Le Monde’s surprise decision for editorial director awaits staff approval
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Version 0 of 1. The owners of Le Monde rejected three official candidates to handpick their own choice of editorial director to run the newspaper. The naming of Jérôme Fenoglio, whose appointment must be approved by a staff vote, came as a total surprise to journalists, who were informed by email a week ago. Le Monde, like the Guardian, is one of the very few newspapers that allows staff a say in who becomes its most senior editor; under Le Monde’s statutes, Fenoglio cannot take up his new post unless he receives 60% support from current and recently retired staff – around 450 people in total – who are nominal shareholders in the paper and make up the Society de Redacteurs du Monde (SRM), an editorial management committee. They will vote on 13 May. Three candidates had publicly thrown their hat into the ring for the post by the April deadline for applications, and were interviewed by the proprietors, businessmen Pierre Bergé, Xavier Niel and Matthew Pigasse. Fenoglio was not one of them. Favourite for the job was Gilles van Kote, who has been acting editorial director since 2014 when Natalie Nougayrède resigned. Under Le Monde’s bilateral management structure, the paper also has a managing editor, a post filled by Fenoglio since last year. It is unclear whether Fenoglio, who has worked at Le Monde for 23 years, will be replaced as managing editor or will be expected to fulfil both overlapping roles, as did Nougayrède. “After interviews and consultations, despite the great qualities of each of the candidates and the very positive record of Gilles van Kote during this interim period, the three shareholders have asked Jérôme Fenoglio to be their candidate,” read the email sent to Le Monde staff on 17 April. Fenoglio joined the paper in 1991 as a sports reporter, later working in the society and science sections before becoming editor-in-chief of Le Monde 2, the paper’s weekly magazine, between 2007 and 2009 when he became a foreign correspondent. He was made editor-in-chief of the online edition lemonde.fr in 2011, a post he occupied until his appointment as managing editor last year The complex management and editorial structure of the paper, founded in 1944, is designed to guarantee its editorial independence. It has sparked frequent internal crises as journalists sought to fend off outside interference – particularly commercial – and the company has lurched from one financial crisis to another over the last three decades. Unlike the Guardian, which is owned by an independent trust, Le Monde is owned by three wealthy men. In 2010, Bergé, Niel and Pigasse saved the paper from bankruptcy with a €10m (£7.2m) investment, its 10th recapitalisation since 1985. French media reported that Niel and Pigasse were happy to appoint Van Kote, who was clear favourite for the job. Bergé, however, president of Le Monde’s supervisory board, was said to have rejected their choice, and the two other candidates, Christophe Ayad, head of the paper’s international service, and Jean Birnbaum, responsible for the paper’s literary supplement Le Monde des Livres. Bergé, a co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent couture house and the late fashion designer’s partner, came under fire for “intrusion into editorial content” in February when he accused the paper of pandering to “populism” after it published the names of well-known figures implicated in the SwissLeaks tax evasion scandal involving HSBC. His interference led to a furious riposte from journalists advising him to mind his own business and leave newspaper content to them. |