Came Thursday, January 20 before the Senate to present his press and media group as a disinterested activity of “patronage”, the luxury leader, Bernard Arnault, one of the richest men in the world, made a point of standing out by affirming that he wanted to maintain an editorial line to which he “adhere”.
After Vincent Bolloré on Wednesday, the Senate commission of inquiry, which must shed light on the consequences of growing concentration in the media, is starting to get used to seeing the most powerful industrialists in the sector try to minimize their importance.
“You invited me to talk about a subject, the media and their capitalistic organization. This subject is quite marginal for the group I lead”, began Bernard Arnault, CEO and main shareholder of the multinational LVMH.
The businessman who invested in 1993 in The gallery (sold in 2007) and now leader of the economic press (Les Echos, Invest, Boursier.com), owner of Parisian, from the monthly knowledge of the arts, from Classic Radio and chain Middle, i.e. a total of 644 press cards, devotes moreover ” not much time “ to this activity that he “would rather side with patronage”.
Faced with the digital giants, “the sustainability of the traditional titles we are talking about today is far from guaranteed in the long term”, he explained, and according to him, “it would be even less so if these media did not have powerful shareholders. »
“Useful for the future of the media”
Moreover, the titles he controls “were most often offered to the group by their owners who wanted to get rid of them”, he pointed out.
These titles are “flowers”, “irreplaceable” in their fields (economy, daily life, arts), said the billionaire: “this is why the LVMH group has agreed from time to time to reinforce this or that title”, even if it means assuming “substantial losses”.
“I think shareholders today are very useful for the future of the media they own (…). We are trying to transform them in the digital world, precisely to be able to compete with the American media, that requires a lot of resources”, he pleaded.
But is this effort so disinterested?, asked the senators. And isn’t LVMH actively seeking to acquire new media to expand its influence?
Bernard Arnault then got down to denying all the press information saying he was interested in buying new titles.
Not the n’a “never made an offer” on Le Figaro, did he declare ” under oath “. No, he did not study the acquisition of M6, nor that of the Sunday newspaper or of Paris Match, nor that of the magazines of the Lagardère group in which he had come to support Arnaud Lagardère, who preferred Vincent Bolloré to him.
“In general, as well as in front of my shareholders, I do not give away my projects”, he however dropped in front of the senators.
“The shareholder must be able to react”
Bernard Arnault assumed to have intervened to cut to Release, guilty of a “one” that had displeased him: “I complained about it, I called the director saying: “it’s amazing to treat French companies and their leaders this way” ».
In France, “freedom of the press is guaranteed” and is not in danger from future operations, for example the TF1-M6 merger, he judges.
Two things seem to him to be avoided: discrimination in aid to the press according to the shareholder (“Either we help the press and it has to be a little ecumenical or we don’t do it at all”), and additional regulations to protect editorial independence.
“I don’t want to finance a newspaper that becomes the support of the far right or the far left. And if there is absolute and total independence, you never know”, he argued, while the commission is wondering in particular about the right-wing drift of the news channel CNews (Canal +), controlled by Vincent Bolloré.
For Bernard Arnault, “The shareholder has to be able to react at one time or another. Yes The echoes were to defend Marxist economics tomorrow, I would still be extremely embarrassed. There still have to be safeguards. »