Paris (AFP)
A "new trio" will take charge of La Croix from July 1, the daily owned by the Bayard group announced on Tuesday.
Philippe Colombet, director of La Croix, Jérôme Chapuis, editor-in-chief and Anne-Bénédicte Hoffner, deputy editor-in-chief, will succeed Guillaume Goubert, Arnaud Broustet and Florence Couret, details La Croix in a press release.
Aged 55, Philippe Colombet was “group digital director” at Bayard since 2018, in charge of “the digital transformation of the group and more particularly of La Croix”.
Previously, since 2006 he was responsible for the publishing and press sectors of Google France, where he was notably in charge of "strategic partnerships with publishers" for Google News.
Jérôme Chapuis, 44, has been editor-in-chief of La Croix since 2019, after having worked mainly as a radio journalist (RMC, Europe 1 then RTL).
Anne-Bénédicte Hoffner has been a journalist at La Croix since 2001, successively in the economy, France, religions and then world services (Middle East section).
"This new department (...) will have the mission of carrying out an ambitious project in terms of growth and influence allowing La Croix to reach 100,000 subscribers within 2 years and a balance between paper and digital distribution ", he adds.
The newspaper of Catholic tradition announced in January to target 100,000 subscribers in paper and digital version within three years, against 80,000 at the end of 2020 - 56,000 paper subscribers (-5%) and 24,000 digital subscribers (+ 40%).
According to the daily's management, subscriptions make up more than 80% of its revenue, while number sales fell 11% in 2020.
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