the essential
On January 7, 2015, the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo was the target of a terrible terrorist attack which left twelve dead, including eight among the members of its editorial staff. Ten years later, the satirical newspaper has “become an institution”, in the words of Riss, the publication’s director.
Ten years after the January 7 attack which decimated its editorial staff, Charlie Hebdo has not lost its freedom of tone. Thus, in the special 32-page issue of this Tuesday, caricatures on God selected as part of an international competition launched at the end of 2024 are published.
Also read:
10 years after the attack on Charlie Hebdo: numerous tributes in Paris, on television and in Occitanie
A renewed editorial
However, many things have changed within the joyfully anarchist and anticlerical newspaper created in 1970 from the ashes of the Hara-Kiri magazine. Starting of course with its members. The cartoonists Cabu, Charb, Honoré, Tignous and Wolinski are among the victims. And several departures were recorded after 2015, including that of Luz. The editorial staff, whose ultra-protected premises are now kept secret, therefore had to renew itself, with the arrival of new pens and designers.
Stabilized sales
The company’s results have also evolved. Before January 2015, Charlie Hebdo was just emerging from a financially difficult period. With a circulation of 60,000 copies and less than 30,000 sales per week, the newspaper, which lives without advertising or subsidies, had plunged into the red in 2009 and had just finished repaying a heavy loan, thanks to a subscription launched in November 2014.
After the attack, the situation was reversed: the newspaper’s treasury overflowed, thanks to an unprecedented wave of solidarity, in France and internationally. Sales soared with the publication of the January 14 issue, with 8 million copies distributed, and subscriptions multiplied, peaking at 240,000 in February 2015.
Since then, the newspaper has seen its newsstand sales decline and then stabilize, for half a dozen years, around 20,000 copies on newsstands, for around 30,000 subscribers.
-Furthermore, donations were sent to the newspaper after the attack, for a total of just over 4 million euros. Sums redistributed in full to victims and families, under the aegis of an association which collected them and ensured their distribution.
A change of status
The distribution of capital and the use of exceptional income after January 2015 gave rise to internal debates and tensions. This is why a series of developments have been initiated in recent years by Riss, the director of the publication who succeeded Charb, killed in the attack.
In July 2015, the newspaper became the first media to adopt the status of a solidarity press companywhich commits it to reinvesting at least 70% of its annual profits. The rest is dedicated to self-financing.
Then in 2018, the statutes were modified in order to place all exceptional post-attack income in a statutory reserve. A sum of 15 million euros, resulting from non-standard sales, which cannot be used to remunerate shareholders.
An expanded shareholder base
Finally, Riss, which held two thirds of the capital of Charlie, expanded the shareholding in 2019, by selling shares to three members of its editorial staff, two columnists and a cartoonist who arrived after the 2015 attack. An operation which aims to gently prepare a future succession at the head of the newspaperby involving a new generation in its management.
Ten years after the tragedy, Charlie Hebdo seems to have found its cruising speed and wants to be essential in the landscape of the French press. He “who was constructed in marginality, now appears as an institution,” concludes Riss.
