The French weekly L'Express is going through a difficult period. On Monday, the management presented a plan to safeguard employment in the company. Several unions and the society of journalists (SDJ) protest against this plan. They blame the boss of Altice France who recently took the title, Alain Weill, to "sacrifice the weekly and its employees." They are also demanding commitments to preserve the editorial independence of the magazine.
"26 new job cuts"
In a statement, the union CFDT-CGT, the National Union of Journalists and the LDS Express indicate that the employees of the weekly, meeting this Tuesday in general meeting, rejected this plan for safeguarding employment. This PES, if implemented, would lead to "26 new deletions of posts (...) within the editorial", denounce these organizations. If they would be compensated, at least in part, by recruitments in the teams in charge of digital editions, they would add to the departure of 58 journalists (including 40 CDI) who decided to leave L'Express after the takeover of Alain Weill, by playing the clause of cession (device of departure in case of change of shareholder of a newspaper).
"An unprecedented bloodletting"
"In total, with the arrival of Alain Weill, the only team of the magazine passes from 84 posts to ... 46", underline the unions and the SDJ, denouncing "an unprecedented bleeding" for the "newsmagazine". In addition, the PES provides for the transfer within the Altice group (former owner of the weekly) or the elimination of 40 "transverse" positions in non-editorial services (administration, marketing ...). This will melt the total workforce of the weekly 102 employees, against 172 before the arrival at the controls of Alain Weill, specify these organizations.
Ambitions and means
Alain Weill, CEO of Altice France (parent company of SFR and many media), bought this summer a majority stake in L'Express , of which Altice remains the minority shareholder. When he took power, Alain Weill posted his ambitions: to make L'Express a French-style Economist . "We applaud with both hands this ambition, but it takes resources to make a newspaper of this quality," said Valerie Lion, editor and representative of the LDS weekly, at the microphone of Europe 1. "The majority takeover by Alain Weill must be a chance for L'Express, " she adds.
In addition, the unions and the LDS demand the new boss of L'Express to take over an "editorial independence agreement", which the previous shareholder, Altice, signed in 2015, and which was to apply until in 2025.