It’s the battle of the billionaires around the Sunday press: with Bernard Arnault for The Parisian SundayVincent Bolloré for the JDD or Rodolphe Saadé for the Tribune Sunday which will be released tomorrow, October 8.
If we look at the past, it is good, if not a battle, at least a frank rivalry which opposed Xavier Niel and Rodolphe Saadé last year around the newspaper Provence that the CMA-CGM shipowner bought at a high price under Niel’s nose. The founder of Free wanted to bring this title closer to nice morning, which, well, is also releasing a new Sunday formula this Sunday. However, even if we know that they are both eyeing M6, the two men are now “close friends”, as evidenced by projects and a joint investment of 40 million euros in the online media Brut.
For its part, the creation of La Tribune Sunday was announced at the beginning of August, immediately after the acquisition of The gallery by CMA-CGM and in the middle of a strike at Sunday newspaper against the arrival of a new editorial director, Geoffroy Lejeune, known for his far-right sympathies. However, we know that Rodolphe Saadé is in the good books of Emmanuel Macron, himself very opposed to Vincent Bolloré. He was still at dinner at Versailles with King Charles and we know that he has everything to fear from legislation which would toughen the taxation of his business if it was based, for example, no longer on the tonnage of his boats, but on the superprofits generated by maritime transport which are not known for their ecological virtue.
The gallery facing JDD
Opposite him, Vincent Bolloré is not yet officially master of Lagardère, but everyone knows that he controls the media. Under his leadership, the JDD reoriented itself to the right, with former members of Current valueson questions of immigration, security, criticism of Macron’s economic record, while a former Lagardère journalist, Bruno Jeudy, in disagreement with Bolloré since a front page of Paris Match on Cardinal Sara, finds himself at the head of La Tribune Sunday.
From there to think that this title will be the antithesis of JDD, there is only one step. But its director Jean-Christophe Tortora spends his time pointing out that the project is very old and that he is working to produce a newspaper for it and not against it. Moreover, it is a subsidiary of Havas, from the Bolloré sphere, which will carry out the advertising campaign for La Tribune Sunday.
Finally, there is Bernard Arnault, the LVMH arbiter, who has both the upper hand over The Parisian Sunday and on the advertising investments of his group. While advertisers were discussing with some of Publicis whether to go to the JDD, he clearly indicated the route to follow by letting an ad for Dior run. Since then, little by little, advertisers and politicians alike have returned to the newspaper.
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