Monday, January 17, 2011

Le Monde again

The long painful process of choosing a new publisher for le Monde is on its way. 12 candidates have showed up. Only 3 or 4 can be considered as serious. The owners have made it clear that they want to put in charge somebody who is young, around 40 and dynamic. However, they have to find an agreement with the association of journalists (SRM). And, I may add that there are not so many people in Paris who are able to manage a famous daily which has to face major reforms and notably to define a long term strategy for Its Website.

Two months after the change of ownership, it appears that groupe le Monde is a multiheaded monster with many people eager to make decisions without consulting each other. The 3 owners, the new CEO, the SRM and also outside partners such as Publicis and Lagardère, all compete to define a policy. The future publisher will be another actor on a very crowded stage.
The end result could be a takeover from Xavier Niel, the only man who owns most of the money. The big question is: what does he want to do?