The shipowner CMA CGM will buy the newspaper “La Tribune”

CMA CGM, headed by billionaire Rodolphe Saadé, is continuing its expansion in the media sector. The group announced on Friday May 26 that it was going to buy the economic newspaper La Tribune.

“The CMA CGM Group today submitted a promise to purchase with a view to acquiring 100% of the capital of the HIMA Group, owner of the newspaper La Tribune”, he indicated. “The final completion of the transaction remains subject to consultation with the employee representative bodies and then to obtaining regulatory authorizations”.

This acquisition strengthens the presence of the Marseille shipowner in the media sector, where it has set foot in recent months under the leadership of Rodolphe Saadé.

“Decisive actor”

CMA CGM, which recorded a record net profit of more than 23 billion euros in 2022, became the owner of the La Provence press group in October after a long soap opera. This group publishes the daily newspapers La Provence and Corse Matin. He then invited himself to the capital of the audiovisual group M6, then, at the beginning of April, to that of the online video media Brut.

Sign of its ambitions in the sector, CMA CGM recruited in early March Laurent Guimier, former director of information for France Télévisions, to head its media branch, CMA CGM Media. “CMA CGM intends to be a decisive player in terms of innovation and transformation of the media sector”, assured the group in its press release.

He insisted on “the complementarity” between his different media, which he believes is “at the heart” of his strategy in the sector. “La Tribune is complementary with La Provence and Corse Matin (…) in particular for its expertise in digital transformation”, assured the group.

Digital

Created in 1985, La Tribune abandoned its printed daily formula in 2012. Since then, it has almost exclusively turned to digital: in paper version, it has gone from weekly to monthly in 2020, and now claims three million monthly unique visitors to its site.

The newspaper is 72% owned by the HIMA group, itself 20% owned by entrepreneur Jean-Christophe Tortora and 80% by Franck Julien, boss of the business services giant Atalian. The rest belongs to entrepreneur Laurent Alexandre (founder of Doctissimo).

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