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(Thierry Fischer)
23 journalists, 5 graphic designers,
2 picture editors, 1 proofreader
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1 accountant, 1 secretary,
3 marketing professionals.
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Last Thursday the society of editors
and staff of Ringier / Axel Springer
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released a statement,
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information that specifies the number
of employees dismissed
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after the decision of the German-Swiss
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
on Médialogues this morning,
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(MD) Yes, there's this - we're coming
out of three long weeks.
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If you ask me how I'm doing,
I'll tell you that I slept badly
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lately.
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We will reassure our audience:
when the same question was put
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to Ralph Büchi who is our CEO,
who returned
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from his sunny holidays in Verbier
on Wednesday to tell us
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The sad news shortly before
everyone else,
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he told us that he slept very well,
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he apologized a little for being
so tanned, but here it is:
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He announced this news and since
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
very badly, but also
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all those who have witnessed
a brutal end
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to their professional career
in the newspapers they loved,
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in the newspapers they defended,
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in the newspapers that they really
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
fortunes are affected.
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So here it is, it's actually a -
some rather sad weeks.
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It comes after long preparation;
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
in September of last year
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That there would be things.
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These things, they have obviously
added to the anxiety of the staff,
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the anxiety of all those who were
fighting for L'Hebdo to survive,
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so that Le Temps, also,
can defend its position
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in this French-Swiss media landscape.
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So long months of waiting,
long months of anguish.
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And then, well, this anguish
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
into a Blitzkrieg, a little.
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It's a bit like the Guderian divisions
invading Poland,
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if I may say so.
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They left us 10 days to react
to this situation:
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37 posts to cut, to eliminate,
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
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
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,
if people do not know,
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of sending to early retirement the
executives who had led to such a disaster,
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The director of Ringier Romandie and one of the
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,
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
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
Michael Ringier's collection.
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And so it was proposed to tighten up
a little more to save money,
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to tighten up a little more
to save jobs.
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All this has been refused and today
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
going to ask you, you have anticipated me,
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Michel Danthe, one senses
in your testimony,
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and thank you for coming
to our studio this morning,
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one obviously senses in your testimony
that it is charged.
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We will go into the details
of what happened
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during the previous 3 weeks,
just before that.
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Of course, the French-speaking public,
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
in French-speaking Switzerland,
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you've been a journalist for
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
at Le Temps,
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between the two, Le Courrier,
Le Nouveau Quotidien,
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you were editor in chief
at Matin Dimanche -
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(MD) So, Le Courrier, I have
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
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
and so once, indeed,
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I wrote a freelance article
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that, among others, Le Courrier,
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
a left-wing journalist,
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I am rather of, let us say,
the opposite camp.
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(TF) You participated in the launch
of Matin Bleu,
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and also jumped on the bandwagon
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
debates section at Le Temps:
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responsibilities so diverse, we see,
editorial responsibilities,
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management responsibilities, still today,
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President of the Society of Editors
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
about the carnage at Le Temps.
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First, there's the final nail
in the coffin of L'Hebdo,
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whose editorial team was,
I was going to say, virtually eradicated
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with the exception of its editor in chief
and some others
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who were already working as part of
the editorial pool at Le Temps.
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But what was very well communicated
from his point of view, of course,
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the editor on January 23,
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
not produce L'Hebdo with 37 people.
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We produced L'Hebdo
with far fewer people.
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Where are the others?
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Well the others, they are
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
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,
what is the state
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of the writing at this quality paper that
the editor used to like to describe
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as a newspaper of record - he no
longer makes this claim today.
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We are clearly
(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,
but we will make use of it today;
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when one is very moved, it is
cliches that spring to one's lips)
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We are clearly in shock, overwhelmed
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
L'Hebdo, are disappearing.
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That is to say from Monday,
over the coming months,
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it's a different Le Temps
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,
in this, in this disaster
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by people who today no longer
have the energy to fight -
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(TF) But the titles, we must
make them profitable, Michel Danthe!
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(MD) Of course, you need to
make the titles profitable.
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But to make the titles profitable,
we should not put
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people in charge who are waiting
for their retirement ...
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who are waiting for their retirement
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?
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