The French press sector in crisis

Text by: Patricia Lecompte

The announcements of job cuts are increasing in the major national and regional daily newspapers: L'Équipe, Le Parisien, Paris Normandie but also in the TV media. Several post-containment social plans are announced in the French media.

Publicity

Today the media belong to large groups whose activities are multiple. When an area goes bad we get rid of it or we reduce its airfoil. This is the case of Altice, the group of Patrick Drahi, including its subsidiary NextRadioTv , parent company of BFM-TV and RMC just announced this Thursday morning the abolition of 330 to 380 permanent positions and 200 freelancers and intermittent. The group justifies these cuts by the significant loss of its advertising revenue following the health crisis. Even if the management says it wants to protect jobs on permanent contracts and pursue "its editorial excellence", this social plan proves the strategic shift operated by the group which is reducing its activity in the press to the benefit of digital with replay and podcasts, which are more lucrative .

A crisis made worse by confinement

The written press is also in arrears, two large national newspapers L'Équipe and Le Parisien are planning restructuring. Two days ago, the management of Le Parisien , owned by the LVMH group, announced a reorganization of its editorial staff, with the voluntary departure of 30 people out of the 435 journalists it counts. The management wants to abandon its nine departmental editions in favor of a unique notebook of local information. The newspaper, which wants to increase its digital presence, is targeting 200,000 subscribers within five years. According to management, this plan is essential to the survival of the newspaper, but the unions refuse the project, they demand the maintenance of all positions including freelancers and the restoration of local and departmental pages.

Journalists from the daily L'Équipe also face a social plan. The sports newspaper, which has already had several social plans, announces that 2020 will be its worst year. Its management forecasts a deficit of more than 16 million euros. With the cessation of sports competitions until August in France, the newspaper's economic outlook is very poor. His accounts are likely to remain in the red until 2022. With the Covid-19 crisis, the Team lost more than 60% of its sales and 70% of its advertising revenue. To raise the bar, management proposes to lower wages by 10%, reduce RTT leave from 22 to 6 days, intensify teleworking and encourage retirements. Employees who recall having already made a lot of sacrifices refuse this new turn of the screw.

The regional press is also in turmoil, it is the case of the regional daily Paris-Normandy which went through several crises before being placed in compulsory liquidation on April 21. The takeover of the newspaper by the Voix du Nord , owned by the Rossel press group, is a relief for the employees, but it will not be done without breakage. 60 of the 240 positions in the newspaper will be cut, that's a quarter of the workforce. The Rossel group, which has a real mastery of the regional press, has already demonstrated its ability to rectify newspapers in difficulty, with previously Courrier Picard , and the Union of Reims .

Declining paper sales

The current press difficulties are directly related to the Covid-19 crisis ,but there are also other reasons. The clipboard is probably the most at risk. Readers are increasingly turning to digital formats. We are witnessing a real erosion of the sales volumes of the printed press. This erosion worsened with containment, but the bottom sheet was already there. Then there is the crisis at Presstalis which adds to the difficulties of the paper press. Since Friday, Presstalis, the main press messenger, is in receivership, and its regional subsidiaries have been liquidated without further activity.

Many newspapers are forced to launch transformation plans to offset the drop in paper sales and strengthen their digital presence. The phenomenon is global, more and more readers subscribe to digital media offers. The progression will continue, so it is important that the French media reinvent themselves if they do not want to die.

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