[excerpt]
Within two weeks, the French newspaper Le Monde will run out of cash. By
this Monday at noon, candidates to the takeover of the most prestigious
French daily will have disclosed their offers. By June 28, the staff will
vote and make the final decision for the fate of the 66 years-old paper.
More importantly, the newspaper's independence will be under severe pressure.
Le Monde is the textbook example of the evolution of French press over the
last years:
* A steady erosion in readership.
* A lack of budget discipline, made worse by loose governance.
* The core newsroom's reluctance to support the digital strategy
* The collective certainty the "brand" was too beautiful to fail and
that a deep-pocketed philanthropist will inevitably show up at the
right time to save the company.
* An difficulty to invest into the future, to test new ideas, to built
prototypes, to coopt key talent or to invest in decisive technologies.
* A bottomless investment in the heavy-industry part of the supply
chain, in costly printing facilities.
* An excessive reliance on public subsidies which account for about
10% of the industry's entire revenue. Compared to Sweden, French
newspapers have 3 times less readers, but each one gets 5 times more
subsidies.
To a large extent, these characteristics are shared by most French
newspapers. This could explain the dire situation of the Gallic press. As
of today, four major properties are on the block, or urgently looking for
saviors:
* Le Monde seeks at least €100m (for a first round).
* Le Parisien, a popular daily, is for sale; although quite good from
an editorial perspective, it is not profitable and its family
ownership wants to refocus on sports-related assets.
* La Tribune, the n°2 business daily, is looking for a majority investor.
* Liberation is also facing a cash stress.
