The employees of the Nice-Matin group voted on Friday a motion of no confidence against the businessman Xavier Niel and his holding company NJJ, buyers of its regional newspapers, denouncing insufficient investments or "at a discount", possible forced departures and a collapsing draft.
It's the crisis in
Nice-Matin
.
Employees of the press group voted on a motion of no confidence on Friday against their buyer: NJJ the holding company piloted businessman Xavier Niel.
A warning voted unanimously.
For them, the investments of the main shareholder are not high enough.
And the circulation continues to decline: it reached an 11.5% decline last year.
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Investments at a discount, possible departures and drawings that tumble, the situation is therefore critical for
Nice-Matin
.
The regional daily press group was taken over in March 2020 by Xavier Niel, the boss of Free following the validation of his safeguard plan by the Nice Commercial Court.
But since then, nothing has worked out.
"The employees of the
Nice-Matin group
no longer place their trust in you"
"Because you arrived with an attractive project, a proactive image, a media experience with
Le Monde
, a solid financial base, encouraging writings and today your actions are the exact opposite of your commitments, employees of the
Nice-Matin group
no longer place their trust in you ", indicates the motion at the head of the Filpac-CGT, SNJ, CFDT, CFE-CGC and FO unions.
Motion of no confidence adopted on Friday at the general assembly # NiceMatin # VarMatin # MonacoMatin # social # Var # Monaco @ Nice_Matin @ Var_Matin @ Monaco_Matin # press # media # journalism # PQR # NJJ # Niel # AlpesMaritimes # SNJ # CFDT # CGT # FO # CGC @ UPREG_ @ SNJ_national @ Xavier75 # XavierNielpic.twitter.com / E1Rnj8Zykq
- Rodolphe Peté (@Rodolphp) April 9, 2021
The NJJ holding company has already injected 12 million euros into the newspaper business.
But the unions maintain it: "you had to commit 35 million euros in the relaunch of the group but (...) nothing comes".
An operating loss of 6 million euros
Another complaint: jobs in the hot seat.
The investor wishes to cut 72 administrative positions.
A desire that is contrary to the plan for voluntary departures of 80 people open to all services combined which had been presented to the commercial court, according to Rodolphe Pete, SNJ delegate.
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Finally, the distribution of the title becomes more and more difficult.
The Nice newspaper which shines as far as Toulon with
Var-Matin
saw its circulation fall by 11.5% in 2020 for an operating loss of 6 million euros after a deficit reduced to 3.1 million euros in 2019. It caps these days at 127,000 copies on Saturday and 85,000 on Sunday.