Denis Olivennes, co-manager of the daily
Liberation
and president of the SAS independent press holding company, took up his pilgrim's staff.
Its objective: to find 15 million euros to ensure the future of the newspaper.
By the end of the year, he will have to present to the Endowment Fund for an independent press, created two years ago by Patrick Drahi and chaired by Arthur Dreyfuss, the general manager of Altice Media, his financing scheme .
Denis Olivennes: “Growth has become a cursed concept”
All options are open, from Patrick Drahi's pot to the arrival of one or more investors.
Denis Olivennes has a very full address book.
He advised Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky on his purchases of
Marianne
,
Elle
and his stake in
Le Monde
.
He is also alongside the president of CMA-CGM, Rodolphe Saadé, for the takeover of the daily La Provence.
The two businessmen Daniel Kretinsky and Rodolphe Saadé are interested in the press in France.
But the departure of a large number of journalists via an assignment clause, the Covid pandemic which has reduced advertising revenue and the increase in the price of paper have postponed the objective of arriving in the green by a few years.
In 2022, the Ebitda loss should be around 7 million euros, compared to 8 million in 2021 and 12 million in 2020.
Increase in the price of paper
Thursday, before the editorial staff of
Liberation
, Denis Olivennes affirmed that, whatever the solution adopted "the key point for the editorial staff, the management and the endowment fund, is that the structure put in place two years ago remains". .
Liberation
, long a sick title of the national daily press, was supported at arm's length by Patrick Drahi who, since taking over the title in 2014, has swallowed up 120 million euros.
In 2020, it cleared the debt of the title and transferred its ownership to the endowment fund which holds 99% of the Presse Indépendante holding company which, in turn, holds 99% of Liberation.
On the occasion of this transfer, he endowed the fund with 17 million euros, a sum supposed to meet the needs until the arrival of Liberation at the financial equilibrium planned for the end of 2022.
Either you have to find an investor who believes "
in our model and who finances (us), by lending us money or by investing alongside the fund" but "the only thing that is certain is that the fund will keep the Liberation control
”, warned Denis Olivennes.
In 2021, turnover reached 31.5 million euros, up 10% and operating losses were reduced to 7.9 million compared to 12.3 million in 2020.
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However, under the impetus of co-manager and publication director Dov Alfon,
Liberation
has clearly raised its head.
In two years, Libé has strongly developed digital subscriptions which reached 56,000 copies in May and should reach the 70,000 mark by the end of the year.
According to figures from the ACPM for the month of May, paid circulation of the daily showed the strongest growth over one year (+ 6.69%) to reach 94,600 paid copies.