A manager close to Vincent Bolloré, Jean-Christophe Thiery, was appointed deputy general director of Hachette Livre on Thursday, announced the number one French publishing group.
Hachette Livre is the third largest publisher in the world with subsidiaries in the United States, Great Britain and Spain.
In France, it brings together such prestigious houses as Grasset, Stock, Calmann-Lévy and Larousse.
It came, at the same time as the entire Lagardère group, under the control of Vivendi in November 2023.
Mr. Thiery, 57, accessed this operational role after various positions since 2001 to manage Mr. Bolloré’s expansion projects in the media and culture sectors.
He will serve as right-hand man to the CEO of Hachette Livre, Arnaud Lagardère. The latter, quoted in a press release, hailed Mr. Thiery as an “exceptional professional”.
“He has demonstrated remarkable talent for leading and developing large-scale companies. His appointment is a continuation of our ambition: to place Hachette Livre at the top of global competition,” continued Mr. Lagardère.
Television experience
Between the end of April and the end of June, Jean-Luc Lagardère’s son had to temporarily abandon his position, due to suspicions of financing of personal expenses by his companies.
Jean-Christophe Thiery de Bercegol du Moulin (his full name) then took over the interim role.
He succeeds Stéphanie Ferran, who joined Hachette Livre in 2017, at the age of 40, after a career in consulting firms and at Coca-Cola. As deputy general director, she lasted only one year, during which she faced mistrust from trade union organizations and a serious crisis within one of the group’s oldest publishing houses, Fayard.
Mr. Thiery is an enarque who made a career for the State within the prefectural body then the Ministry of Finance. In 2001, Mr. Bolloré recruited him to create a media division, Bolloré Média.
For example, in 2005 he launched the Direct 8 television channel, which would become C8, today the number one audience on DTT outside of traditional terrestrial channels.
Although he has solid experience in television, with positions at the top of the Canal+ group, he still needs to demonstrate his knowledge of the book industry.
“Taking control”
The daily Libération sees “an appointment which marks the takeover of the French publishing leader”.
The most spectacular novelty at Hachette Livre, since the change of shareholder, concerned Fayard.
In February, the group announced the appointment of Lise Boëll, the publisher behind Eric Zemmour’s bookstore successes, at the head of Mazarine editions, a Fayard brand. Only the director of Fayard, Isabelle Saporta, was opposed to being able to put the Fayard brand on her covers.
The conflict ended with the dismissal in April of Ms. Saporta due to irreconcilable “strategic differences.”
Other houses in the group maintain a fierce independence. While many speculated on the desire of Grasset’s boss, Olivier Nora, to stay in office, this editor did so, and takes no account of the political orientation of the shareholder, very right-wing.
In March, he published a book where the general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, wrote in a long preface: “Part of the ruling classes openly supports the extreme right, subsidized by big bosses, from Elon Musk to Vincent Bolloré , who create bridges with the traditional right”.
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