Laurence Ferrari joins Paris Match : his arrival has just been made official after several days of rumours. By becoming editor-in-chief of the political service of the weekly, it is clearly necessary to see there a new sign of the stranglehold of Vincent Bolloré on the media of Lagardère. Because Laurence Ferrari is a face of the Bolloré clan. The journalist, former presenter of 8 p.m. on TF1, is, for example, one of the rare personalities not to have gone on strike in 2016 at iTélé, the ancestor of CNews, in particular to protest against the growing influence of the billionaire on the editorial strategy for its news channel.
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Since then, Laurence Ferrari has taken the lead on the air: she has two daily appointments. But with her new functions from Monday, she will have to reduce her airtime. His talk show punch line – broadcast from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on CNews, and from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Europe 1 – will thus be cut by one hour, and the political interview that she has been conducting until now in the morning will be replaced by that carried out by Sonia Mabrouk on Europe 1, in co-broadcast.
This appointment to Paris Match is indeed a new illustration of the “Bollorian” influence on a media of Lagardère, a group of which Vivendi is the largest shareholder. We saw it with the Sunday newspaper : three changes of boss in three months at the beginning of the year, to end up placing Jérome Béglé, a regular on the sets of CNews. Same authority at Europe 1, where the editorial staff emptied, willingly or by force, after a historic strike.
Behind the scenes, the editorial staff of Paris Match is not particularly enthusiastic about this arrival. Quite the contrary: a general assembly was held on Tuesday, September 13 after the enthronement of the journalist. Because in addition to Laurence Ferrari’s CNews label, the journalist is not a woman in the written press. She has certainly worked a little as a freelancer in Pointto Figaro Magazineat The Express… but that was 25 years ago.
And then she arrives in an already very tense climate, a few weeks after a motion of no confidence against the management. The writing of Paris Match was moved by the brutal ousting of the previous editor-in-chief Bruno Jeudy in the heart of the summer for having opposed the choice of putting an ultra-conservative cardinal on the cover. He also denounced the absence of a dedicated to Emmanuel Macron the day after his re-election.
So can we expect turbulence at Paris Match ? It’s not impossible, we breathe internally. Especially since employees are more generally concerned about the takeover of the weekly by Vivendi. Many are waiting for the opening of an assignment clause, which will allow them to resign by receiving compensation. This mechanism is mandatory after a change of shareholder. It should be available before the end of the year.
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