“Welcome to the Bolloré family.” With that words the French media magnate Vincent Bolloré has informed the employees of the media conglomerate Lagardère, known from the French publishing house Hachette, that they will henceforth fall under his authority. The Breton multibillionaire sent the welcome message after his Vivendi group received the green light from the European Commission last Friday to incorporate Lagardère. This brings an end to the acquisition process that had been going on for more than three years.
With the acquisition, the influence of the 71-year-old Bolloré in the French media landscape continues to grow. Since the beginning of this century, the businessman has been in the wings of more and more media and communication companies. Since 2012, ‘the Bolloré family’ has owned all television channels of the largest private provider Canal+, including C8 and the much-watched C-News, the French equivalent of Fox News.
Since 2021, Bolloré has also dominated the magazine market thanks to the acquisition of Prisma Media. With the acquisition of Lagardère, Bolloré gets the magazine Paris Match and radio stations, as well as the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. After the merger, the turnover of the Vivendi group will increase from 9.6 billion euros to 16.5 billion euros. 63 percent of that comes from international trade, compared to 54 before the merger.
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Press freedom under threat
The so-called bollorisation of the media landscape leads to concerns in France. And not without reason. In recent years, several incidents have taken place that indicate that Bolloré interferes with the editorial choices of the media under his control. For example, there seems little room for criticism of the businessman, who maintains close ties with controversial types such as the radical right-wing polemicist and former presidential candidate Éric Zemmour. Bolloré is also controversial outside France, he practices in more than forty African countries great influence via transport and port companies he bought up and became involved in environmental and corruption scandals on several occasions.
However, channels such as C-News hardly talk about this, if at all. Eye-catching was an episode of the popular talk show Touche pas à mon Poste on C8 last February, in which a left-wing MP criticized Boloré’s presence in Africa. In response, presenter Cyril Hanouna scolded him off for minutes. “I don’t spit on the hand that feeds me,” Hanouna said at one point.
The former editor-in-chief of Canal+, Jean-Baptiste Rivoire, also testified that after the takeover by Vivendi, “editorial freedom is trampled under foot by a shareholder who businessman in Africa […] mingled with the freedom of journalists”.
The journalists of Paris Match it has also been noticed recently that since the announcement of the acquisition plans, other editorial choices are being made that seem to be in favor of Bolloré, revealed Radio France last April. For example, an acquaintance of Bolloré was appointed as director and more attention is paid to programs that are broadcast on Canal+ channels. The apparent influence of their new pater familias – who denies that editorial freedom is at stake and underlines that he had not yet formally had a say in Paris Match until Brussels would pass judgment – led to twenty of the sixty journalists in the editorial team left.
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Publishing world
The cards are also being shuffled again in the French publishing world now that with Hachette, France’s largest publishing house comes into the hands of Bolloré. To comply with the competition rules, he has to distance himself from Éditis, the second largest French publishing house for years was part of the Vivendi group. Éditis is taken over by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, who already owns several French magazines such as Marianne, Franc Tireur and Le monde has in hand. Bolloré also needs the leaf Gala get rid of it because it looks too similar Paris Match.
That Bolloré does not get his hands on both Éditis and Hachette is one relief for smaller publishers. She feared the creation of a ‘mega-group’ which would make competition impossible for smaller parties. After the announcement of the European approval, the Danish EU Commissioner Margarethe Verstager (Competition) also assured that the “corrective action” taken will ensure that fair competition is not compromised. “We need to ensure that the book publishing and press markets remain competitive and diverse, to foster a variety of ideas and opinions.”
NGOs such as Reporters sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders, RSF) are not reassured. Vice President Christophe Deloire writes on Twitter that ‘respecting the competition rules in no way guarantees the editorial independence of the new victories’. In any case, the Bolloré family itself is satisfied. Yannick Bolloré, son of Vincent Bolloré and Vice Chairman of Vivendi’s Supervisory Board, said in an interview with Le Figaro pride:. “The outline of Vivendi is going to change a lot.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper on June 13, 2023.