“I wrote my first TV column in The world in 1992. I’ve been doing just that, media criticism, all this time. At some point, you have to diversify. “ This moment, Daniel Schneidermann fixed it at 1er October. On this date, whoever has ” all [s]quarters “ for a full retirement since the 1er July will definitively entrust ownership and responsibility for the site he created in 2007, Freeze on images (ASI), to his team. On the same day, a board of directors should appoint him president (a role he hopes to hold in less than a year, time to train his successors), and the new statutes of the company will be adopted.
After studying the possibility of forming a cooperative society, the (collegial) decision was taken to remain a simplified joint-stock company (SAS), with statutes made to measure under the leadership of lawyer Benoît Huet and professor of economics. Julia Cagé (president of the Society of Readers of World), co-authors of Information is a public good (Threshold, 264 p., 15 euros), published in February. “What we have established in terms of horizontality of governance is a bit unique”, welcomes Emmanuelle Walter, journalist ofUPS from the start (when it came to a television program broadcast on France 5), editor-in-chief for three years and now managing director.
“Not having the soul of a chef, I only accepted this title because we will have a collaborative, horizontal operation”, she specifies. “All employees become equal shareholders, and are decision-makers at all stages” of the life of the company, adds Antoine Streiff, production assistant and ” Swiss knife “ of the team of 9 employees. In the event of additional hires, the new employees will automatically become associates at the end of twelve months. In the event of departure, each will return their actions. No one can claim the payment of dividends (the company’s net profit doubled in 2020, to 41,000 euros, the site indicates).
25,000 subscribers
These administrative changes should not confuse the approximately 25,000 subscribers and readers claimed by the site. “The cœheart ofUPS remains the deconstruction of media stories ”, specifies Emmanuelle Walter, who wants to vary the formats and offer more interviews and portraits. The site goes even further “To allow oneself to value, to speak well of journalism and journalists” whose work will have been noticed, as was the case this summer with the series “A journalist, a fixed idea”, a succession of meetings with investigators whose work made it possible to “Move the lines” (Inès Léraud and the food industry in Brittany, Marine Turchi and sexual violence, etc.).
As for the founder of the site himself, he is not about to turn off the TV and radio or close the newspapers: his daily ticket “Le matinaute” remains, just as he remains at the helm of the show. weekly twice a month and the “Post-pop” cinema meeting. However, his activity should take a new turn: eager to reconnect with the field, the journalist returned to investigations: “I want to talk to people other than journalists. And I’m not sure I want, at a time when Eric Zemmour risks running for president, when climate change is accelerating, to devote all the energy I have left to criticizing the media. I also want to work directly on these topics. “