Financial communication of French local governments in times of international crisis : changing practices. The international crisis has affected budgets of French local governments and their debts, particularly through structured products. It’s well-founded to wonder about the impact of this crisis on their financial communication. This research is a textual analysis of the content of annual or financial reports by Alceste software. Discussing results based on a literature survey on communication strategies brings up 2008 as a year of confusion and highlights a shift from“recognition”to“change”.