The international news channel Euronews plans to cut nearly 200 jobs at its Lyon headquarters, with a redeployment in several European capitals planned in its new strategic orientations, we learned Thursday from concordant sources.
The unions had been waiting for several months for the details of the strategic plan announced by the management to relaunch the chain, in the face of catastrophic results – around 160 million losses in ten years and for the year 2021 alone a net result of – 20 million euros .
40% of employees made redundant
“During the extraordinary meeting of the CSE, the management presented a massive layoff plan which provides for 198 layoffs” by October 2024 in Lyon – out of some 500 employees – as part of a job safeguard plan ( PSE), the SNJ announced in a press release.
In an internal letter obtained by AFP, general manager Guillaume Dubois, a former LCI employee appointed in July to relaunch the channel, confirmed the planned number of job cuts. “This project provides for a redeployment of the editorial staff of Euronews in Europe”, he specified, indicating that was opening “a period of negotiation of several months (…) on the principles and methods of application of this project “.
Headquarters sale announced
According to the SNJ, the management wishes to redeploy its teams of journalists from October 2023 “with a central editorial office in Brussels and the opening of six offices in Rome, Berlin, Lisbon, Madrid, London (and Lyon) within six months. Only the following language teams will remain in Lyon: French, Russian and Farsi”.
Contacted by AFP, the management could not immediately specify the number of positions to be created in the other offices outside France. According to the SNJ, 142 positions must be maintained in Lyon despite the announced sale of the headquarters. These employees should leave “in the last quarter of 2024” this emblematic 10,000m² building in the Confluence district of Lyon, signed by architects Jakob + MacFarlane.
“The dismantling of our chain in Lyon is now almost total”, lambasted the SNJ. Launched in 1993 by some twenty European channels, the channel passed last July under the control of the Alpac Capital investment fund based in Portugal, which acquired 88% of the company’s shares by buying back the shares held by the Egyptian magnate Naguis Sawiris via his MGN holding company. Euronews continuously broadcasts information in 15 languages with an editorial staff of 400 journalists of 30 nationalities. In November 2020, it already launched a social plan which resulted in around thirty departures, including around ten forced.