News travels fast

“There is a fire at L’Express,” said French media mogul Alain Weill when he took the helm of the historic Paris-based news magazine in 2019. L’Express was in a deep financial crisis and one ceo after another had failed to turn around its fortunes. Before arriving at L’Express, Weill had played a key role in building up French radio giants nrj and rmc, and later founded bfmtv (France’s answer to cnn). Six years and several rounds of layoffs later, L’Express is back from the brink.
In 2024 it turned a profit for the first time in years and now has ambitious plans for a European edition aimed at audiences beyond France’s borders. monocle catches up with the softly spoken, quietly self-assured ceo in the newsroom, noting that his blazer’s red-stitched buttonhole discreetly reveals his status as a knight of France’s prestigious Ordre de La Légion d’Honneur. — L

Is ‘L’Express’ out of the woods, financially?
It’s not over. I would say that we are halfway there. Today the company’s books are balanced but we must reinvent the future of the magazine. It’s not a mission that is specific to L’Express; it’s an obligation for all titles around the world. AI is coming and free information is both plentiful and high quality.

Tell us about your plans for a European edition.
We already have an audience of subscribers, which is made up of opinion leaders, leaders of the economic world, scientists, teachers, politicians and professionals. This readership throughout Europe is similar: a German business leader has the same concerns as a French business leader and the same desire for information. We want to develop across Europe with talented journalists writing European stories and using technology to publish our content in all 24 languages of the European Union. This will also be a way to attract a younger audience as young people often know Europe better than their parents. They’ve had the opportunity to travel and European values appeal to them.

What will this change look like in practice?
We will have 30 per cent original content but will also develop a relationship with L’Express France. Of the French edition’s content, 70 per cent can be used for the European project, with a Europeanised translation using AI. The content that will come from L’Express France will already be very European and not France-centric analysis or Europe as seen from France. It will come from journalists representing all nationalities of the European Union. And we want to look for the best experiences in Europe. Why does education work in Finland? Why is healthcare better in Germany when per capita spending is not higher? We are already well positioned when it comes to coverage of Europe, liberalism, democracy, science, technology and climate. This is where we want to excel.

How do you balance opinion and news?
When I took over [French FM radio station] rmc, we made it a 100 per cent opinion radio station but it wasn’t partisan. rmc is still a radio station that gives a voice to all French people and allows all kinds of opinions. I think that this is necessary. It does not support one side over the other. Today if you think of [French TV channel] Cnews, it is an opinion channel but it supports one political camp. Regulation needs to change because soon TV will be broadcast on digital platforms where there is less oversight. A publication like L’Express is liberal and pro-European; it defends democracy but that doesn’t mean that we can’t give a voice to people who think differently. To make up our own minds, it’s important to subject them to other ideas and other points of view.

You were part of the earliest days of French FM radio. What did you learn from that time?
Jean-Paul Baudecroux, who was the founder of nrj and a visionary, understood how the radio market was going to evolve. He went looking for models in the US and it worked. nrj has been a success from the start. And the adventure I had at nrj was exceptional because the whole team felt like we were changing the sector. In the media, and the audiovisual sector in particular, the models are often American because competition there has been tougher for longer. Private radio in the US existed even before the Second World War but in Europe it appeared in the 1980s. So nrj is inspired by American music radio. And bfmtv was inspired by cnn. I’ve always liked drawing inspiration from models that work.