“The editorial staff urges clarification of the shareholder’s intentions, out of respect for employees and readers. » While a sale of the magazine Marianne is not excluded by CMI France, owned by Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky, the editorial staff of the weekly considers itself “kept in vagueness and uncertainty as to the future of the newspaper”.
Regretting that Denis Olivennes, chairman of the supervisory board of the CMI group, did not provide explanations to employees, “the Society of Editors, the CSE and the editorial staff meeting in a general assembly strongly denounce the brutality of these methods”.
The investigative media La Lettre had affirmed Monday that Daniel Kretinsky was seeking to sell the weekly, in his fold since 2018, because of its editorial line considered too sovereignist.
Already at the head of a small media empire in his country and a powerful energy group, the Czech magnate, renowned for being pro-European, has accelerated his all-out investments in France. In November, he got his hands on number two of the Editis edition, sold by Vivendi. Since 2018, he has, among other things, bought the magazines of the Lagardère Active group (including She And TV 7 days), acquired more than 5% of the TF1 group and bailed out Release twice, without becoming a shareholder.
Created in 1997 by journalists Jean-François Kahn and Maurice Szafran, the weekly has 55 press cards. At the initiative of the editorial management, a new formula was launched in March, with pagination reduced by half and a price dropping from 4.40 euros to 3.50 euros.
This launch was a success, with single-issue sales increasing sharply, and paper and digital subscriptions starting to rise again, according to CMI France. With 129,000 copies sold in 2023, Marianne saw its circulation drop by 1.3% compared to 2022, according to the Alliance for Press and Media Figures (ACPM). It stays behind its competitors Point (291,000, -1.5%), The Obs (190,000, -7%) and The Express (144,000, -5%). Marianne lost 3 million euros last year, for 12 million euros in turnover.