Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The first challenge of president Hollande

As I have been warning long in advance the staff of François Hollande, the crisis of Presstalis is blowing up with a financial investment to save the company that grows every month. On January  150 millions euros were needed. I discovered last week it had jumped to 200 millions. Read a good story on Presstalis on the website of Electronlibre.

I remember very well that we had heated debates on this matter at the strategic committee of Etats Généraux de la Presse, 4 years ago. Several of us, including myself were in favour of a drastic solution : the merger of Presstalis with a huge logistics company that could cope with the declining figures of press activities. Otherwise, how could you make profitable a company that sees its sales declining by 10% a year.
Sarkozy refused to move in that direction so the Etats Généraux were cosmetic about the looming disaster of press delivery. Now it is late and maybe too late to reach a consensus. The new government will face a tough negociation with the CGT. Good luck Mr Ayrault.