New Ideas For Better Or Worse

Michael Hedges February 12, 2014 Follow on Twitter

Business priorities are opening media companies to outside-the-box thinking. Legacy brand strength of newspaper titles is an undeniable asset for investors. Converting to cash is tricky in the digital age. While possibilities are endless to those liberated from brick and mortar – and paper – delicate steps achieve more than cash and bluster.

The major shareholder in French daily Libération, Bruno Ledoux, rather indelicately surprised the editorial staff last week with a new strategic plan. Leveraging the Libération brand – and the building the newspaper occupies, which he owns – the proprietor wants to move everybody out of the building in order to develop it as a cultural space, conference center and start-up incubator complete with bar, café and social network. It would have radio and TV studios. The newspaper people would be moved across town, presumably into less expensive space.

“The newspaper, social network and cultural space are three axes of the same development,” M. Ledoux told staff, quoted by Le Figaro (February 10). “They are complementary and mutually reinforcing. Today, no one can live without the other.” Celebrity designer/architect Philippe Starck was hired to “transform” the space.

Unsurprisingly, the Libération staff erupted in horror and called a one-day strike. Editorial independence being a hallmark in France, the newspaper’s front page splashed their scowling reaction: “We are a newspaper, not a restaurant, not a social network, not a cultural space, not a TV studio, not a bar, not a start-up incubator.” Libération is losing €100,000 a month. The editorial staff complained that the new plan “reduce Libération to a mere brand” and “made no mention of journalism.”

In France media and culture go hand-in-hand, newspaper brands notably. Existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, a French cultural icon, co-founded the newspaper in 1973. Libération’s very leftist editorial position has moderated considerably over the ensuing decades. Scion of the famous banking family Édouard de Rothschild took at 37% stake for €20 million in 2005 a year when several French national newspapers underwent recapitalization.

Redundancies among editorial staff followed Baron Rothschild’s investment and then the exit of co-founder/editor Serge July. Executive and staff turmoil continued as the company paid down debt. Several prominent staffers, including Pierre Haski, jumped ship in 2007 to found the highly respected news portal Rue89. M. Ledoux became a shareholder in 2011, eventually named chairman of the holding company. Baron Rothschild announced at the end of 2013 his intention to exit the investment.

An email to shareholders from M. Ledoux obtained by television channel BFM (February 10), referring to complaining editorial staff as “tacky narrow minds” caused further eruptions. “If the staff refuse, Libération won’t have a future. What’s at stake is its death.”

The current Libération moment is vaguely reminiscent of US real estate billionaire Sam Zell’s takeover of the Tribune Company in 2007. After privatizing the company, Mr. Zell brought in an executive team from outside the newspaper business with plenty of outside-the-box ideas. Assets were sold, bankruptcy followed. The reorganized Tribune Company last year, Mr. Zell and team long gone, split News Corporation-style into two companies, one for TV and one for newspapers.

See also in ftm Knowledge

Media in France

French audiences are moving fast to every new platform. Mobile and Web media challenges the old guard while rule makers seek new directions. Media life in France... and a few secrets. includes updated Resources 147 pages PDF (November 2011)

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