Group Hersant and Presstalis

The saga of group Hersant is closing to an unhappy end. On september 30, the mediator will submit a proposal which could be either a  global buying out to another media group or a sale of the various titles to various buyers. Rossel could be a candidate for a global acquisition or for taking over the eastern dailies. Michel Lucas, the powerful boss of EBRA group could be interested by the Southern dailies Provence and Nice Matin. What is sure is that this painful story will end with several hundred jobs lost. It is obvious that the unions made the wrong gamble when they believed that, thanks to the new socialist government the bitter pill would be softened.

It is a bit the same story with Presstalis. This week, proposals emerged that will change drastically the whole system of press delivery. MLP will be obliged to contribute and a part of the activity will be sublet to Geodis, a branch of SNCF. In spite of the strong complaints and strikes of the Unions, Presstalis is going to slowly disappear at a very high cost. The regional newspapers will also suffer as a great part of the subsidies they get for home delivery will be transfered to financing the heavy social bill of Presstalis.

A quick conclusion: the news industry has a bright future, the print industry must manage its decline. The French way of managing the press is dead.