magazines every day in mainland France and overseas, Éric Matton told AFP he was studying with his competitor Messageries Lyonnaises de presse (MLP) “the possibility of organizing alternative distribution via New Caledonia”.
But distribution in New Caledonia was itself very affected by the riots which affected the archipelago after the attempt to adopt a constitutional reform project aimed at modifying the electorate, leaving doubt about this possibility. .
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