Le Figaro, France's leading daily, was supplying customised TV listings pages to 35 regional newspapers — but doing so through a manual, process that consumed significant time and resources. By automating page generation and layout customisation, Le Figaro transformed a costly production burden into a streamlined, scalable syndication operation.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
As well as publishing France's flagship daily newspaper, Le Figaro group operates a significant syndication business, supplying ready-to-publish TV listings pages — complete with schedules drawn from external data feeds and accompanying editorial content — to 35 regional newspapers across France.
It is a substantial production undertaking for dozens of distinct publications each with their own format requirements.
Producing 35 individually tailored editions of the same TV listings content was, by any measure, a labour-intensive operation. Each customer publication had its own page dimensions, layout conventions, and design templates, meaning that content had to be manually reformatted for every title. The process consumed considerable staff time and was difficult to scale.
Compounding the operational strain was a technology limitation: the QuarkXPress solution in use did not provide accurate WYSIWYG previews of the finished pages. Editors could not reliably see what the final printed output would look like before committing to press, introducing an additional layer of risk and correction into an already demanding workflow.
Le Figaro had been running its flagship daily and its own TV listings supplement on Eidosmedia’s Méthode platform for several years. The solution was to extend what was already working: applying Méthode's automated layout capabilities to the syndication operation, replacing the manual QuarkXPress-based process entirely.
The new workflow begins with the creation of a single master edition. TV listings data is pulled in automatically via an external XML feed and combined with editorial articles prepared by Le Figaro's own team. From this master, Méthode applies the appropriate stylesheets and page layout templates to generate a fully customised edition for each of the 35 customer publications — automatically, without manual intervention.
The finished pages render as precise previews, showing exactly how they will appear in print. There is no guesswork, no late-stage corrections, and no need to reformat content by hand for each customer.
Crucially, the transition to Méthode also unlocked a new commercial capability. Le Figaro was able to introduce an article selection feature, giving each regional partner the ability to choose which articles appear in their edition from a curated menu. Adding or swapping an article is a simple drag-and-drop operation; the layout reflows automatically to accommodate the change.
The productivity gains were immediate and material.
Page creation for the full network of 35 publications now takes a fraction of the time and resources previously required — a transformation that directly reduced the cost of running the syndication operation.
Beyond efficiency, the move to Méthode enriched the service Le Figaro provides to its regional partners. The article selection feature turned a one-size-fits-all product into a flexible, editorially responsive offering, giving regional publishers a meaningful degree of control over their own pages without creating additional work for Le Figaro's production team. The result is a syndication model that is both leaner and more competitive.
Le Figaro supplies ready-to-publish TV listings pages — combining schedule data from external feeds with its own editorial articles — to 35 regional newspapers across France, each requiring content formatted to their own layout specifications.
Every one of the 35 customer publications had its own page dimensions, layout conventions, and design templates. Content had to be manually reformatted for each title, consuming significant staff time and making the operation difficult to scale efficiently.
Le Figaro was using QuarkXPress to manage the syndication workflow. Beyond being labour-intensive, the platform did not provide accurate previews of the finished pages, adding risk and late-stage correction to an already demanding production cycle.
Le Figaro had already been running its flagship daily and TV listings supplement on Méthode for several years. Extending the platform to cover syndication was a natural fit — leveraging proven technology without introducing a new system or retraining staff.
A single master edition is created, drawing TV listings from an external XML feed and combining them with Le Figaro's editorial content. Méthode then automatically applies the appropriate stylesheets and templates to generate a fully tailored edition for each of the 35 customer publications.
Méthode provides exact WYSIWYG previews of every finished page, showing precisely how content will appear in print. This eliminated the uncertainty and last-minute corrections that had been a persistent problem with the previous QuarkXPress workflow.
The solution allowed Le Figaro to introduce an article selection feature, giving each regional partner the ability to choose which articles appear in their edition from a curated menu — turning a standardised product into a flexible, editorially responsive service.
Adding or swapping an article is a simple drag-and-drop operation within the Méthode interface. Page layouts reflow automatically to accommodate the new content, meaning regional partners can personalise their edition without creating any additional production work for Le Figaro.
As well as cutting costs, the move to Méthode made the product more competitive. Regional partners gained meaningful editorial control over their pages, elevating a one-size-fits-all service into a flexible, value-added proposition.
Yes. The core capability — generating multiple publication-specific editions automatically from a single master — is well suited to any publisher supplying formatted content to a network of titles with varying layout requirements.