Agnès Vahramian leaves her mark. Three months after her arrival, the director of France Info appointed Richard Place as head of the editorial department of the Radio France group's news channel. The station's current correspondent in London will succeed Philippe Rey in March 2025, appointed three years earlier by Jean-Philippe Baille, predecessor of Agnès Vahramian with whom he had already worked at RTL.
READ ALSO: “Agnès Vahramian is not someone who grinds”: Françoise Joly and Guilaine Chenu (formerly “Special Envoy”) defend the new boss of France Info, criticized for her management
28 years at Radio France
History of Radio France, Richard Place began his career at France Info in 1996 in the reporting department, writes the station in a press release. “Three years later, he joined France Bleu Gironde until 2002 before returning to France Info in the sports department. In 2007, he joined the reporting department again, becoming head of department in 2013. A year later, he took over as editor-in-chief of morning news preparation. In 2017, Richard Place was appointed deputy editorial director of France Info..
In 2020, the station continues, “he becomes permanent correspondent for Radio France in London. During the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, he is in charge of the France Info editorial team relocated to Club France in Paris (The large hall of La Villette in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, editor's note)”, recalls France Info.
READ ALSO: “Between 10 a.m. and 12:30 a.m., we switch to a blank page”: Discover the photos of the France Info studio which relocates and disrupts its antenna during the Olympics
During his career, the press release concludes about him, “Richard Place covered major current events in France and internationally on the ground, such as the entry into force of Brexit, the fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and the hunt for Mohammed Merah in Toulouse.“. Agnès Vahramian said she was “very happy to welcome to (her) side Richard Place, a great professional in information and radio, accustomed to all terrains and who has proven himself in the 'supervision of an editorial team'.
France Info ahead of RTL on the back-to-school wave
Richard Place arrives at the head of an editorial staff reinvigorated by the audiences of the September-October 2024 wave. Over this period, in fact, the public station was listened to more than… RTL. France Info resonated with an average of 4.97 million listeners every day between September 2 and October 27, 2024. A stable score over one year (- 18,000 listeners).
RTL, now the 3rd station in France (a first since 2003), is losing its splendor with, for the first time in its history, less than 5 million listeners listening to its schedule (- 307,000 listeners over one year) . This has been significantly overhauled this fall with the replacement of Yves Calvi, now anchorman of “RTL evening”, by Thomas Sotto in the morning and the arrival of Faustine Bollaert in the evening.
