The memorandum of understanding signed on December 21 by the Hersant-Tapie duo and the creditor banks was ratified this Wednesday by the president of the Paris commercial court. He is expected to approve the takeover of the regional daily press group (La Provence, Nice-Matin, Var-Matin, Corse-Matin, and the newspapers of the Antilles and Guyana) by the Hersant-Tapie duo. The offer had already been accepted last December by all the creditor banks, which forgave a debt of 210/215 million euros for an offer of 50.
The time has come for local officials and editorial teams to begin preparing for what lies ahead.
What exactly does Bernard Tapie intend to do with this investment? Nobody believes that a businessman of his stature (avoiding commentary but worth recalling his zigzag journey between business, politics, showbiz, and sports) decides at 70, an age where one usually ends a career rather than starts a new one, to discover the world of the press as a new haven to invest part of his fortune obtained from the disputed arbitration that awarded him a hefty sum of over 300 million euros in the Adidas/Credit Lyonnais case.
Everyone knows that you don’t make money in this lackluster sector that is in search of a new industrial dimension and especially a new business model with real dynamics.
Bernard Tapie has responded to this preventive accusation with the eloquence that has made him one of the most media-covered men for decades (showing that talent is not an empty word for him), opposing it with his good faith.
No “Citizen Kane” of the regional press from Marseille to Nice via Corsica, but rather a simple and good-willed aspiration to be an enlightened press owner without personal political ambitions.
The near future might reveal the reason or reasons for this commitment, which arouses suspicion because Bernard Tapie isn’t someone easily fooled; instead, he is someone who often pulls the wool over others’ eyes!
Proof of that is that he has already provided the future editorial line of his titles: “The facts, just the facts,” temporarily forgetting to complete the commitment with a simple adjective “all?” A detail which is not insignificant because the question arises: The facts, but which facts? And after “the facts,” couldn’t we also have some opinions? Just to have complete and coherent information.
In the meantime, newsrooms are mobilizing; there is talk of a defensive line with the creation of a journalists’ association as a guarantee of professional ethics, which can only be commended (albeit sometimes belatedly).
Everyone wishes (at least verbally) for a free and independent press: Certainly, between owners pursuing other goals and interests, public and private advertisers who must be treated well like any respectable client, and commercial revenues that need to be cushioned with accommodating articles… The path to free and independent information is sometimes a bit like the path of the Lord: Unfathomable!
