The former CEO of Radio France, Mathieu Gallet, was named president of the supervisory board of Les Echos on Wednesday, announced the Le Parisien-Les Echos group, owner of the daily newspaper which has been mired in a governance crisis for almost a year.
Mathieu Gallet succeeds André Lévy-Lang
The 47-year-old manager thus succeeds André Lévy-Lang, 86, the former boss of Paribas (1990-1999) “having expressed his desire to be relieved of his duties”, according to a press release from the group, owned of Bernard Arnault’s LVMH luxury empire.
The supervisory board “voted on the appointment of Mathieu Gallet as president” on Wednesday, after having approved his designation as an independent member of the board by a committee representing the shareholder and the Society of Journalists (SDJ) of Les Echos. This committee proposed it “unanimously”.
Fears about the independence of the newspaper
Mathieu Gallet thus joins the two other independent members of the council, the director of the Sciences Po journalism school Alice Antheaume and the lawyer Nicolas Molfessis. This appointment comes as in recent months journalists have expressed their fears regarding the independence of the newspaper, deprived of an editorial director since the end of September.
That month, the editorial team opposed by a large majority the appointment to this position of François Vidal, proposed by the supervisory board and who had been acting since March and the surprise departure of the former director of the editorial, Nicolas Barré. The SDJ des Echos had at the time denounced a “brutal eviction by the shareholder” following “articles which would have displeased”.
Will Mathieu Gallet resolve the situation?
At the beginning of June, almost all of the title’s journalists went on a 24-hour strike, saying they were worried about their independence. “An editorial director must have journalistic and management skills, and provide guarantees of independence,” explained to AFP an internal source wishing to remain anonymous.
“At the moment we don’t have a name. It’s a rotation of editors-in-chief at the moment, we continue to do our work but it’s essential that there be an editorial director.” added the same source, considering it possible that Mathieu Gallet is trying to resolve the situation.