New forms of literary consecration have resulted form the upsurge of the media and mass-produced cultural goods in the literary field, an area already subjected to the commercial realities of the culture industry. Prizes launched by newspapers, magazines and radio stations now compete with France's existing institutions of legitimization: the traditional great literary awards. This article focuses on two of these new prizes, the "Prix du Livre Inter" and the "Grand Prix des lectrices de Elle". It analyses the strategies employed to impose a new authority in literary consecration and to compete in the struggle for a legitimate definition of literature and reading. From an historical perspective, a survey on the various actors involved (writers, publishers, readers on the jury, organizing bodies, etc.) aims to assess both the financial and symbolic spin-off of these awards, and different implications for consecrators, on the one hand, and consecrated, on the other.