Justice chose Monday Rossel, owner of La Voix du Nord (and shareholder of 20 Minutes ), to take over the local newspaper in difficulty Paris-Normandy , to the relief of employees despite the removal of a quarter of the workforce. The group which will be the owner of Paris-Normandy on Tuesday has "shown an ability to rectify troubled newspapers presenting comparable situations in Paris-Normandy, as recently with Courrier-Picard and the Union of Reims ", considers the commercial court. de Rouen in a written judgment rendered Monday.
"It's a relief but not a victory"
At the announcement by their lawyer of this decision, around thirty employees of the newspaper gathered before the registry applauded. "It is a relief but not a victory," said Christophe Mulot of the CGT book, recalling that 60 employees out of 240 were going to be laid off. The only local newspaper in the former Haute-Normandie, Paris-Normandie has a circulation of around 41,000 copies. Rossel was preferred to its Belgian competitor IPM which would have been a 51% shareholder of Paris-Normandie, while Fininco, the holding company of the current owner of the daily, Jean-Louis Louvel, would have owned 49%.
The question of the admissibility of this offer which includes Mr. Louvel in his future shareholding "must be asked" but "in terms of law and not morality, it can be noted that Mr. Louvel is not a legal officer" of Paris-Normandy and "does not carry the offer of IPM", had estimated at the hearing behind closed doors on June 9, the public prosecutor Corinne Gérard before ruling for Rossel, according to the judgment. Jean-Louis Louvel was a candidate supported in particular by LREM in the municipal elections on March 15 in Rouen before giving up the second round.
A mastery of the regional press
La Voix du Nord "masters the regional press while IPM is more focused on the national press," also said the prosecution. The court considers that the two offers "present a solid financial base" but consider them "disappointing" on the financial level "insofar as the proposed sale price is in both cases very far from the auctioneer's estimates". Rossel offered 250,000 euros, IPM, which also cut sixty jobs, 150,000 euros.
The two groups proposed "a conversion of the paper media professions to forms integrating new technologies in the more or less long term". And they "showed equivalent capabilities in this area". This "conversion requires very high investments", underline the judges. Rossel announces a consolidated turnover of nearly 500 million euros for a workforce of nearly 3,000 people. La Voix du Nord posted an operating profit of 6.5 million euros as of December 31, 2019. The two offers include "a continuation of the printing business and a strong regional presence", according to the judgment.
60 redundancies, half of them on forced departure
With Rossel, "the physical presence is maintained throughout the territory," added Anne Bouchet, union delegate SNJ. And there is a real consolidation of print and a development of digital. "The newspaper was placed in liquidation on April 21 due to" the regular erosion of sales volumes, accentuated by the consequences of the Codiv-19 crisis "," the decrease in turnover of non-compensated paper editions by digital sales "," the insufficient profitability of the printing activity linked to its under-utilization "and" the weight of the debt ".
“We also think of the 60 licensees. Inside, at least half of them will be forced to leave, ”said Christophe Mulot. With Rossel, the dismissed employees leave with 28,000 euros in supra-legal premium, which is much better conditions than with IPM, he added. “The company will be quickly re-established to be an engine of development in its region. This operation also aims to reinforce the coherence and the power of the Regional Daily Press sector, globally the leading news media in France, ”reacted Rossel.
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