On June 11, the AAPA held a talk organized by Barbara Casassus that focussed on recent events in the French publishing world.

The writer, historian and publishing expert Jean-Yves Mollier and journalist, filmmaker, and writer Colombe Schneck discussed the impact of the far right-wing billionaire Vincent Bolloré on publishing and the media in France.

Bolloré owns Hachette, the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world, Groupe Canal+ radios Europe 1 and RFM, Télé-Loisirs, Geo, Gala, Voici, Femme actuelle, Capital, Paris Match and Le Journal du Dimanche and the Relay kiosks in train stations and airports. He has been imposing his political ideology on Hachette and its imprints, as well as on the media companies he owns, and on what is being sold in the Relay kiosks.

Mollier and Schneck discussed these recent events, which included Mollier’s experience as an author at Fayard, an Hachette imprint, which in the past few years has undergone a radical editorial transformation, publishing the memoirs of right and far-right politicians such as Nicolas Sarkozy, Jordan Bardella, or Philippe de Villiers.

Schneck was behind the recent petition by authors published by another Hachette imprint, Grasset, which denounced the ousting in April of its director, Olivier Nora, who disagreed with Bolloré’s methods.

Since then, over 200 authors have left Grasset in protest and over 65 authors at Fayard are attempting to get their rights back.

Schneck spoke about the initiatives authors are taking in order to recover their rights from Grasset—unlike journalists in France who are protected by a clause de conscience, which allows them to resign, for writers it’s not so easy.  

Both Mollier and Schneck commented on Bolloré’s clear political agenda imposed on the publishing world, and how he is carrying out a “Trumpisation” within his group prior to the 2027 French presidential elections.