EU mulls media code after cartoon protests
(Reuters/AP)
Updated: 2006-02-10 06:48

France Soir's Feb. 1 issue with the drawings sold 40 percent more than the usual daily circulation, and executives are tantalized that the newspaper's souped-up profile could translate into long-term gains.

"Over time, it could change the brand image of France Soir ... it shows we're capable of running scoops — and leading a battle for freedom of the press," circulation director Philippe Soing told the AP.

Satirical French weekly Charlie-Hebdo reprinted the drawings Wednesday, behind a cover page showing Muhammad with his head in his hands, crying and saying: "It's hard to be loved by idiots."

The paper quickly sold out all 160,000 copies of the issue — 60,000 more than the typical weekly run — and was printing another 160,000, spokeswoman Liliane Roudiere said.

Print sales at Norway's Magazinet, an Evangelical Christian newspaper, have been flat since it ran the drawings Jan. 10. But daily hits on its Web site have more than tripled, to about 800,000, said Vegard Kobberdal, a consultant for the thrice-weekly paper.

Spanish daily El Mundo, which posted some of the images on its Web site, said it was impossible to determine which news item was affecting sales.

The rise of the Internet, rising competition for advertising money and the advent of free dailies across Europe have meant tough times for many newspapers.

France Soir, a legendary daily whose circulation hovered around a million a day in the late 1960s, is now in financial straits, and the paper is up for sale.

"If we wanted to use this to save France Soir, we'd need a story like this every day, and I dare hope that there won't be," editor-in-chief Arnaud Levy, with a bodyguard in tow, told the AP at the conference.