This is precisely what many Hachette Livre employees feared. The number one French publishing house – owned by Vincent Bolloré’s Vivendi group – announced on the evening of Thursday February 22 that it had entrusted the management of one of its small publishing houses, Mazarine, to Lise Boëll. At 57, she forged her reputation as the former editor of Eric Zemmour, the president of Reconquête!, but also of Philippe de Villiers and, according to the magazine The Obs, soon from Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally. It’s difficult to find a personality in publishing who gives such a prominent place to the extreme right.
The management of Vivendi, which officially regained the reins of Hachette Livre only three months ago, already wants to mark its desire to regain ideological control, in line with the bringing into line of its television channels (like CNews or C8), its Europe 1 radio or its newspapers, Paris Match And The JDD ? Hachette Livre tries to drown out the fish by ensuring that “for more than thirty years, Lise Boëll has supported, advised and edited more than four hundred authors.” And assures us that we also owe him the very popular successes of Dora the Explorer or best-sellers on health by Frédéric Saldmann, Natacha Calestrémé in personal development, or even comedians like the “Guignols de l’info” or Jamel Debbouze.
Without a sheet of cigarette paper separating him from Vincent Bolloré, Arnaud Lagardère, CEO of Hachette Livre, estimated that Lise Boëll will know “contribute, within the constellation of independent publishing houses that make up Hachette Livre, to pluralism, diversity, debate and the freedom to choose, with a spirit of responsibility which is the richness and pride of our group “. After a career at TF1 then at Albin Michel, the new recruit left Editis at the end of December 2023, when this group then in the fold of Vivendi was sold to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. Its mission will be to “develop the house’s catalog into fiction and non-fiction works”.
“Alibi house”
Mazarine, a former small subsidiary of Fayard, becomes “a new publishing house in its own right, a 100% subsidiary of Hachette Livre”, specifies this group. For several weeks, Vivendi wanted to impose Lise Boëll in the Hachette galaxy, despite two damning audits on her toxic and authoritarian management at Plon (Editis). It had been planned to entrust the former publisher of Eric Zemmour (who self-published his latest work) with the Fayard house, managed by Isabelle Saporta.
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