Étienne Gernelle, director of the weekly "Le Point", was the guest of Philippe Vandel on Wednesday in Culture Media, on Europe 1. He accuses Google of "destroying the value" of online media.

INTERVIEW

"The print media certainly will not go away." This is the conviction of Étienne Gernelle, director of the weekly Le Point , invited on Wednesday by Philippe Vandel, in Culture Médias , on Europe 1. "The print media is also digital: we never have read the history of humanity.The question is how to monetize, "theorizes the boss of the press. And that's where, potentially, things go bad. Because to monetize online, except to propose all its articles by paying (to leave to lose readers), it is necessary to be able to sell public spaces. But on the web, the undisputed king in this area is called Google. In an editorial vitriol published this week in Le Point , Étienne Gernelle fired red balls on the American firm and its monopoly in research on the Internet.

"Should we dismantle Google?" Asks the boss of the Point . "The search engine takes advantage of its monopoly to loot newspapers, it tramples the freedom of the press and, in passing, France and Europe," he continues. On Europe 1, he persists, signs, and withdraws a salvo against the American company which he accuses of "behaving like a predator". "Monopolies destroy value, they use force and in the end, there is nothing left, they feed on the flesh of their victim, they capture most of the growth of digital advertising", denounces Étienne Gernelle.

"The dismantling is the only thing that stops the monopolies"

Online advertising is the nerve of war, according to him. Today, to find an online media, most people go through Google. And it is he who receives a large part of the advertising revenue. "He puts himself in a position to be our window on the world", deplores the journalist, who does not hesitate to add: "The dismantling is the only thing that stops the monopolies".

"Abuse of dominance is in the European treaties, competition is absolutely fundamental, I am not an altermondialist, I am not Olivier Besancenot, I am not opposed to international capitalism in principle. Monopoly oppresses and destroys value, "insists the journalist.

Etienne Gernelle also looked at the case of Mondadori France ( Grazia , Closer , TV Star , Auto Plus , etc.), in which 220 journalists (out of 300) decided to leave the group. The reason for these mass departures? The repurchase of all these newspapers by the French group Reworld, sometimes accused of making contents only to attract advertisers. "It is tragic, it is especially the sign of the impoverishment of a part of the press", estimates Étienne Gernelle. And to hammer: "We must defend our value, especially Google, all this is partly the result of Google's predation."