On Tuesday, the French news publisher Le Monde launched a cross-offer initiative with The New York Times, an arrangement that will allow Le Monde—as well as its sister publications Courrier International and Le Nouvel Obs—to offer their subscribers a one-year New York Times subscription for no additional cost.
The deal is not a partnership, per se. The bundle will not be available to all Le Monde readers; instead, the French outlet will selectively present it to those with a high propensity to respond to it, such as readers who engage with the international section, according to Le Monde’s chief digital operations officer Lou Grasser. It also only goes one way: The New York Times will not be offering its readers an opportunity to subscribe to Le Monde.
“We have seen encouraging results from other bundles, but this is fundamentally a test,” Grasser said. “The philosophy is the same that guides our deals with OpenAI and Perplexity, in that the faster we go with testing the sooner we will know what works.”
