Journalists at France's prestigious daily face a dilemma

Julien — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:57:28 +0200

The facade of Le Monde's building in Paris. Photo taken from the metro by "Mademoiselle N"

The French daily newspaper Le Monde announced plans to lay off 130 staff, including some 90 journalists, in an economic reshuffle last week. The news did not go down well with the editorial staff, who today, for the first time in the newspaper's history, went on strike did not publish the newspaper. A stopped press occurred only once before, in 1976, when the staff did not publish for one day in solidarity with another people which had been sold to new ownership.

The directors of the daily paper have also envisaged the sale of several of the group's titles, including Cahiers du Cinema. They said that the scheme would save them 15 million euros over two years in order to return them to financial stability by 2009. The resulting strike on the part of the employees shows an industry, endangered by the suffocating forces of free newspapers and the internet, at the end of its tether.