"We need a new impetus for France Bleu. I have decided to entrust it to a great media professional. Céline Pigalle knows radio and has managed major newsrooms," said Sibyle Veil, CEO of Radio France, in a letter. internal to employees cited in the press release.

Céline Pigalle, who spent 13 years at Europe 1 before joining Canal+, succeeds Jean-Emmanuel Casalta, who has directed France Bleu since September 2018.

The audiences of France Bleu, at half mast, plunged between November and December, leading the union of journalists SNJ-Radio France to challenge the president of the public group to stop "this infernal fall".

"These poor audience results weaken not only the network but the whole of Radio France, at a time when the financing and independence of public radio are at stake," said the union.

A few months earlier, in September 2022, a motion of no confidence had been adopted against the information management of France Bleu.

Two journalists' unions (SNJ and SNJ-CGT) organizers of the election then denounced an editorial strategy deemed to be imposed from Paris without taking into account local specificities.

They also pointed to "the brutality of the management" of the direction of information.

Jean-Emmanuel Casalta, for his part, defended his record in an email sent to employees on Monday, recalling in particular that "in recent years", France Bleu had "twice equaled its historic record, dating from 2013, in the ranking of radio stations both in cumulative audience (5th) than in audience share (3rd)".

The latter also underlined having deployed "28 morning shows filmed in partnership with France 3, which today cover 75% of the population" and launched "a new mobile application, HERE by France Bleu and France 3".

Céline Pigalle began her career at Europe 1 as a reporter then correspondent in Berlin (2000-2004) and Brussels (2005-2007).

In 2008, she became editor-in-chief of the station, then, the following year, deputy editor-in-chief.

In 2011, the journalist joined the Canal+ group as editor-in-chief of the program "La Matinale".

In May 2012, she became editorial director of the continuous news channel iTELE (now CNews), then director of information for the Canal+ group in January 2014.

Ousted in September 2015 by Vincent Bolloré when he took over the Canal+ group, Céline Pigalle took over as editorial director of the LCI news channel (TF1 group) in February 2016.

Post that she left three months later before joining BFMTV, France's leading news channel, in December 2016, as editorial director.

© 2023 AFP