“Journalists must have the right to vote on the appointment of the director of information”, believes the boss of “Le Monde”

Louis Dreyfus chairs the group’s management board The world, which has just strengthened its independence by changing its shareholding. On the occasion of the launch, Tuesday, October 3, of the general information conference, a campaign promise from the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, he explains the need to find new economic models, “a newspaper that loses money finds it difficult to remain an independent newspaper”, he said.

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“Today, The world must have 1.8 million teenagers following us every day on Snapchat”, welcomes Louis Dreyfus mentioning the need to attract younger generations by mastering their means of communication, while guaranteeing the independence of information in the face of the emergence of artificial intelligence.

franceinfo: It is an independent committee which is responsible for considering ways to guarantee the right to information in the 21st century, in other words in the digital age. Is this right to inform and be informed really threatened?

Louis Dreyfus: I believe that in recent weeks we have once again had several examples which show that this right can be threatened. I want proof of this, if only last week when this journalist from “Disclose”, Ariane Lavrilleux, spent 39 hours in police custody. When you see the threats that Mediapart journalist Fabrice Arfi can suffer from Arnaud Mimran in prison, saying that he wants to settle his score. You have the story of “JDD” this summer, where journalists had to massively leave this newspaper for lack of being heard on the editorial line. You have serious elements but also economic elements. Part of the press is in difficulty because it cannot find an economic model. And if we want to have a balanced and quality citizen debate, we need a quality press. We must therefore find ways and means to improve our economic models.

You are wise to say “Citizen” because the French will be able to participate and fuel this debate throughout the year. What do you expect from these States General to the “World”? What concrete measures are essential?

I think there is a first which is the need for editorial staff, for journalists to express themselves and have the right to vote on the appointment of the editorial director. There is a principle of authority which is complicated in this profession. Taking a director who is illegitimate for his teams is going against the wall, it is further eroding the bond of trust we have with our readers. We know that our readers regularly doubt the independence of the editorial staff. On the contrary, we must regularly give external signs of independence and add statutory dimensions.

“If the government could push this bill which would require shareholders to seek the opinion of editorial staff before appointing an editorial director, I think it would be a notable step forward.”

Louis Dreyfus Chairman of the Board of Directors of the “Le Monde” group

at franceinfo

This is what is happening in “Le Monde”, we are going to talk about it but how do you do in your newspaper and in your group more generally, to attract young readers who prefer to get their information on social networks?

We have been investing a lot in digital platforms for four years, considering that these younger generations are primarily on these platforms. It could be Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube and to think that we can bring them to our media without going through these platforms is very illusory. We have a daily edition on Snapchat produced by an editorial team which depends on the editorial management. We have an edition on TikTok, on YouTube. Today, we must have 1.8 million French teenagers who follow us every day on Snapchat. We have 1,000,000 on TikTok and we see that after two or three years, these teenagers who began to have a relationship with us via these platforms subscribe to “Le Monde”, to the digital edition when they exceed the age of 18. We must therefore look for them in these areas and elsewhere, whether we are talking about public aid or the right to information, when I see the government’s reluctance to support this type of investment, not for us, but for others by saying: We’re not very much in favor of platforms, it’s hiding our faces. These generations get their information on these platforms, we must help quality editorial staff to be able to create dedicated formats.

How do you view the use of artificial intelligence?

This is obviously a source of concern for reliability because we will have information that will be produced without human intervention. For us, there is a question of copyright, we take the risk that our content is scrolled by the robots of these artificial intelligence tools since they train with our content and mix it with lesser sources quality. There is a question of copyright and a question of reliability of information. So we are very reluctant and attentive.

Many daily press titles are controlled by billionaires. How can we combine editorial independence and economic reality since without these great fortunes, many of these newspapers would have already disappeared? You yourself in the World were saved by Xavier Niel, Pierre Bergé and Matthieu Pigasse.

Quite. We’re doing something quite complicated. That is to say, to transform the economic models of these newspapers, we need a lot of financial resources. Xavier Niel, Pierre Bergé and Matthieu Pigasse have invested a total of 125 million in “Le Monde”. You have to have billionaires behind you for that. And yet, as information is a good, very different from other goods, it is not because they invest so much money that they have proportional rights to this investment. Xavier Niel has invested a lot of money, but he understands that, however, he does not have the right to intervene on the content, that even the appointments of editorial directors are subject to a prior vote. Even the dismissal of the newspaper director or editorial directors during their mandate is subject to a prior vote by the editorial staff. We must accept this contradiction. We need a lot of resources, so we must not stigmatize these billionaires, but they themselves must recognize the very special status of information.

Is your financial stability in the “World” guaranteed and lasting?

The group has been profitable for seven years. We have a very significant growth in digital subscribers. “Le Monde” sold 240,000 copies 13 years ago. Today we sell almost 500,000, so your turnover has increased. Today, to give a figure, the digital subscription of “Le Monde” could be enough to finance 100% of the editorial staff, whether they work for the magazine or for the daily newspaper. This is also independence. Above all, we must keep in mind that a newspaper that loses money has difficulty remaining an independent newspaper.

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