The public group intends to remove from September 2023 the national newspapers of France 3, 12/13 and 19/20. They will be replaced by 24 regional editions.
“Strengthening of the regional offer“as the management assures us or”low cost regionalizationas the unions fear? The employees of the Parisian headquarters of France Télévisions are called to strike on Monday against the planned abolition of the national television news of France 3.
It’s a “major cultural change“, had recognized the director of information of FTV, Laurent Guimier, by formalizing the project at the beginning of July: the public group intends to abolish from September 2023 the national newspapers of France 3, 12/13 and 19/20. They will be replaced by 24 regional editions, “HERE noon” and “HERE evening», which will include topics on national and international news. The stated goal of management is to adopt a “local prism” In order to “proximity to viewers“.
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“Take the example of the energy crisis: we are not going to treat it in the same way in Saint-Avold or Rennes, because it does not have the same impact“, had argued the president of France Télé, Delphine Ernotte, on July 6 during the conference presenting the group’s return to school. But this project, dubbed Tempo internally, does not convince the unions. Five of the six representative organizations (SNJ, CGT, Unsa, CGT, Cfdt) called Parisian employees to strike on Monday.
The announcement of the removal of these “historical editions» provoked a «stunning effect“, assures AFP Serge Cimino, of the SNJ (National Union of Journalists), who sees in the project a “low cost regionalization“.
“Mobility”
Currently, the France 3 evening news offer (including the regional JT and the national 19/20) lasts more than an hour and twenty minutes (from 6:30 p.m. to 7:55 p.m.), whereas the time slot planned for ICI evening is “50 minutes, from 7:00 p.m. to 7:50 p.m.“, according to him. Another grievance: the fact that “the national and international content of the news will be produced by franceinfo (the group’s info channel, editor’s note) and the national editorial servicesbased in Paris, as described in the management project.
“As a definition of local and proximity, it makes me laugh gentlycommented Serge Cimino. And the unions are worried about the implications in terms of personnel management, since this could lead some employees currently working in Paris to move to the provinces. The project thus provides for asupport system and/or mobility proposal for all the employees concerned“.
“More than 1,000 people are directly affected by this reform, which will affect the very nature of their activity.“says Serge Cimino. “As time goes by, departures, mobility, the idea is to reduce“The workforce, fears Pierre Mouchel, of the CGT. In July, Delphine Ernotte affirmed that Tempo did not obey “not to a logic of savings“.
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The project announcement was “premature because we were in the context of the debate on financing (the abolition of the fee, editor’s note) and the management wanted to show that we were proactive on the developments“, believes Pierre Mouchel, pointing to a lack of precise information. According to management’s schedule, a period ofco-construction of the project» with employees opens in September and ends in July 2023. «We are asked to co-build a project when we already know the end“, laments Serge Cimino.