The daily "Liberation" announced Monday that it had hired illustrator Corinne Rey, known as Coco, as the titular designer.
She succeeds Willem, who held this position for 40 years.
The designer of "Charlie Hebdo" becomes the first woman to hold this position in a national daily.
This is a timely announcement.
Monday, International Women's Rights Day, the newspaper
Liberation
announced that Coco, Corinne Rey by her civil name, would become its titular designer.
This hiring made Coco the very first female designer of a major national daily.
The designer will continue to work in parallel for
Charlie Hebdo
, for which she has been crunching the news for 13 years.
His first drawing for the
Liberation
pages
will be published on Thursday April 1.
Coco succeeds Willem, who will have spent 40 years drawing for
Liberation
.
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The designer describes this opportunity as "an honor that cannot be refused".
On the newspaper side, the choice of Coco also seems to be obvious, according to its artistic director, Nicolas Valoteau.
"I like, in the softness of its line, the efficiency and sometimes the direct message it brings", he analyzes at the microphone of Europe 1. "I think that it represents as much this fragility as the hard-hitting side, and that's what you ask of a press cartoon. "
Press cartoon, Coco has been doing it for nearly 13 years for
Charlie Hebdo
, for whom she will continue to work, like Willem before her.
"More than press cartoons, it's a place for an editorial writer"
In recent years, this habit of drawing press has disappeared from some major dailies such as
Le Figaro
and the
New York Times
.
No question of following this movement for
Liberation.
According to Nicolas Valoteau, drawing has its place.
"It's more than press cartoons, it's a place for an editorialist," he explains.
"We have very few editorial writers at
Liberation
, at least in our paper version," recalls the artistic director of the daily.
"The drawing is essential, because it gives another reading of the news. This is why it can never be removed from the newspaper."
Nicolas Valoteau is also considering giving more space to press cartoons on the
Liberation
site
, without yet knowing exactly what form this could take.