Posted on 06/17/2008 5:20:19 PM PDT by abb
Journalists at Le Monde, France’s newspaper of reference, face an unenviable choice this summer: kiss goodbye either to one-quarter of their colleagues or to their cherished independence.
The centre-left daily has been plunged into the worst crisis since it was established in 1944 on the orders of Charles de Gaulle. It is haemorrhaging €2m ($3.1m, £1.6m) a month and has accumulated losses of €167m since 2001.
Le Monde, the newspaper of choice for the French elite, is a journalistic and cultural icon. But its editorial independence, a defining feature in an industry all too often marred by proprietorial interference, is under threat. Le Monde is a rarity because its staff hold a controlling stake and a veto over their editor and chief executive.
But that unusual ownership structure is now in question. A plan to shed 129 jobs, two-thirds of which are editorial staff, triggered three days of strikes in April and May, the first in the paper’s history.
If it cannot cut its costs, Le Monde risks falling into administration and having to undergo an emergency recapitalisation. This would give its external shareholders, including Lagardère and Prisa, the French and Spanish media groups, the chance to take control from staff.
Le Monde’s problems are partly self-inflicted and partly shared with other newspapers around the world. But they are also emblematic of the particular difficulties afflicting the national newspaper industry in France, which is still rooted in industrial structures shaped in the aftermath of the second world war.
The parlous state of France’s national newspapers has become such an urgent political issue that President Nicolas Sarkozy last month announced a summit of press, radio and television chiefs this year to discuss the issue. “Democracy cannot function with a press that is permanently on the edge of an economic abyss,” Mr Sarkozy said.
French national newspapers, like their counterparts all over the world, are struggling to cope with flagging circulation, shrinking advertising revenues, rising costs and competition from the internet and freesheets. But the French press starts from a position of relative weakness. The circulation of all national titles totals 8m, compared with 16.5m in the UK and 24m in Germany.
Le Monde is France’s biggest-selling national daily. But it sold only 359,000 copies a day in 2007, less than half the circulation of Ouest France, which is the country’s best-seller and testament to the relative health of the regional press.
Advertising in national newspapers represents 0.08 per cent of national output, one-quarter of that in Britain, and cover prices are among the most expensive in Europe. As a result, French national newspapers are dependent on state handouts.
Patrick Eveno, a historian of the media at the University of Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne, estimates that the national press receives €1.5bn in subsidised postage and tax breaks. “This weakness of advertising revenues for the French daily press cannot simply be linked with the anaemia of the advertising market,” he writes in his book The National Daily Press: End of the Road or New Start? “It is also the result of a national daily press which has neglected its readership [and] failed to anticipate social and cultural trends and which in sum turned to the state and to politicians to resolve its commercial problems.”
French national newspapers also face higher production costs because of structures introduced after the war. Only members of the Communist print union known as Le Livre are allowed to work in the five printworks permitted to produce the national newspapers; the union also controls recruitment. Although Le Livre’s power has weakened, the industry is still paying the price for this closed shop. Higher salaries, absenteeism and lower productivity have made print costs twice as high as for other French presses.
Meanwhile, distribution is controlled by a statutory co-operative created in 1947, which treats all newspapers equally to ensure plurality. Retail sales are also carefully regulated, with newspapers and magazines available in specified press shops, kiosks, bars, tobacconists and some supermarkets.
Last Thursday, national newspapers failed to appear in the kiosks after distribution workers went on strike in protest at restructuring plans. The stoppage came despite full-page advertisements in several dailies warning that union militancy was “killing” the industry.
Poor incomes and the large number of newspapers and magazines unsold have forced more and more newsagents out of business. The Parisian kiosk is fast becoming an endangered species. France now has half the number of outlets as Britain and one-quarter of those in Germany.
On top of low revenues and high costs, the French national newspaper industry lacks consolidation and is undercapitalised. There are no big French press groups apart from Lagardère, whose media interests are focused primarily on magazines and new media. A fragmented structure leaves isolated titles susceptible to takeover by individuals or groups prone to editorial interference and generating conflicts of interest in reporting.
Les Echos, the financial daily sold by Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, to Bernard Arnault’s LVMH, has already lost its editor and a clutch of senior staff, amid alleged editorial interference by the new management. Mr Arnault is entitled to nominate two members to the paper’s editorial independence board but outraged staff last month when he appointed his 30-year-old son Antoine to one of the seats.
Le Monde’s problems stem to a significant extent from its dogged defence of its autonomy. Jean-Marie Colombani, its former editor, tried to secure Le Monde’s future by building a diversified press group around it. “This manoeuvre failed because some purchases were not well thought through strategically,” says Michel Kajman, deputy editor. “We became heavier and more indebted.”
Lacking resources, the paper sought a partnership with Lagardère to develop its website. The venture has been a commercial success, with lemonde.fr the most visited French news site and profitable too. But the website is owned separately and union representatives complain it is simply creaming revenues from the paper.
Other journalists, however, say it is the recalcitrance of the staff association, with its strong anti-capitalist streak, that has pushed the paper to the brink of disaster. “There are some people who find it very natural to ask investors to pay but find it very difficult to accept that they are entitled to some return, however modest,” Mr Kajman says.
Other journalists say the resistance of colleagues to job losses is pushing the paper closer to insolvency and the very loss of control that they are fighting to defend. “If we were taken over by Lagardère, which has big defence interests and whose boss is a friend of Sarkozy, it would be the death of Le Monde,” says one of its senior reporters.
ping
“The centre-left daily “
Oh, that’s a lark! There’s no center in Le Monde, whatsoever. Pass the right-handed scissors to the Ole Gray Lady when Le Monde sits at the table.
If it weren’t for us, those frog-necks would be speaking German.
Other journalists, however, say it is the recalcitrance of the staff association, with its strong anti-capitalist streak, that has pushed the paper to the brink of disaster.
*****
” anti-capitalist” streak from le Monde? Try anti- American.
And they’re asking the capitalist’ method of partnership to save their anti-capitalist publication. Oh how the mighty have fallen...
The news was really bad today against Italy.
(Snork!) BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
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