Paris (AFP)

Le Parisien will reorganize its editorial staff to cover new themes and strengthen its digital presence, abandoning its nine departmental editions in favor of a unique notebook of local information and with an unconstrained departure plan.

"To cope with the decline in paper and conquer new buyers, Le Parisien must continue to adapt its editorial offer to new ways of consuming information," said this press release.

"To overcome the deterioration of his economic situation and not to prevent any essential investment, in particular in digital, he must adapt his expenses to the drop in paper sales. Finally, to support this new project, a reorganization will be necessary, but without forced departures (no social plan, no redundancies), "he continues.

This plan targets the departure of 30 people out of 435 journalists in the editorial staff, using a provisional job and skills management agreement (GEPC).

This type of agreement allows a company to adapt its jobs, its workforce and its skills to the requirements of its strategy as part of a transformation plan.

The project aims to strengthen its digital presence by reaching 200,000 digital subscribers within five years.

On the editorial level, the newspaper wishes to "give greater resonance to local information on digital and in a unified notebook", "all the departments of Ile-de-France and the Oise will continue to be covered," he said. .

"Each day, like the national notebook, a + Fact of the day + will open the local notebook in order to detect weak signals and take them to the national level," he said.

Management also wishes to pay "increased attention" to developments in Greater Paris and their impact on the daily life of its inhabitants.

Two new transversal cells, "Police / Justice" and "Portraits" will be created on the model of the recent "Ile-de-France" "Real Estate" cells, which "several journalists from our departmental editions had joined to bring their knowledge of the fabric local, "says management.

Supported by several elected representatives of Ile-de-France, the newspaper's unions were worried last week about the disappearance of the local notebooks for which 130 locals work.

In terms of national information, the management wants to create a new service, "Stories", to focus on the long format and a new section "it's their opinion", a forum for personalities "from all walks of life" with "many feathers embodying parity and diversity".

© 2020 AFP