Eleven days of strike… A twelfth this Wednesday.
The standoff that began on January 8 between the employees of the daily L'Equipe and their management underlines that the times are dark for all sports-related activities.
And the press in particular, already in the grip of serious difficulties.
At the origin of the movement, a plan to safeguard employment (PSE) which provides for the elimination of around fifty positions, including 47 of journalists, within SAS L'Équipe (the daily, the magazine, Vélo Magazine and the weekly France football, in the process of becoming monthly) bringing together 350 people.
The objective is to achieve savings of 5 million euros in a context of declining paper sales made worse by the health crisis and the end of sports competitions in the spring.
The newspaper experienced a deficit of nearly 16 million euros in 2020 and forecasts for 2021 and 2022 point to losses of at least 10 million per year.
“Being a profitable company, at least in equilibrium is a non-negotiable constraint,” said Jean-Etienne Amaury, the managing director of the eponymous group, in a letter sent Thursday evening to the workforce.
One hundred and eighty sports celebrities, last week, and a hundred personalities, this Monday, gave their support to the employees by calling for an end to the conflict.
Despite new management proposals linking cuts in wages and RTT with fewer job cuts, a majority of journalists reject the plan.
Sporting events impacted by the health crisis
The concerns of the newspaper which became the property of the Amaury group in 1964 shed a little more light, if necessary, on the damage caused by the health crisis on sporting events, their organization and their distribution.
Competitions, when they take place, take place without an audience and become increasingly difficult to sell.
The withdrawal of broadcaster Mediapro, unable to honor its pharaonic contract signed with the Professional Football League, plunged Ligue 1 into turmoil.
A symbol.
And the horizon is not yet clear despite the arrival of the vaccine.
Everyone bends down.
The Amaury Group is no exception, especially since it derives most of its earnings from ASO, its subsidiary which organizes sporting events: nearly 55 million euros in 2019, more than half of which was generated by the Tour de France, its historic flagship.
Problem, in 2020, for the first time, the Grande Boucle, postponed to September and subject to drastic conditions, was in deficit.
It was not the other races (Paris-Nice, Liège-Bastogne-Liège…), nor Paris-Roubaix and the Paris Marathon, both canceled, nor the Dakar rally or the golf competitions that changed the situation.
There will be less rab this year to replenish the funds of the Team.
"I do not see the Tour pass under another flag one day"
ASO, particularly affected by the pandemic, would it be in danger?
“We look at the situation in the newspaper but we are not more worried than that for ASO and the Tour de France, we slip at Amaury.
But it would not take a 2021 Tour like the previous one.
There, that would be worrying.
Afterwards, we know very well that if Marie-Odile (
Editor's note: Amaury, the owner of the group
) could just keep ASO to leave him to his family, she would.
"
“I do not see the Tour pass under another flag one day, whether French or foreign, explains Jean-Pascal Gayant, professor of economics at the University of Le Mans.
If the group collapses, the repercussions will be dramatic for sport in France.
But that's not the order of the day.
The 2020 Tour was less lucrative but it is linked to the pandemic.
This is an additional source of difficulty, but it is a specific context.
"