The owner of France Soir, Alexander Pugachev, due to the dismissal of Christian de Villeneuve and his replacement on Monday at the head of the drafting by Remy Dessart.
LE FIGARO – Why sacked Christian de Villeneuve, hired five months ago?
Alexander Pugachev – Christian Villeneuve arrived at the editorial management the same day of the launch of the new formula of France-Soir, March 17. Under his leadership, the title has gained credibility and reputation. France-Soir is now in running order. He left because we have some disagreements together, particularly on the image and the editorial line. It is not enough to make France-Soir a "Parisian ba" to succeed, I want France-Soir stands, has its own personality.Christian de Villeneuve – this is not a criticism of me – Le Parisien in its DNA and that does not correspond to my vision of France-Soir. However, I still have confidence in Christian de Villeneuve and that is why I offered him the post of editorial adviser. It should give me his answer within fifteen days.
Remy Dessart takes over at short notice. What is its mission?
I presented Monday to the editor Remy Dessart. His resume is excellent: it has succeeded almost everything he has undertaken: he is at the origin of the popular economy magazine Capital, has worked to VOD, to Team, and even television as a director Information M6.He also led on behalf of the German Springer plans to launch a tabloid, a "French-Bild", which have not been created …
… Is it just your ambition to make France-Soir a "Bild" in French?
I understand the anxiety of writing due to the departure of Christian de Villeneuve and I want to reassure her. In any case, I do not want to transform France-Soir in a trash daily, or a populist Bild in the French "as I have read in the press. I, indeed, visited last month writing Bild, such as the Daily Mirror before and soon that of Osterreich. I even consulted the number zero of the famous French-Bild "… And I quickly realized that this project was not duplicated in France.
No change in editorial policy of France-Soir, or even dismissal is expected.The roadmap is set to Remy Dessart only to enhance the value added of the title to multiplying the scoops, the articles to the original angles, staggered. There is no point to a pale copy of Le Parisien.
Great ambitions for writing only 70 journalists …
We're looking to hire about ten more journalists to expand the investigative department of the newspaper. Many contacts have already been made to journalists. It is now up to Remy Dessart to his leg.
Should we expect a reshuffle in the drafting?
That Remy Dessart and see … But to have already spoken with him, no departure is expected.The work of each charge, including Dominique de Montvalon (formerly of Paris, Ed) to head the political department, is very appreciated.
Always Check the 150,000 copies by the end of the year?
Our record is good. In one year we went from 21,000 to nearly 90,000 copies circulated in France, according to OJD (20 of 000 for Paris-Ile de France). Given these figures, we are aiming now 150,000 copies in 2011. To achieve this, I intend to inject a minimum of 20 million euros, in addition to the 50 million already invested, to cover our losses and start a new advertising campaign in January. At the start, we planned to send 700,000 mailings to try to garner 5000 subscriptions.
Le Parisien is for sale.Have you looked at the file?
I would have liked but the group did not want to let me know … The advantage with France-Soir is that from a very low, we should not lead to cuts in recruitment but rather to relaunch the newspaper. However, I recently reviewed the record of a security area and is very attentive to opportunities that may present the regional press.
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