Related Story ? French Media Let Loose Les Webtrotteurs Inside.com's sudden reversal of strategy in launching a print magazine may have given red meat to critics looking for more evidence of the continued decline of Web publishing, but there's at least one example of a print publication actually being saved from oblivion by the success of its Web activities. And it happened in France, too.

This is the story of )Transfert [No, that's not a typo], a quarterly New Economy magazine in Paris set to go monthly September 29. Nearly two years after its rocky launch, this trendy Wired-style publication is well on its way to becoming a poster child for the young, hip and idealistic Internet pioneers shaking up Old-World France. But )Transfert would be just another ad-starved low-circulation magazine burnout, without the success of its online activities.

'I've always wanted to show that a site and a magazine can work together, and I think I've proved my point,' says )Transfert founder and publisher, Christophe Agnus, speaking from his high-ceilinged offices on Paris' rue R?aumur, the French pre-War equivalent of Fleet Street.

A former reporter for the French newsweekly L'Express, Agnus, who is in his late thirties, has a kind of caffeinated energy worthy of his reputation in Parisian circles as an unabashed promoter of his magazine. When he decided to launch a Web site and magazine simultaneously in October 1998, [a first for France, he claims] he said it never occurred to him to think in terms of two wholly separate mediums.

Of course, Internet news was barely a reality in France two years ago. 'Raising funds for )Transfert was very simple: Nobody wanted to invest any money,' Agnus deadpans.

His project was financed by a collective of 83 small shareholders ? journalists, friends, family, friends of friends ? who together brought 1.3 million Francs to the table [about $170,000 at today's painful exchange rate], which, even in France, is a ridiculous sum for launching a magazine.

The first issue of )Transfert joyously proclaimed 'Vive la dissidence,' immediately hitting a nerve with what Wired magazine has called the post-Minitel generation,' in France, young people starving for discussion about the 'impact of the digital revolution on society, economy and technology.'

But the project was pretty suicidal, says Agnus. Eight months after its launch, with a paid circulation of under 20,000, )Transfert tanked. In June 1999, Agnus and editor-in-chief Dorothee Tromparent, formerly of the national daily Le Monde, started receiving calls from vulture investors looking to pick through the company's remains.

'People said they were ready to finance the magazine without the Web site. Others wanted the Web site without the magazine, and we just said 'no way,'' recalls Agnus.

)Transfert's skeleton staff of seven kept plugging away at the Web site, while Agnus ran around looking for investors to revive the magazine. Death would have come knocking if it wasn't for Agnus's former employer, L'Express, which called up one day, desperate for content to fill out a multimedia print supplement. The results were successful and L'Express asked )Transfert staffers to provide regular content to the weekly's Website. Others sites followed.

'That's what saved the company,' says Agnus.

The experience taught Agnus the joys of a concept that can't even be translated into one French word: Syndication. Now, roughly a year later, )Transfert.net syndicates content to more than 90 content-gobbling French-language sites, including popular portals such as Nomade and Libertysurf.

Agnus has the right approach, says Emmanuel Parody, editor in chief of the online news site, ZDNet France. 'He's morphing )Transfert into an online press agency in order to keep it together.'

Now, as the French daily Lib?ration was first to point out, )Transfert's online success has saved its ailing magazine. Agnus relaunched the print product last winter after a six-month hiatus, and now he's gearing up for monthly publication. The present cover, which features cybernews anchor-babe Ananova, displays the URL prominently just below the )Transfert masthead, as if the magazine was somehow an auxiliary tool supporting its eponymous Web site, which will also be revamped.

'In the case of )Transfert, convergence is not an empty word,' says Michel Agnola, head of the multimedia department at the Centre de Formation et de Perfectionnement de Journalistes (CFPJ) journalism school in Paris, which pioneered online journalism instruction in France and has hired Agnus as an instructor. 'The notoriety of the paper version makes the Web site credible. ... The big asset of )Transfert is that it was a precursor. An early lead counts enormously in this domain.'

Reading through )Transfert's summer special on 'the explosion of television on the Web,' a U.S. reader aware of the demise of Hollywood convergence sites like the Digital Entertainment Network (DEN) and Pop.com might find the magazine's tone a tad naive and optimistic. French Web-TV companies are profiled without scrutinizing their audiences or comparing their fate to the many painful dot-com lessons learned in the States.

Some critics charge that the magazine feels compelled to write success stories, and act as a cheerleader for one of the first truly optimistic developments in the French economy for years. But Agnus bristles at the notion.

'In the case of television on the Web, we simply say that this phenomenon is taking place, and is here to stay, like the phenomenon of free FM radio in the '80s. There might be economic fiascos, as for those free radio stations, but still there is something new and interesting here,' he replied in an e-mail. 'I think we are neither technophiles, nor technophobes. We try to have a lucid look on the technological revolution with the conviction that it's better to accompany it, and improve what's going wrong, instead of fighting it.'

)Transfert.net does break stories and bear bad news on a daily basis, but even then with its trademark optimism: 'The next three months will undoubtedly be terrible,' wrote Agnus in a recent editorial about the difficulties faced by French Internet start-ups: 'But we want to tell all these companies in trouble: Hold on. At least to be able to see the expression on the face of your detractors once you have survived the bad period. True. It would make us happy: Hold on.'

Fans of )Transfert, whose readers are mostly urban, around 30, and well-educated, don't see any problems with this kind of tone. Ask Kitetoa, the mysterious and well-known French webmaster of an eponymous Web site that discusses online security issues in a very no-nonsense manner. 'I'm very enthusiastic too, and I like the intellectual side of )Transfert,' he wrote in an e-mail. 'Beyond raw information, )Transfert is reflective. And asks good questions.'

)Transfert came of age right in the middle of France's late-blooming Internet craze of 1999, when you couldn't go to a caf? or meet a bunch of friends without hearing start-up ideas spring up like wild mushrooms.

The Minitel, a nationwide network of little terminals plugged into household phone lines, made the French the first wired citizens of the world in the 1980s. But it also, ironically, blocked the growth of the Internet.

'The Minitel accustomed the public to the concept of buying their train tickets online. But it has kept them away from computers and allowed state-controlled phone operator, France Telecom, to maintain high rates,' says ZDNet's Parody.

In fact, unlimited flat-fee Internet use ? the key to bringing French Web-surfing habits up to U.S. levels ? is proving to be an elusive dream in a country where pay-per-minute phone use is the norm, the Agence France-Presse reported recently.

Internet providers have tried and failed to provide flat-fee service during the past six months, before an undaunted AOL France finally launched its own one-price monthly subscription offering unlimited Internet usage.

France Telecom, whose majority shareholder is the state, still owns a monopoly on local telephony. Competition, seen as key to driving prices down and spurring Internet growth, is scheduled to be introduced Jan. 1.

For now, about 22 percent of the French population has Internet access at home, and average monthly surfing time is around four hours, according to researchers at MMXI [full form]Europe.

'New competition and flat-fee rates should open the door to changes,' says Agnus.

Browsing through French newsstands, which are bursting with new Internet magazines, one has the feeling Agnus will soon have to face stiff competition of his own. U.S. titles such as Business 2.0 have announced plans to launch French editions, but Agnus says he's not worried, especially about magazines oriented wholly toward business.

With a circulation of 28,000 or so, )Transfert is hardly flying off the shelves. 'I'm pretty happy with that. I want to remain a provider of wide-ranging Internet news. If I get to the level of Wired, which would be something like a circulation of 100,000 in France, I would be very happy.'

It is a market that is still in the early stages, Parody says.

'The truth is that in France, no paper magazine about the Internet sells above 100,000 copies, and a few, including Yahoo Internet Life France, sell more than 50,000,' says Parody, who claims 60,000 subscribers to ZDNet France's newsletters. Not very pretty for a country of 60 million. 'All these New Economy magazines rarely have sites worthy of their names,' he adds. 'Only Newbiz and )Transfert are making an effort.'

)Transfert was able to switch to monthly publication partially from a new Ff10 million infusion from investors who also took over the company's debt. Now Agnus spends long hours overseeing a staff of 45 at his 'editorial office ? l'am?ricaine,' he laughs, meaning basically an open space that allows him 'to see everybody.'

'I think everybody has understood the advantages of the Internet now, and the gospel-preaching time is over,' says Parody, who says the readership of ZDNet France grows by 10 to 20 percent each month. 'The daily press,national and local, needs to confront the real challenge of the Internet.'

And the first-movers, says academic Agnola, need to watch their backs In this time of change.

'It's clear that in this emerging area, one can't afford to fall asleep,' she says. 'Yesterday's pioneers can easily belong to the Stone Age.'