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To hear the reports, news department employees at public broadcaster France Télévisions really dislike news director Laurent Guimier. The big union vote held this past week (June 30) asked members whether or not M. Guimier could be trusted to lead the TV newsrooms. “Without nuance,” noted Le Monde (July 1), they answered in the negative, 79.52% voting “no confidence.” Interestingly, staff of all-news channel FranceInfo were far more supportive. He had been its director two summers ago. French labor unions, generally, like to send messages to bosses. It’s a tradition.
M. Guimier was named news director for France Télévisions in September 2020. He had worked as a reporter and manager for several French news outlets, often private-sector radio channels including Europe 1 (Lagardère). On one level, that private-sector experience was likely seen as an advantage, organizational strategies and cost-control being important. But public sector managers are also expected to adroitly assuage the “sensitivities” in the various newsrooms. (See more about media in France here)
In recent weeks he also sent messages. Two non-union reporters were assigned to cover president Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Kyiv, Ukraine while other French news outlets were represented by expected names. Shortly thereafter, contracts for five union reporters were not renewed as the public TV channels scaled-back summer news production. Then there was that episode in June when presidential candidates Macron and Marine Le Pan refused to debate on France 2. Union confidence votes on executives are not binding on directors. Within French public media, however, a no confidence vote of this magnitude almost always precedes a management change within a year.
Then, too, French public media unions called industrial action, commonly known as a strike, last week (June 28) protesting political intention to end the consumer audiovisual fee in favor of direct financing of Radio France and France Télévisions through the state treasury. The obvious fear being that political influence will creep into management, programming and, particularly, news and current affairs production. Unions are also dismayed at the prospect of merging French public media into a single entity. Virtually all public media channels faded to black - or re-runs - as workers marched to the National Assembly, replete with signs and chanting. (See more about journalist unions here)
After a Portuguese investment firm with noticeable attachments to Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban took control of TV news channel Euronews watchful sceptics tuned-in. The transaction involving Alpac Capital was announced in December. By February the European Commission ended its financial contribution to the channel.
If anything, new Euronews chief executive Guillaume Dubois will be looking over his shoulder constantly. Alpac Capital is an investment vehicle of Pedro Vargas David, son of Mario David, long-time Viktor Orban advisor. Mr. Orban instrumentalized the “state capture” of nearly all Hungarian media outlets, providing unprecedented access to the country’s political and electoral processes of his right-wing nativist party Fidesz. Mr. Orban is sympathetic to the wants and needs of Russian Federation president Vladimir V. Putin. (See more about TV news here)
Responding to a blunt query from Ukraine’s media regulator National Council (June 15), M. Dubois responded defensively. “We take these allegations seriously, and upon receiving your letter, we immediately reviewed them, in good faith,” said his letter to National Council deputy chairperson Valentyn Koval, quoted by Broadband TV News (June 23). “We have however not found any sign of Russian state narrative in our stories.” M. Dubois officially became Euronews’ chief executive June 18 after several months with French all-news channel LCI.
In its letter, the National Council questioned potential Russian bias of Euronews’ reports on Russian military destruction of the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk, noting the source of its reporting was limited to Russian separatist sources. “We find it unfair that one aspect would be extracted out of the overall rolling coverage to accuse our newsroom of promoting Kremlin narratives,” retorted M. Dubois. “As Euronews’ new chief executive, I want to express my sympathy and my full solidarity with all Ukrainian people in the dramatic times you have been facing since the invasion of your country by Russia.”
That sports are big business is indisputable. The biggest of the big is European football. Russian billionaires had their turn with English Premiere League clubs. Now it’s the US private equity firms. Sports clubs, particularly those with valuable TV rights, are more attractive than cryptocurrencies. Actually, they are the same.
Private equity investor Sixth Street Partners is acquiring 10% of FC Barcelona’s television rights for 25 years, reported Spanish sports news portal Sport (June 27). The transaction value is assumed to be €205 million. FC Barcelona has been in talks for several weeks with other parts of the high-finance world for the obvious reason: they need the money. For the 2020/2021 season TV broadcast rights brought in €165.6 million to FC Barcelona, just ahead of Real Madrid (€163 million). (See more about media in Spain here)
It’s also possible, said the report, that FC Barcelona will sell 49.9% of its media production house Barca Studios as well as another 15% slice of TV rights, which the team’s directors approved June 16. FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta has a very short window - June 30 - to raise millions to acquire big name players. A rule established by Spanish football league LaLiga prevents any team carrying more than €450 million in long-term debt from expanding the player roster. (See more about sports rights here)
Sixth Street Partners invested €360 million with Real Madrid for 30% of stadium revenue development over 20 years. The group of former Goldman Sachs investment bankers took a 20% stake last year in the US basketball team San Antonio Spurs. In 2016 it led a US$1 billion debt to equity investment in streaming platform Spotify.
It is often said that journalists are the only people interested in the work of journalists. Other occupations get far more attention; fighter pilots, bank robbers, ad executives, politicians, not to forget guitar players and football stars. Recent events have raised some attention to the grinding, often dangerous trade of reporting. There’s a reason there are scant films about accountants.
Endangered, a documentary about the tough duty of journalism, has just been released on streaming service HBO Max. Executive producer is Ronan Farrow, award-winning investigative reporter for The New Yorker. The directors are Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, co-directors of several award winning films. Endangered premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival two weeks ago.
The film followed reporters Patricia Campos Mello (Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil) and Oliver Laughland (Guardian, UK) and photojournalists Carl Juste (Miami Herald) and Sashenka Gutierrez (Agency EFE News, Mexico) for a year. It features media-hating dictators and common citizens all railing about fake news. “You’re at risk the moment you step outside your door,” says Sra Gutierrez. (See more about journalism here)
“We also wanted to make the case in the film that the threat of death is real for some reporters, but that journalists are also facing subtler risks all the time that can in turn impede our ability to get to the truth,” said Mr. Farrow to Ed Pillington of the Guardian (June 21). “They can be the kind of legal threats that Patrícia (Campos Mello) faces in Brazil; mob violence that we see several of the reporters in the film face. These are subtler obstacles that sometimes aren’t recognized, but they can be just as pernicious in keeping us from getting the truth about the democracies we live in.”
“Sobering,” said Hollywood chronicle Variety (June 15 in a pre-release review. “You can tell the filmmakers, like their subjects, are struggling to suppress a scream.”
The malaise for news publishers is far reaching. Deserted by media buyers, ignored or distrusted by readers they reached to paywall subscriptions for solace only to find everybody under 30 on TikTok. Then sour economics hit everything from employees to newsprint. Weary greybeards of the industry only offer the same advice.
Danish publisher Berlingske Media’s new chief editor for flagship tabloid Berlingske Tidende (BT) - Pernille Holbøll - started work in April. She had been chief editor for Ekstra Bladet. Her hiring was announced last December coincident with her 40th birthday. Last week she clarified plans for BT. (See more about media in Denmark here)
“In the last four years, BT has grown explosively digitally to now be the largest news media in Denmark,” said her statement, quoted by Copenhagen Post (June 22). “As expected, newspaper circulation has fallen over the same period, and soon it will no longer be financially sustainable. That is why we are now focusing all our efforts on being the best where most Danes are: namely on mobile phones.”
From the end of this week (July 1) BT will no longer publish regional print editions for Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg, closing those offices and cutting staff. At the first of the year BT will become “100% digital free media, funded by ads.”
The change is not entirely new to Danish publishing. A year and a half ago, Danish regional newspaper Nordschleswiger made the switch to all-digital and chief editor Gwyn Nissen said it has been a relief for his staff. “We have experienced what it means to have our entire focus on our digital products,” he explained (June 22). “On the one hand, it's a huge relief not to have to feed a newspaper as well, and on the other hand to be able to concentrate one hundred percent on the digital content and enter the digital world.”
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