The management of the daily is considering a voluntary departure plan for 45 positions to deal with an economic situation “very degraded”.
The management of the regional daily Free lunchheadquartered in Montpellier (Hérault), announced on Thursday 8 December that a “downsizing” was “unavoidable” because of its economic situation “very degraded”and that it favored the opening of a voluntary departure plan for 45 positions.
“The crisis in our sector and the consequences it has on our economic model have been aggravated by two years of Covid and the outbreak of war in Ukraine”wrote the director general of Free lunch, Jean-Benoît Baylet, in an email sent to staff members at the end of an extraordinary social and economic committee (CSE), and of which AFP obtained a copy. Over the past four years, revenues from broadcasting and advertising have fallen sharply, by eight million and two million euros respectively, says the daily’s boss, who says he expects “an additional reduction of two million euros on broadcasting” in 2023.
The digital transition is “longer than expected” and the site’s revenues, of 3.6 million euros this year, are only “to curb the erosion of turnover, very far from offsetting it in full”, also notes Jean-Benoît Baylet. At the same time, the increase in the price of paper (+135% in one year), energy (+190%) and even fuel increased the costs by 2.3 million euros for the daily newspaper. “For the current year, our company will end with an economic result, before any non-operating income, in deficit of 1.6 million euros”. In 2023, the deficit should be 2.8 million euros, according to Jean-Benoît Baylet.
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For “restore economic balance”the management presented during the CSE a “global transformation project” providing in particular for a “ambitious digital revenue development plan”. “It also incorporates a significant reduction in our charges. In addition to the optimization of our current expenses and our operating costs, a reduction in our workforce is unavoidable”adds the general manager of Free lunch. “Several more or less constrained devices are possible. We favor the opening of a voluntary departure plan for 45 positions, all services combined”he also says, inviting staff representatives to start discussions next week.
“The combination of these measures should allow Midi Libre to return to a positive result from 2024”, concludes Jean-Benoît Baylet. After its takeover by the group The Midi Dispatch in 2015, Free lunch had approximately 150 tenured journalists.