Le Journal d’Accès, the first Canadian weekly to launch a multimedia 3.0 publication for tablets
“Independent newspapers in Quebec are starting to play in the big leagues.” Gilber Paquette, CEO and Marketing Manager of Hebdos Québec
Amazing and friendly interactive product
The Canadian weekly Le Journal d’Accès has launched an attractive multimedia interactive publication, especially designed for tablets, as part of the initiative encouraged by the Quebec Weeklies’ Association Hebdos Québec to ensure that 33 weeklies are available in an innovative and competitive manner in the digital newsstand “Mon Journal Local”.
Hebdos Québec has used Protecmedia’s technology to make possible its members’ move to digital channels, a process which, as Gilber Paquette, the Managing Director and Marketing Manager of the association, explains, has two stages. “The first stage consists in offering an e-paper version of the weeklies. Currently, there are 13 that are available in the application “Mon Journal Local”, which can be downloaded from both the App Store and Google Play. At the end of this implementation phase, there will be 24 weeklies available, with a potential readership of 900,000.”
“The purpose of the second stage of the project - he continues- is to offer readers a much more enriched version of the weeklies, which makes use of all of tablets’ multimedia possibilities. The aim is to encourage greater interactivity of users with contents through the use of videos, sound and specific animations for the public. “Le Journal d’Accès” is the first example of this type of 3.0 publication.”
Josée Pilotte, manager and owner of the weekly Le Journal d’Accès, explains that “this version 3.0 offers a dynamic and independent design of the print version and contains a large amount of interaction with the reader, both from an editorial point of view and in terms of advertising.”
As Gilber Paquette makes clear, “version 3.0 of our publications will allow the weeklies who are members of the Quebec Association to be in the vanguard in terms of innovation. The fact is that Quebec’s independent newspapers are starting to play in the big leagues.”
The Quebec Weeklies’ Association is a non-profit entity created in 1932. Its goal is to promote the local independent press and it is considered by the Canadian government, who supports the project financially, as an essential interest organisation for Quebec. It has 33 independent weeklies in French, with a total of 1.5 million readers per week.