A capital crisis may bring down leftist French paper / Liberation, founded in 1968, has seen circulation plummet (original) (raw)

Edouard de Rothschild grimaces at the Liberation headquarters in Paris Wednesday Oct 18, 2006 in Paris. Board members of France's irreverent left-wing newspaper Liberation met to review plans to save the struggling daily, now controlled by a member of the wealthy Rothschild family, who plans layoffs. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)JACQUES BRINON

2006-10-27 04:00:00 PDT Paris -- Spawned during the heady days of France's 1968 student riots, France's iconic, Maoist-rooted Liberation newspaper may face an ignominious demise: in the hands of the corporate bottom line.

The brainchild of writer Jean-Paul Sartre, Liberation rose to become the leftist newspaper of record for tens of thousands of intellectuals and union firebrands in a country where much of the press has a political slant. But today, its readership has plummeted, its debts are mounting, and its chances of survival appear to be dimming rapidly.

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In September, Liberation's boss, businessman Eduard de Rothschild of the famed banking family, gave a special steering committee until Oct. 18 to find ways to reverse the paper's sliding fortunes -- which include an estimated $16.5 million loss this year alone. During a meeting Thursday, Liberation's administrators gave themselves until Nov. 7 to find new investors for the newspaper.

Liberation's staff fears a drastic bloodletting as Rothschild -- who bought a commanding 39 percent stake in the newspaper last year -- tries to turn the struggling daily in to a moneymaking venture.

Profit motives

Those profit-making ambitions mark a sober and ironic denouement for the newspaper that once served as a mascot for leftist ideologues.

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"Nobody can imagine that we're going to save Liberation by pulling it toward the bottom," deputy editor Pierre Haski told France's leading Le Monde newspaper. "Obviously, savings are needed, but savings that are compatible with an editorial project."

In some ways, Liberation's woes reflect a larger struggle for survival in the newspaper industry, faced with growing competition from the Internet and -- in the case of France -- from a new crop of free dailies.

Sixty years ago, the country boasted 28 national newspapers with a combined circulation of 6 million, according to a petition for reader support published by Liberation's staff last month. Today, only 11 national papers remain, and total circulation has dropped to 2 million.

And while Liberation is classed among the top three dailies in France -- alongside the conservative Le Figaro and center-left Le Monde -- its 136,000 circulation amounts to less than half that of its two competitors.

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"Some newspapers have adapted very well" to the changing times, said Marc Gruber, co-director of the International Federation of Journalists headquartered in Brussels, assessing the state of Europe's media. He cited Britain's Guardian newspaper as one positive story of survival.

But in Germany, he said, half of the country's reporters are freelancers -- a telling sign of the growing precariousness of the profession.

Fear of 'tabloidization'

"The great fear of journalists these days is the race for profit, the tabloidization," he said. "Their main objective is to keep the principles of investigation and not to get caught up in stories about show biz or soccer or what shoes are being worn by Segolene Royal," a leading French Socialist politician.

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So far, there is no indication that Liberation's staff -- which holds another 18 percent stake in the paper and can veto management decisions -- and Rothschild have come to terms about where the newspaper should be heading.

In June, Rothschild dismissed the paper's popular co-founder Serge July and ended a weekly supplement, in a cost-savings move. The changes prompted several top correspondents to quit, including Florence Aubenas, a former hostage in Iraq.

Rothschild, who plowed $25 million into the paper last year, wants his investment to pay off. According to French news reports, he hopes to overhaul the newspaper and its Web site, while insisting it will keep its editorial line. The names of several leading French editors are being discussed to take over the helm.

Appeal to readers

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But Liberation's staff fears he may cut up to 100 of the newspaper's 285 jobs. Last month, they launched an appeal on the paper's Web site for readers to invest in Liberation's future at 19 to 190 euros a pop, or 23to23 to 23to238.

"I don't think the newspaper will disappear next year," said Alain Auffray, a political reporter at the newspaper, who is part of the discussions between staff and management over Liberation's future. But, he added, "we are still very far from reaching a solution. It's going to take a long time."

Whether loyalty -- or nostalgia -- will bail out Liberation is anybody's guess. The newspaper's readership is graying and dwindling. Many younger French prefer to surf the Net.

"I used to read Liberation a lot, but much less so in the past few years," said a young man sporting a ponytail and spectacles, as he bought a TV magazine at a northern Paris newsstand one sunny afternoon. He gave his only first name, Raphael. "Their editorials started to become a bit preachy. That's not for me."

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The newsstand's owner, Ramon Pino, also aired doubts about the paper's survival.

"I was around when Liberation was founded," said Pino, a diminutive man who has been selling newspapers in Paris for the past 30 years. "It was a bad newspaper then, in my opinion, but it struck a different tone. It wanted to be revolutionary. Now, it's just like all the others."

Still, Pino remains a dedicated Liberation reader. Asked what he would do if the newspaper went under, he paused.

"Nothing," he said. "For me, there's nothing else to read in the morning."