A page turns to Mediapart, the online newspaper which celebrates its sixteenth anniversary, Thursday March 14. It was on this occasion that Edwy Plenel, 71 years old, the last of the four co-founders, gave up his place as president and publishing director. Journalist Carine Fouteau, 49, officially succeeded him that same day. Present since the launch, in 2008, after leaving The echoes at the time of the acquisition by the LVMH group, she covered migration issues and co-directed the editorial team between 2018 and 2023.
This change at the top of the independent media completes a transition already underway. In recent years, two other co-founders, François Bonnet and Laurent Mauduit, had already left their management positions, the first taking the presidency of the Fund for a Free Press – an entity protecting the independence of Mediapart –, the second, by continuing to write on the site.
Furthermore, since March 2023, Marie-Hélène Smiejan, the only female co-founder, has given up her place as general director to Cécile Sourd, while journalists Lénaïg Bredoux and Valentine Oberti have led the editorial staff since October 2023. “The quartet at the head of our company will now be 100% female”rejoices Edwy Plenel, satisfied with this revolution, even though the management was overwhelmingly male at its creation.
Mentioned in 2015 by the main interested party, the handover from Edwy Plenel proved to be the most delicate, as the former editorial director of World embodied the online medium, with his imposing personality and his famous mustache. For her part, Carine Fouteau is unknown to the general public, even if she is respected internally.
“We needed a tutelary figure to establish ourselves in the French media landscape. Today, it is necessary that we move to a new phase”pleads the new president of Mediapartwho wants the investigative media to now be “assimilated to its entire team, with all its plurality and diversity”. And not to just one man.
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Wanting a “handover in good order”Mr. Plenel launched the process in 2022, by proposing to Carine Fouteau to take up the torch. “This transmission had to have the force of evidence”, insists the septuagenarian. A decision on which the editorial staff did not really have a say.
“We held workshops to check that the desire was shared”sweeps away Edwy Plenel, who says he wanted to avoid a succession crisis by proceeding in this way. “My name was proposed on February 27 during a board meeting and was unanimously approved by nine votes, five of which are employees of Mediapart »adds Mme Fouteau.
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