Days after billionaire Xavier Niel bought Czech energy tycoon Daniel Křetínský’s stake in France’s largest national daily, newspaper CEO Xavier Niel Xavier Niel said he expects to place more than 40% of Le Monde’s shares in the foundation by the end of this year.
In 2010, Neal and his co-investors appointed Louis Dreyfus as CEO of Le Monde Group, who said governance reforms aimed at preventing takeovers and protecting editorial interference were needed to reassure readers that The reliance of wealthy owners does not compromise the coverage of the title.
“There’s a general distrust of institutions and power. . . . It’s not just the “billionaire” media owners, Dreyfus told the Financial Times. “We need to reassure our readers that our growth is not only happening – and that we need significant shareholders to transform the economic model – but that it is taking place in complete independence.”
The Financial Times reported over the weekend that Neal had acquired Křetínský’s shares for around 50 billion euros, ending a period of newsroom jitters sparked by the energy tycoon’s surprise purchase of his stake in 2018 . Křetínský admitted in an interview with the Financial Times that this situation was not working. .
Le Monde editorial director Jérôme Fenoglio said the newsroom welcomed Kretinsky’s departure and called Neal’s plan to invest his shares in the foundation ” good news”.
Speaking about Křetínský, he said: “If we have a bad relationship with our shareholders at the beginning, then… how do you build trust by not telling us their intentions until they arrive in our capital? That won’t work from the beginning.”
Krzetinski’s exit and the transfer of increasing shares into the foundation mean “we will no longer have to tolerate people we don’t want coming into our capital,” Fenoglio added.
The issue of media independence is acute in France, with major media including the largest private broadcaster TF1, newspaper Le Figaro and news channel BFM owned by billionaire industrialists who control some of the country’s largest companies.
Most recently, conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré sparked a revolt at Le Dimanche by nominating a far-right editor, while LVMH’s Bernard Arnold Bernard Arnault was accused by staff at business daily Les Echos of sacking their editor.
Le Monde was founded at the request of Charles de Gaulle after the liberation of Paris in 1944. It is currently the largest national daily newspaper in France, with approximately 580,000 print and digital subscribers.
For decades it was run primarily by journalists, with a few outside investors including Spanish media group Prisa. But in 2010, due to the impact of digital transformation, the industry was burdened with high debts and structural losses, faced serious financial problems, and needed to be bailed out.
Niel, businessman Pierre Bergé (now deceased) and investment banker Matthieu Pigasse stepped in and pledged €110 million to recapitalize the business.
They also made a series of commitments on governance and created an “independence pole” group representing Le Monde journalists, staff and readers, who collectively own 25.4% of the company.
Neil later announced his intention to establish a permanent foundation to house his shares and transfer his shares into the structure. The foundation acts as a protective shield because once the shares are in it, they no longer belong to Niel and cannot be sold.
“My opinion doesn’t matter, I want the newsroom to be as independent as possible,” Neil told the Financial Times. “We created the whole structure to prevent any possibility of interference, and Le Monde journalists regularly tested it with articles about me that were not particularly friendly. But that’s the game.”
Speaking at a Senate hearing on media ownership last year, Neal said the success of the outlets he owned depended on their independence.
“I believe we need a free press,” he said. “This does not always exist in France. The editorials of certain media organizations tend to serve the economic or financial interests of their shareholders. It is their choice (but) this is not my view of the media.”
Dreyfus expects that the process of transferring the shares to the foundation will be accelerated until it holds just over 70% of the shares, but this depends on the resolution of the legal dispute with the Bergé estate and the commitment of Prisa’s shares.
For critics who remain concerned that Neal or his co-investors might interfere, Dreyfus points to their record since arriving in 2010.
“Don’t judge them by their words, judge them by their actions over the past 13 years,” Dreyfus said. “We said we were going to strengthen our editorial staff. . . . Today we have almost twice as many reporters and they have more power.”
The business is also on stronger footing, he believes, adding that the trio has increased financial investment to €150 million. “We said the paper would make a profit, and it did. . . . We kept our word,” he said.
Currently, digital subscriptions account for the vast majority. The newsroom consists of 540 journalists and has added podcasts, videos and a weekend magazine. Le Monde has also expanded its English-language content and aims to expand its share of digital subscribers outside France to 15% within five years.
Fenoglio said he appreciated the progress Le Monde had made in both business and governance, and that his editorial career had avoided the conflicts of other outlets with more controlling shareholders.
“I’ve been doing this for more than eight years and I’ve never had any problems, no interference,” he said. “We have absolute security and freedom.”
“I don’t know if this is replicable, but at least in our story it was possible for private capital to save a newspaper while increasing its independence.”
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