“L’Equipe” expands its offer for the Olympic Games

“L’Equipe” wants to capitalize on the Paris Olympic Games to complete its transformation into a multimedia platform. These are the first Games in Paris covered by “The Team”, recalled Thursday in a presentation to journalists Laurent Prud’homme, its general manager. A nod to history: in 1924, when the capital hosted an Olympiad for the first time, the newspaper was still called “L’Auto”.

For the duration of the Games, “L’Equipe” is aiming for 4 million unique daily visitors to its site (compared to an average of 2.4 million) and a 20% growth in circulation and single-issue sales. This would translate, for the whole year 2024, into a 6% increase which would make it possible to approach the level of circulation of 2019, the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Spread progress

In 2022, despite the World Cup in Qatar, circulation averaged 215,000 copies. last years.

To live up to the challenge, “L’Equipe” has planned to expand its editorial and commercial offerings, with a considerable mobilization of the editorial staff. In all, 170 journalists will be mobilized during the Games, including 70 accredited to the competition sites, twice as many as during the last editions of the Summer Games. In fact, “L’Equipe” will have the first French contingent behind the rights holders and the agencies, argues Jérôme Cazadieu, editorial director.

40 dedicated pages in the newspaper

During the Games, 40 pages will be dedicated to the event with two front pages per day – therefore also more privileged space for advertisers in the “print”. In addition to dealing with and analyzing the news of the competitions strictly speaking, the editorial staff will also cover other dimensions of sport (economy, environment, parity, inclusion). On the site, a “Grand Live” is planned as the main audience crossroads.

But the editorial system will ramp up in the coming months. Collector’s issue with Asterix at the end of July, special editions, turnkey photo exhibitions, unpublished podcasts, strong video offer with, for example, formats explaining the rules of this or that sport…

TNT channel

Even without holding the broadcasting rights (which belong to France Télévisions and Eurosport for pay), the DTT channel de L’Equipe and the group’s two Web channels want to attract fans of 20 Olympic disciplines with 2,500 hours of live broadcast over the year preceding the Games.

On the management side, Amaury Media will publish the prices at the beginning of next week. There will also be a sponsorship mechanism allowing brands to sponsor certain formats, such as the program “L’Equipe du Soir”. Without giving a quantified objective, the group hopes that several million euros will be “activated” on these supports around the event.