Though days ahead for the leading French paper. After its energy consuming power struggle last winter, Le Monde is back to down-to-earth spreadsheet management. Hitting the “enter” key yielded hard figures : 130 jobs will be eliminated in the flagship paper alone, 20% in the administrative ranks, and 20% in the newsroom of 340 persons. The fact that Le Monde could afford to loose about 70 journalists shows, to put it nicely, the reserves of productivity in the newsroom. Implementing such a plan will be tricky, though. In the French press, management usually rely on voluntary departures, with hefty packages. Le Monde went through this twice already. Major drawback : perversely, the ones you’d want to leave stay and the “good ones”, smart, are the ones who take the package and go. The lower crust consolidates. Many French newsrooms have experienced this. Plus it’s cold outside. This time, there will be forced departures.
The cost of the all operation will be high : about 130,000 euros per job (about $200,000). As a kind of benchmark, to those who leave voluntarily, Le Figaro is offering one month of severance per year of services, plus a flat 50,000 euros ($78,000). Le Monde’s unions will fight to get the same package. Cost is estimated to about €17m ($26m). Some money loosing entities or non-strategic assets will be sold. In 2007, for the seventh consecutive year (!) Le Monde lost money, about €16m ($25m) after €14m ($22m) in 2006. The daily is responsible for most of the losses (€6m). Profitability is expected in 2010.
A similar plan was engineered in summer 2006, but it was shelved: an internal election was underway, and the incumbent didn’t want a cost-cutting plan at the time (he lost). And the careless board didn’t force it either. Same as in French politics with unpopular economics reforms. In Le Monde’s case, too bad there is this annoying P&L…
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