UPDATE 1-Montreal's La Presse eyes digital future

* Reports say La Presse to cut print run by more than half

* Say it will offer free iPads for long-term subscribers

* La Presse says only it is exploring digital strategy (Adds La Presse comment)

TORONTO, March 11 (Reuters) - One of Canada's most influential French-language newspapers is discarding most of its print distribution to focus on a digital edition, and will give away iPads to promote the move, Canadian media reported on Friday.

La Presse, which was founded in 1884, will phase out its printed broadsheet over three to five years, online trade publication J-Source.ca said.

The Montreal-based newspaper's circulation of about 200,000 will be slashed to 75,000, rival newspaper Le Devoir reported. It said La Presse will give away Apple (AAPL.O) iPads or similar tablet devices to subscribers who sign up for a three-year digital contract.

La Presse is owned by Power Corp's (POW.TO) Gesca unit.

Gesca spokeswoman Caroline Jamet said the publication is exploring a digital strategy but declined further details.

"We have a full-time team who's working on this but there are many stages to this project and at this point it's just too early to go into any details," she said.

La Presse has a contract with Transcontinental (TCLa.TO) worth tens of millions of dollars to print the paper until 2018, Jamet said.

A La Presse employee earlier confirmed the details of the reports to Reuters.

The radical shift will involve a C$25 million ($25.7 million) investment on top of C$7 million already spent to develop the digital platform and hire top-level staff, the media reports said.

La Presse would be the latest of several major daily newspapers to turn away from print and towards a digital future as the Internet cuts into traditional readership and advertising revenues.

The Christian Science Monitor abandoned its daily print run in 2009 in favor of a Web-based model, supplemented by a weekly print version.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (NWSA.O) launched a new tablet-only publication last month called The Daily. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp and Julie Gordon; editing by Rob Wilson and Peter Galloway)