Dassault, al asalto del gran diario francés

Corrijo varios errores de este post.

La empresa de aviones y armas Dassault ya es dueña de Le Figaro y ahora se acerca a Le Parisien. Además, Serge Dassault es diputado del sarkozismo e íntimo del presidente. En términos de un diputado socialista, el conflicto de intereses perfecto para un propietario de medios.

Estoy haciendo un joint venture con el FT para intercambio de información con LTA. Mientras tanto, me permito copiar lo siguiente y presento este Del Periodismo.

Groupe Dassault, owner of Le Figaro newspaper, is in talks to buy rival Le Parisien in what would be a controversial first step towards consolidation of France’s ailing national press.

Groupe Amaury, the family-owned company that includes L’Equipe and ASO, organiser of the Tour de France cycle race, has put Le Parisien, the biggest selling national news daily, up for sale for €200m ($269.5m) to concentrate on sport.

Dassault, which also makes corporate jets, military fighters and sophisticated computer systems, has emerged as the leading candidate to buy the mid-market tabloid.

“That we, owners of Le Figaro, are interested in Le Parisien is not completely stupid given the possible synergies and our thinking on advertising, small ads, internet, or purchasing of newsprint,” said Rudi Roussillon, chairman of the Le Figaro’s supervisory board.

Fondations Capital, an investment fund, is also interested in buying Le Parisien but is unlikely to get in a bidding war. “We are looking at this very closely with the rational approach of a private equity investor,” said Xavier Marin, chairman of Fondations.

A sale to Dassault would comply with an ownership limit of 30 per cent of national newspaper readership but is certain to prove highly controversial.

Le Figaro is France’s leading conservative daily, known for its decidedly favourable coverage of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Serge Dassault, chairman of the eponymous group and of Le Figaro, is a senator for Mr Sarkozy’s UMP party and is seeking another term as mayor of Corbeil-Essonnes, a town in the suburbs of the capital.

“Two important national news dailies would lie in the hands of one man, Serge Dassault, the perfect embodiment of the conflicts of interests so dear to the party in power: press baron, boss of a large industrial company which lives off public contracts and a UMP politician,” said Patrick Bloche, a socialist deputy.

The sale of Le Parisien comes amid a tightening of political control of the media ahead of the presidential election in 2012. In July, Mr Sarkozy installed a new chairman of France Télévisions.

Mr Sarkozy also tried unsuccessfully to block the sale of Le Monde, France’s most prestigious daily, to a trio of independent-minded and left-leaning businessmen. The president later told journalists that he was less concerned with the sale of Le Monde than with the fate of Le Parisien.

Le Parisien is a quality tabloid with a reputation for scoops, investigations and unbiased political coverage. With its copious sports coverage and consumer stories it is also the closest France has to a mass-market title. It recorded average fully paid sales of 478,000 in 2009, including its national edition, making it is the biggest selling national daily.

Le Parisien made a profit of €2.7m on sales of €199m in 2009 but is vulnerable without a long-term investor, like other lossmaking or heavily indebted titles such as Le Monde and Libération, the two left-of-centre titles, and La Tribune, a business daily.

France’s eight national daily newspapers are separately owned and none belong to larger newspaper groups, one reason for the chronic weakness of the national daily press, which is propped up by government subsidies and is beset by relatively low readership and high costs.

Patrick Eveno, a press specialist at the Sorbonne, said a takeover by Dassault would be a welcome step towards consolidation of the sector, despite concerns over pluralism. “In France, under the pretext of preserving the illusion of pluralism, we prevented concentration and suddenly there are few titles left.”

Jean Hornain, chief executive of Le Parisien, acknowledged there was concern among journalists about a takeover by Dassault but said the newspaper would remain neutral to preserve its broad appeal. “The biggest security for people who work here is to have the largest readership possible,” he said.