Last but not least: The newspaper is also a luxury good
Champagne, cognac, handbags, and the right business newspaper to go with them. The fact that the world’s largest luxury goods conglomerate, Moët-Hennessy–Louis Vuitton (LVMH), is continuing to diversify its business—as is economically sound—doesn’t bother anyone. The fact that it now wants to acquire the newspaper «Les Echos» from the British publishing house, on the other hand, bothers many people greatly.
Champagne, Congnac, handbags and the matching business newspaper. The fact that the world's largest luxury goods group, Moët-Hennessy - Louis Vuitton (LVMH), is continuing to diversify in a commercially correct manner is of no concern to anyone. The fact that it now wants to take over the British publishing house's "Les Echos" newspaper, on the other hand, is of great concern to many. According to an SDA report on Thursday, the luxury group is in negotiations with the British publishing group Pearson,
which also publishes the "Financial Times", about the purchase of the French business newspaper "Les Echos". This outraged the works council of the financial newspaper "La Tribune", which already belongs to Moët-Hennessy - Louis Vuitton, as it is likely to be sold off again if LVMH takes over "Les Echos". If it were up to the journalists at "Les Echos", this would never happen. As soon as the purchase plans were announced, the journalists immediately went on strike. For good reason: they feared editorial interference by LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, who in turn is an old buddy of the new French President Nicolas Sarkozy. LVMH promptly reassured them with the statement that it wanted to invest in the Les Echos group "in order to develop its titles". Editorial independence will of course be guaranteed. Wonderful - blinded by its own planned publishing development aid, LVMH probably simply forgot to mention that "Les Echos" is also ringing the cash registers: in 2006, the business paper with 500 employees had a turnover of around 126 million euros and earned 10 million euros from operations - and that is worth 250 million euros to LVMH. Cheers.
which also publishes the "Financial Times", about the purchase of the French business newspaper "Les Echos". This outraged the works council of the financial newspaper "La Tribune", which already belongs to Moët-Hennessy - Louis Vuitton, as it is likely to be sold off again if LVMH takes over "Les Echos". If it were up to the journalists at "Les Echos", this would never happen. As soon as the purchase plans were announced, the journalists immediately went on strike. For good reason: they feared editorial interference by LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, who in turn is an old buddy of the new French President Nicolas Sarkozy. LVMH promptly reassured them with the statement that it wanted to invest in the Les Echos group "in order to develop its titles". Editorial independence will of course be guaranteed. Wonderful - blinded by its own planned publishing development aid, LVMH probably simply forgot to mention that "Les Echos" is also ringing the cash registers: in 2006, the business paper with 500 employees had a turnover of around 126 million euros and earned 10 million euros from operations - and that is worth 250 million euros to LVMH. Cheers.
