Les Echos and its journalists
November 6th, 2007 by KierstenI read today that Les Echos, the leading French financial newspaper (owned by British company Pearson, which also owns the Financial Times), will not print this morning because its journalists voted to protest its sale to LVMH.
I have to secretly cheer for the idea of journalists banding together to fight off an unwanted owner (one wonders what Wall Street Journal journalists might have accomplished if they did something similar when Dow Jones was up for sale), but I also wonder how much impact it really will have. After all, this is a time of dwindling newspaper circulations. If Les Echos doesn’t print, and nobody minds because newspaper circulation is getting smaller each day, then what does that say for need for Les Echos?
November 6th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Kiersten:
Journalists are no different than any other profession or employee of a company bought or sold.
I find it interesting that financial writers in particular will glowingly report on an acquirers vision…or plans to ‘change the rules of the game.’ Acquisitions effect people…as well as the companies acquired, irrespective of the industry.
To make more money…most frequently there are significant efforts to ring out costs…and that usually means a reduction in headcount as people (and their wages/salaries) are among any corporation’s largest expenses.
The folks NOT in the Les Echos newsroom today or this week may feel good about their protest…and they may even get Pearson’s attention, albeit briefly. That said, reporters and their editors have no more sway or say over the corporate chieftans who buy and sell their enterprises…than mid-management does in any other industry or concern.
New Media and the migration of eyeballs to the web and away from more traditional print media, are causing knee jerk reactions and scrambling across the industry. Content is still king…but most media empires are still figuring out how to maintain their advertising revenue base, and while subscriptions are shifting from print to electronic…the price-point is not acceptable to many…at the higher price paid formerly for ‘home delivery.’
The Google model, of embedding advertising everywhere…sprinkled throughout the content, may be the wave of the future…at least that model is among the most frequently emulated.
The Les Echos ‘team scream’ reminds me of the noise made by a tree falling in a quiet empty forest. If no one hears the tree fall…did it make any noise?
Bill Crane
Director
North American Media Practice
GCI Group