The plan aims to reduce costs in the face of recurring losses in the sector, mainly targeting commercial functions, advertising management and IT services.
The management of the Les Echos-Le Parisien group, owned by the luxury giant LVMH, announced on Tuesday a reorganization aimed at eliminating around sixty positions outside the editorial offices, to save money in a context of press crisis. The objective of eliminating 61 positions (in full-time equivalents) targets commercial functions, in advertising management or IT services. This number of positions represents 3% of the total workforce, according to a source close to the matter.
Management promised to “limit forced departures as much as possible”. In an email addressed to employees, the general director of LVMH’s press division, Michèle Benbunan, underlined: “Despite the efforts made in recent years, the recurring losses of our media activity are no longer sustainable in the long term.”
This announcement comes at a time when the press sector is going through a particularly difficult period, marked by an increase in social plans. In recent months, job cuts have been announced in several press groups, notably at Center France (La Montagne, Le Populaire du Center), Ebra (L’Est Républicain, Le Progrès, Le Dauphiné Libéré), Prisma (Geo, Capital, Femme Actuelle, Voici…), Bayard (La Croix) and Marie-Claire.
A sector disrupted by digital transformation
The sector’s economic model is being disrupted by new sources of information such as social networks and large digital platforms, which also capture part of the advertising revenues of traditional media.
In this context, the Les Echos-Le Parisien group is not spared from difficulties. The luxury giant, led by billionaire Bernard Arnault, had bailed out the newspaper Le Parisien/Aujourd’hui in France to the tune of 150 million euros in November 2025 to make up for the title’s losses (30 million euros in 2024).
At the end of 2025, the LVMH group bought out en bloc the economic magazine Challenges and the scientific titles Sciences et Avenir and La Recherche, all three brought together within Editions Croque Futur. Five months later, he announced his intention to sell the two scientific journals to concentrate on the recovery of Challenges.
