French Publishing Giant Has New CEO

Herbert R. Lottman |

Jan 01, 2001

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French Publishing Giant Has New CEO Herbert R. Lottman -- 1/1/01 Just a week after the consecration of Vivendi Universal, merging the global French conglomerate with Seagram's movie and music companies to give birth to the world's number two media group after AOL Time Warner, Vivendi Universal Publishing (our italics) has come into being. The core of the new print-and-electronics group is Havas, 40% of whose sales (nearly $3 billion last year) are earned outside of France via some 300 subsidiaries and brands in 40 countries, publishing in English, Spanish and Portuguese as well as French. The newly christened entity has a new CEO in Agnes Touraine, who is easily the highest ranking woman media executive in France, and perhaps in Europe. Touraine joined Havas in 1997 after running the mass market and children's book segments at rival Hachette. Her writ includes commercial fiction and general imprints, including France's Laffont, Belfond, Plon and Presses de la Cite, and reference and school publishers Larousse, Nathan and Bordas. Until now (and unlike Hachette), the group maintained a low profile in the English language market (limiting itself to cross-channel reference publishing via Chambers, Harrap and Kingfisher children's books). But the introduction of the English word "Publishing" by Vivendi Universal chairman Jean-Marie Messier, and the increasing use of English as an in-house lingua franca, suggests that an extension of publishing to the major markets of that language area is very much in the cards. Under Messier, Vivendi has moved rapidly into films, TV and telecommunications, and in 1998 became a major player in multimedia, through acquisition of America's Cendant, a world leader in educational and how-to software. Meanwhile, in a new slate of appointments reported in the Paris trade weekly Livres Hebdo, Touraine has put a number of her colleagues into top jobs in the education and reference area, reorganized following the departure of group president Bertrand Eveno (who has since been appointed CEO of Agence France Presse). One notable recruit is Anemone Beres, formerly a director of her family firm Editions Hermann, later manager of the book sector of the Fnac retail chain, to run Larousse France. Other recent appointments include Catherine Lucet (to the top job at Nathan) and Marie-Francoise Enslen (to run Bordas).

News

French Publishing Giant Has New CEO
Herbert R. Lottman -- 1/1/01

Just a week after the consecration of Vivendi Universal, merging the global French conglomerate with Seagram's movie and music companies to give birth to the world's number two media group after AOL Time Warner, Vivendi Universal Publishing (our italics) has come into being. The core of the new print-and-electronics group is Havas, 40% of whose sales (nearly $3 billion last year) are earned outside of France via some 300 subsidiaries and brands in 40 countries, publishing in English, Spanish and Portuguese as well as French.

The newly christened entity has a new CEO in Agnes Touraine, who is easily the highest ranking woman media executive in France, and perhaps in Europe. Touraine joined Havas in 1997 after running the mass market and children's book segments at rival Hachette. Her writ includes commercial fiction and general imprints, including France's Laffont, Belfond, Plon and Presses de la Cite, and reference and school publishers Larousse, Nathan and Bordas. Until now (and unlike Hachette), the group maintained a low profile in the English language market (limiting itself to cross-channel reference publishing via Chambers, Harrap and Kingfisher children's books). But the introduction of the English word "Publishing" by Vivendi Universal chairman Jean-Marie Messier, and the increasing use of English as an in-house lingua franca, suggests that an extension of publishing to the major markets of that language area is very much in the cards. Under Messier, Vivendi has moved rapidly into films, TV and telecommunications, and in 1998 became a major player in multimedia, through acquisition of America's Cendant, a world leader in educational and how-to software.

Meanwhile, in a new slate of appointments reported in the Paris trade weekly Livres Hebdo, Touraine has put a number of her colleagues into top jobs in the education and reference area, reorganized following the departure of group president Bertrand Eveno (who has since been appointed CEO of Agence France Presse). One notable recruit is Anemone Beres, formerly a director of her family firm Editions Hermann, later manager of the book sector of the Fnac retail chain, to run Larousse France. Other recent appointments include Catherine Lucet (to the top job at Nathan) and Marie-Francoise Enslen (to run Bordas).

A version of this article appeared in the 01/01/2001 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: