How do you engage young people in substantial media? If you're the Sarkozy government in France, one of your approaches is to help provide a year-long subscription to a newspaper of your choice if you're aged 18 to 24.

It's a novel effort designed not only to immerse young people in serious editorial content but to prop the newspaper business. As the program (announced last year) unfurls, some 30,000 subscriptions have been supplied, a fraction of what's to come.

Some 60 publications are participating in the costs and the government is setting aside about $22.5 million U.S. for the scheme over the next three years.