French newspaper editor resigns after journalists’ strike

The editor of France’s Liberation daily newspaper has resigned.

Nicolas Demorand had been embroiled in a dispute with newsroom staff opposed to the vision of the paper's future proposed by the editor and shareholders.

Mr Demorand said he hoped his decision to stand down would open the way to constructive negotiations to resolve the crisis.

“I’ve taken this decision because I think it’s necessary to unblock the situation in which Libe finds itself with a clear clash between the editorial staff and some of the shareholders. I’ve had to deal with severe crises during my three years at Liberation, but it’s the first time that it seems clear that it’s me who has to go.”

Last Friday, after a 24-hour strike, journalists were stunned to learn of a plan by shareholders to revamp the paper's Paris headquarters into a conference venue and cultural centre in association with the designer Philippe Starck. The proposals included setting up a television and radio studio, as well as a restaurant and bar.

Newsroom staff responded by producing a front page declaring: “We are a newspaper . . . not a restaurant, not a social network, not a cultural space, not a television studio, not a bar and not an incubator for startups.”

Inside, the 290 staff accused shareholders of carrying out a “real coup . . . against Liberation, its history, its team, its values”.

Liberation was co-founded by the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in 1973 as a voice for the people.

Mr Demorand’s resignation comes three months after a gunman opened fire in the Paris headquarters of the newspaper, critically wounding a photographer’s assistant.

Mr Demorand told Le Monde he had spent the past three years “looking for money” to keep the paper afloat and pay salaries as sales of the newspaper dropped. Several times he thought it might have to close, leaving him to “put the key under the door”.

He said journalists had refused to accept plans to “completely rebuild” Liberation into a multimedia organisation centred on the newspaper, which he believed was essential for the paper’s future.

“Liberation is still a business dominated by ‘print first’. For the last three years, my idea has been to take the paper into the digital age and profoundly transform our way of working.”

Guardian News & Media