Strike hurts Direct Matin
The decision by Vincent Bolloré to change printers for Paris free daily Direct Matin resulted in a strike that prevented the paper being distributed on January 18 at least according to Le Point.
That week the paper was supposed to be printed for the first time at the ‘commercial’ (imprimerie de labeur) Brodard Graphique (Groupe Maury) instead of at the printing factories of their partner Le Monde, a ‘newspaper’ printer (imprimeries de la presse).
The main difference being the sort of conditions the union controlling the printing plant and organizing the work force (CGT) can ask for. At a commercial printer the different conditions lead to substantial lower costs (see previous post). The fact that unions still control the conditions at printing plants is one of the reasons for the high operating costs for French newspapers.
Also other free dailies are already printed at ‘commercial’ printing plant, like Bolloré’s Direct Soir (Roto France, part of Groupe Maury) and Metro (CirclePrinters and at Groupe Maury). (Caractere)
January 31st, 2010 at 11:12 pm
In fact It’s 20 minutes which is printed at Circle Printers Maury Group, Metro is printed at Riccobono a ‘newspaper’ printer (imprimeries de la presse).
February 3rd, 2010 at 4:42 pm
http://www.lemonde.fr/actualite-medias/article/2010/02/03/des-inconnus-detruisent-150-000-exemplaires-de-direct-matin_1300446_3236.html#xtor=EPR-32280229-NL_Titresdujour-20100203-deroule&ens_id=1297432
February 4th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
[...] The main problem is that Vincent’s Bolloré’s Direct Matin moved from the “newspaper” printing plant of Le Monde to the “commercial” printing plant of Brodard. The trade union CGT wants newspapers to be printed at newspaper printers, while newspapers prefer commercial printers were trade unions are less powerful and rates are lower. (see previous post) [...]