0:00:00.450,0:00:06.754
(Thierry Fischer) [br]23 journalists, 5 graphic designers, [br]2 picture editors, 1 proofreader

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1 accountant, 1 secretary,[br]3 marketing professionals.

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Last Thursday the society of editors[br]and staff of Ringier / Axel Springer

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released a statement,

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information that specifies the number[br]of employees dismissed

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after the decision of the German-Swiss[br]publisher to cease publication

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of the French magazine L'Hebdo.

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Michel Danthe, good morning.

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(Michel Danthe) Hello, Thierry Fischer.

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(TF) Thank you very much for being live[br]on Médialogues this morning,

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(MD) Yes, there's this - we're coming[br]out of three long weeks.

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If you ask me how I'm doing, [br]I'll tell you that I slept badly

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lately.

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We will reassure our audience:[br]when the same question was put

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to Ralph Büchi who is our CEO,[br]who returned

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from his sunny holidays in Verbier[br]on Wednesday to tell us

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The sad news shortly before[br]everyone else,

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he told us that he slept very well,

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he apologized a little for being[br]so tanned, but here it is:

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He announced this news and since[br]I think it's not only

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The negotiating team and the team -

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the editors who are sleeping [br]very badly, but also

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all those who have witnessed[br]a brutal end

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to their professional career[br]in the newspapers they loved,

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in the newspapers they defended,

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in the newspapers that they really[br]inhabited with their presence, their pen,

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with their intelligence.

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Anyway, that makes 36 people,

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36 people whose professional[br]fortunes are affected.

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So here it is, it's actually a - [br]some rather sad weeks.

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It comes after long preparation; [br]we'd say that we have a publisher

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who's a specialist in slow cooking

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and who had already implied to us[br]in September of last year

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That there would be things.

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These things, they have obviously [br]added to the anxiety of the staff,

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the anxiety of all those who were [br]fighting for L'Hebdo to survive,

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so that Le Temps, also, [br]can defend its position

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in this French-Swiss media landscape.

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So long months of waiting,[br]long months of anguish.

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And then, well, this anguish [br]and this waiting culminated,

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so to speak, for the first time on 23 January,

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when they came to tell us

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that it was necessary to cut 37 posts.

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After that our editor launched[br]into a Blitzkrieg, a little.

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It's a bit like the Guderian divisions[br]invading Poland,

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if I may say so.

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They left us 10 days to react[br]to this situation:

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37 posts to cut, to eliminate,[br]10 days to think,

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10 days to establish a negotiating team.

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10 days to consult, give our opinion[br]and our alternative economy measures.

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That is what we did last week.

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In 5 days the management pronounced[br]on these alternative measures,

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they have refused and declined all of them.

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They consisted, for the record,[br]if people do not know,

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of sending to early retirement the[br]executives who had led to such a disaster,

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The director of Ringier Romandie and one of the[br]editors in chief of this newsroom,

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of this ill-disciplined group which has -

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(TF) Daniel Pillard and Alain Jeannet, [br]respectively.

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(MD) That's right, yes.

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Also save on premises,

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Because we have extremely[br]bling-bling premises,

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premises which are there to look impressive,

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to be able to exhibit works of art from[br]Michael Ringier's collection.

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And so it was proposed to tighten up[br]a little more to save money,

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to tighten up a little more[br]to save jobs.

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All this has been refused and today[br]we are facing this disaster.

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(TF) How are you -

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that's precisely the question that I was [br]going to ask you, you have anticipated me,

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Michel Danthe, one senses[br]in your testimony,

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and thank you for coming [br]to our studio this morning,

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one obviously senses in your testimony[br]that it is charged.

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We will go into the details[br]of what happened

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during the previous 3 weeks,[br]just before that.

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Of course, the French-speaking public,[br]French-speaking readers

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have come across your byline, inevitably,

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because you have long experience,

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you are one of the journalists who count [br]in French-speaking Switzerland,

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you've been a journalist for[br]nearly 40 years

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in numerous French-speaking newsrooms.

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Trained at the Journal de Genève,

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now dismissed from editorial staff [br]at Le Temps,

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between the two, Le Courrier, [br]Le Nouveau Quotidien,

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you were editor in chief[br]at Matin Dimanche -

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(MD) So, Le Courrier, I have [br]never worked at Le Courrier,

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but instead at La Suisse, yes.

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(TF) Here, I read one of your articles[br]published today on Le Courrier's website.

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(MD) Yes, that's when I was unemployed, I -

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because I was unemployed[br]and so once, indeed,

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I wrote a freelance article

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that, among others, Le Courrier,[br]by syndication, picked up.

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And also La Liberté, I think.

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(TF) This is what -

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(MD) This doesn't lack piquancy

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because I am not seen as [br]a left-wing journalist,

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I am rather of, let us say, [br]the opposite camp.

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(TF) You participated in the launch[br]of Matin Bleu,

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and also jumped on the bandwagon [br]of new technologies, since

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you embarked on a training course,

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You have been head of the Opinions and [br]debates section at Le Temps:

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responsibilities so diverse, we see,[br]editorial responsibilities,

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management responsibilities, still today,

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President of the Society of Editors [br]and Ringier / Axel Springer staff.

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In your statement, you don't pull any punches,

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you talk about carnage.

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(MD) Yes, it's carnage,

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because people need to know [br]about the carnage at Le Temps.

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First, there's the final nail [br]in the coffin of L'Hebdo,

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whose editorial team was,[br]I was going to say, virtually eradicated

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with the exception of its editor in chief[br]and some others

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who were already working as part of [br]the editorial pool at Le Temps.

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But what was very well communicated [br]from his point of view, of course,

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the editor on January 23, [br]is that 37 posts disappeared,

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due to L'Hebdo's ceasing publication.

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This is pure nonsense, of course.

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37 posts are disappearing, but we did [br]not produce L'Hebdo with 37 people.

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We produced L'Hebdo[br]with far fewer people.

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Where are the others?

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Well the others, they are[br]editorial staff at Le Temps,

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an editorial staff that's now slashed by a quarter.

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You should know that this is the sixth [br]restructuring since Le Temps was founded,

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that the previous round took place in 2015 and affected 15 people,

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that the round before that took place in 2012

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and affected around ten people.

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So you can imagine today, if you will, [br]what is the state

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of the writing at this quality paper that [br]the editor used to like to describe

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as a newspaper of record - he no [br]longer makes this claim today.

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We are clearly [br](as the journalistic cliché says

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that I tell all young journalists to avoid

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when they write headlines, [br]but we will make use of it today;

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when one is very moved, it is [br]cliches that spring to one's lips)

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We are clearly in shock, overwhelmed [br]and very angry.

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25% of the staff of Le Temps today,

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in addition to the closing down of [br]L'Hebdo, are disappearing.

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That is to say from Monday, [br]over the coming months,

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it's a different Le Temps [br]that we should talk about.

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(TF) What makes you most angry?

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(MD) What makes me most angry is that

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we were led, if you will, [br]in this, in this disaster

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by people who today no longer [br]have the energy to fight -

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(TF) But the titles, we must[br]make them profitable, Michel Danthe!

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(MD) Of course, you need to [br]make the titles profitable.

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But to make the titles profitable, [br]we should not put

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people in charge who are waiting [br]for their retirement ...

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who are waiting for their retirement [br]and covering their own asses,

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and who have no energy or get-up-and-go

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to try to pursue this matter!

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(TF) Have you been betrayed?

0:08:07.369,0:08:10.213


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