The first difference I noticed between the New York Times article and the El País one is that the latter mentions that Hollande and Trierweiler have recently met to “agree on the details of their separation,” something the New York Times article doesn’t mention. In addition, El País mentions that Hollande has four sons from his first girlfriend, and it also claims that an estimated 54% of people living in France disapprove of having a first lady and of granting partners of presidents an official status and economic resources. The New York Times doesn’t mention any of these things. The LaJornada article, on the other hand, emphasizes that the news of their separation have distracted the media from recent economic reforms that Hollande has taken part in and reminds readers that Hollande is the least popular of modern French presidents, in part due to high unemployment rates that he so far has been unable to alleviate. Neither the New York Times article nor the El País one mention this at all. The article in La Nacion mentions that before Hollande confirmed the rumors of his separation with Trierweiler, his office at the Elysée Palace claimed that they were false. None of the other articles have mentioned this interesting (but perhaps not surprising) detail. Finally, the Guardian article is the only one to mention that Trierweiler has had a bad reputation for supporting Ségolène Royal’s (Hollande’s ex) rival on Twitter, which might have contributed to her defeat in the legislative elections and angered a lot of Socialists.
It is hard to say exactly why each particular journal chose to emphasize certain details and leave out others. However, I do think there are good reasons why every article presented the story in a slightly distinct matter. One of the reasons is likely to be each journal’s desire to out-compete its rivals by mentioning details that it perceives to be more interesting and/or appealing to the general public. Perhaps some journals first become acquainted with already existing reports of the story and purposefully add details that the other sources have failed to mention. In addition to mentioning interesting or appealing details, it is likely that every journal is motivated to have something ‘fresh’ to offer instead of simply parroting what all the others have said. Even if the information does not appeal to the general public in any particular way, the fact that the article gives something ‘extra’ is sufficient to maintain the journal’s ratings and subscribers.