The daily Paris Normandie will not disappear. After many twists and turns, the newspaper was finally taken over by the Belgian group Rossel, which owns, among others The Voice of the North and the Belgian daily newspaper Evening. The Commercial Court of Rouen ruled that the Rossel group had the necessary capacity to turn the struggling newspaper around. The takeover will be effective on 22 June 2020. The unsuccessful bid came from NP Holding, 51% owned by the Belgian group IPM and 49% by the entrepreneur Jean-Louis Louvel, who until then owned the shares.
The employees expressed their relief but not their satisfaction, as 60 out of 240 employees will be laid off. «? It's still a painful ordeal, especially considering contexte?." declared for France 3 Normandy the SNJ shop steward for Paris-Normandy, Anne Bouchet.
First Belgian French-speaking press and media group, Rossel was born with the launch of the newspaper "?Le Soir?" in 1887. Today it represents more than 90 brands in the daily and weekly press ( Le Courrier Picard, l'Union, l'Est Éclair, Nord Éclair, Nord Littoral, Libération Champagne, l'Aisne Nouvelle ), magazines, printing (Presse Flamande printing house), audiovisual, etc.
Founded in Rouen in 1944, the Paris-Normandy regional daily newspaper, which is published by the Snic (Normandy Information and Communication Society), was placed in compulsory liquidation on 21 April last during the confinement.
The newspaper, which had been in trouble for several years, suffered a fatal blow with the coronavirus crisis. Sales plummeted and so did advertising revenue. According to France Bleu Normandie who spoke with newspaper director Jean-Luc Sontag, the newspaper lost 90% of its advertising revenue during this crisis.
