After the failure of two takeover attempts, the weekly Marianne will ultimately remain the property of Czech magnate Daniel Kretinsky (AFP / JOEL SAGET)
After the failure of two takeover attempts, the weekly Marianne will ultimately remain the property of Czech magnate Daniel Kretinsky, but with the controversial journalist Frédéric Taddeï at its head, replacing Natacha Polony.
CMI France, owned by Mr. Kretinsky since 2018, “is committed to retaining Marianne” and “maintaining” a magazine “which defends republican, social and secular values,” according to a press release published Thursday.
CMI (Czech Media Invest) will however have to “implement a strategic plan aimed at bringing the newspaper back to financial balance and guaranteeing its future”.
According to the Society of Marianne Editors, there is talk of reducing pagination and “cutting back on the Survey service and the website”.
A conscience clause system, allowing people to leave with compensation in the event of disagreement with an editorial line, will be opened in January, it was announced Thursday to the editorial staff of around fifty journalists, according to a participant.
In July, CMI France ceased discussions for a takeover by the conservative billionaire Pierre-Edouard Stérin, then in November those initiated with the entrepreneur Jean-Martial Lefranc.
The first was rejected by the editorial staff after the revelation by Le Monde of connections with the extreme right. The second had raised fears about editorial independence.
– Polony keeps an editorial –
“Natacha Polony has indicated that she is not part of the future management of the newspaper,” explains CMI France. The journalist and essayist, in office since 2018, will maintain a weekly editorial.
Frédéric Taddeï in Cannes, in the Alpes-Maritimes, May 21, 2015 (AFP / ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT)
Frédéric Taddeï will take office on March 1.
He became known to the general public on television, where he notably hosted the talk show “Ce soir (ou Jam!)” on France 3 then France 2 between 2006 and 2016.
In 2013, the journalist Patrick Cohen criticized him for giving voice to “sick brains”, citing the Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan, the comedian Dieudonné, the far-right essayist Alain Soral and the sulphurous writer Marc-Édouard Nabe.
“For me, there is no blacklist, there is no guest that I refuse to invite on principle because I don’t like them,” replied Mr. Taddeï.
Since 2005, he has been present on radio Europe 1 and made a appearance in 2023 on the CNews channel, both controlled by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
– “Cultural agitator” –
Frédéric Taddeï also presented the program “Interdit d’interdiction” on the RT France channel, the French branch of the Russian channel RT. He stopped its presentation at the beginning of 2022, citing “loyalty to (his) country”, in the context of the war in Ukraine. Since then, RT, accused of spreading propaganda for Russia, has been banned in the European Union, and RT France has closed following the freezing of its assets.
The new director of Marianne affirmed Thursday to be “attached to the debate of ideas and the diversity of opinions”. The co-president of the Society of Editors, Margot Brunet, for her part explained that she would remain “very vigilant”.
“Frédéric Taddeï, recognized cultural agitator” and “whose appointment is approved by Jean-François Kahn”, co-founder of Marianne in 1997, “will bring his originality, his taste for pluralism and his love of debate”, assured Denis Olivennes, president of the supervisory board of CMI France.
This appointment makes some people within the group jump. In the eyes of Caroline Fourest, editorial director of the political weekly Franc Tireur, Frédéric Taddeï “has never embodied, either directly or indirectly, the +Marianne+” spirit.
In recent years, Marianne has defended an editorial line that is sovereignist, pro-secular, anti-liberal in economics and critical of the elites. It was this tone that prompted Daniel Kretinsky, a liberal in economics and in favor of European construction, to want to separate from the magazine last spring.
From July 2023 to June 2024, Marianne sold 129,000 copies on average each week (+0.24% compared to 2022-2023), behind its competitors Le Point, Le Nouvel Obs and L’Express, according to Alliance for Press and Media Figures.
The weekly lost three million euros in 2023, for 12 million euros in turnover.
Mr. Kretinsky also owns the press titles Elle, Télé 7 Jours, Ici Paris and France Dimanche, as well as the number two French publishing company, Editis. CMI France will also launch a new channel on TNT on March 1st.
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