The crisis-hit French press is among the least profitable in Europe, stifled by rigid communist print unions, a lack of kiosks selling papers and a declining readership far below that of the UK or Germany.

The public’s trust in the media is at an all-time low in a climate where politicians rewrite their own interviews for publication and the president’s powerful business friends, from construction to arms manufacturing, own several major papers or TV stations.

Sarkozy has been likened by his political opponents to Silvio Berlusconi for his recent moves to tighten state control of public TV.

But today he made no apology about turning his hand to print and online newspapers with a major speech instructing them to improve the content of their articles, bring in younger readers and transform business models in exchange for emergency aid worth €600m over the next three years.

He said the aid package was not an attack on press freedom. “I don’t understand how anyone could doubt the legitimacy of the state in this process,” he said, adding that without a good business plan, the free, independent press would disappear.

The French state gives €1.5bn in direct and indirect state aid to the press each year. Sarkozy likened the press to any other industry in need of aid, such as the automobile sector.

Sarkozy’s measures included a year’s free, state-subsidised newspaper subscription for all teenagers from their 18th birthday. He said: “The habit of reading a daily paper takes root at a very young age.”

He extended tax breaks for investors in online journalism and said the state would double its advertising in print and online papers. Rules would be changed to allow investors outside Europe to take higher stakes in French titles.