France's regional dailies announced Tuesday the launch of a "digital kiosk" for Apple's iPad that will allow users to purchase about 250 local editions of 30 titles, Agence France-Presse reported.

The application is available for free download from iTunes and offers the front page and a summary of the paper's issue. A PDF download of the entire issue is available for €0.79 (US$1.06), said Pierre Jeantet (left), president of the Syndicat de la Presse Quotidienne Régionale (SPQR, the Syndicate of Daily Regional Press). According to Jeantet, the venture could be viewed as the first victory of an industry that is trying to establish a paying strategy for online news content. He further mentioned that a study by marketing firm BVA showed that 7 percent of the French population was planning to buy a tablet computer, a figure that demonstrated a potential 4 million buyers, Actualitté wrote.

Jeantet specified that the purpose of the "digital kiosk" is to "occupy the territory, generate audiences and to redirect to the websites" of the various dailies. The advantage of these "digital kiosks," Le Figaro revealed, is that publishers will have more control over subscription data and are not obliged to pay 30 percent of their revenues to Apple. However, Le Numérique hinted that in order to appeal to audiences used to free content, titles might have to resort to "enriching" the material.

"The shift towards pay gives rise to the difficulty of making publishers work together, which until today were used to fierce competition, as in numerous technical obstacles and regulation," said journalist Frédéric Filoux.

Although the kiosk centered on regional titles, it could expand to national papers as well as magazines with news coverage, Le Firgaro mentioned. Next month, the Syndicat de la Presse Quotidienne Nationale (SPQN, the Syndicate of Daily National Press) plans to launch its own kiosk, which would entail an economic interest group (GIE) that pools together the revenues. State-owned telecommunications provider France Télécom is predicted to facilitate the distribution process.

The Syndicat de la Presse Magazine (SPM, The Syndicate of Magazine Press) might have more problems arriving at a unanimous decision, seeing as some publishers strive towards paid-for content while others for free editions in order to appeal to younger audiences. According to Le Figaro, SPM General Director Pascal Marie outlined that the organization was studying the creation of an online iPad hub for its titles.

Images from Le Figaro & MacPlus