After having nibbled a big chunk of the French magazine press, would Reworld have fallen on a bone? Calls for help from the editorial staff Science & Vie, vampirized by its new owner since last year and the takeover of Mondadori, were heard by the Ministry of Culture. Roselyne Bachelot thus announced, on December 24, the launch of a mission on the conditions of access to aid to the press. The case Science & Vie “clearly weighed” in the acceleration of this reflection which was already under study, we are told on the side of the rue de Valois.
It has been several weeks since the editorial staff of the centenary monthly was dispossessed of control of its website. This is the Reworld method (1): the media group, number 1 for magazine press in France, has a (bad) habit of removing journalists from the titles it acquires, then replacing them with of content ”non-journalists. More malleable, they also blur the line between advertising and journalism.
Stricter conditions
The objective of the ministerial mission, the conclusions of which are expected in mid-March, would thus aim to condition the presence of journalists in the editorial staff of access to aid to the press. These last take multiple forms : they can be direct, such as aid for porterage or those promoting pluralism, or indirect, in particular via a super-reduced VAT rate (2.10% in metropolitan France) or through advantageous postal rates. Rather, Reworld is benefiting from these indirect aids now. The group has in fact not received direct aid to the press in 2020, according to the Ministry of Culture.
To gain access to this economic regime, press titles today simply have to present a vague good “Significant editorial contribution”, as recalled in the ministry’s press release. The only exception: “Online press services for political and general information”, which must include at least “A professional journalist […] within the editorial team ”.
Highlighting “The fight against the manipulation of information” or “The clear separation between information and advertising”, the Ministry of Culture therefore seems to want to extend these stricter conditions to a larger part of the editorial staff. The Reworld method is clearly targeted: if the group wants to continue in its logic, it will have to abandon the tax advantages granted to the sector. But titles that pay their journalists on account (often via the status of auto-entrepreneur) and not on a freelance basis, as required by the labor code, are also more widely targeted by this mission. Practices denounced for a long time by journalists’ unions and freelance collectives.
Strong protest
On the editorial side of Science & Vie, we are “Happy that these ubiquitous situations reach the attention of the Ministry of Culture”, as a member of the Society of Journalists tells us. The media advisor at the ministry, Emmanuelle Bensimon-Weiler, is indeed monitoring the case closely.
After the dismantling of women’s magazines Biba or Grazia by Reworld in recent months, the case Science & Vie seems to provoke this time a more lively protest, beyond the world of the press. In mid-December, nearly 300 academics and scientists signed a tribune in the World, calling for the rescue of the monthly. A few days later, the Modem deputy of Gard Philippe Berta and the MEP Christophe Grudler co-signed a letter to Roselyne Bachelot expressing their “Deep concern” on the subject. A petition, finally, approach the 25,000 signatories. The editorial staff is still threatening to resign en bloc: according to the SDJ, three quarters of journalists plan to leave if relations with their owner do not improve.
(1) Unreachable, the Reworld group had not responded to our requests on Wednesday morning.
Adrien franque
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