The story of a pandemic: a powerful factor in driving transformation
CONSTANCE BENQUÉ
Chief Executive Officer, Lagardère News
After the shock, action prevailed in order to ensure the continuity of our operations. What media company could allow itself to fail in its mission? Each one of us, in our jobs and in our lives, had to adapt and ensure that our media continued to run, and to unite audiences around our two duties of providing information and entertaining people.
And we were surprised to do things that we would not have thought possible. Virgin Radio, perched 210 metres high at the top of the Montparnasse Tower in Paris for the Indochine concert. The 120 exclusive RFM videos broadcast during the first lockdown. Europe 1 from Matthieu Belliard’s garage and the first 100% remote radio station, with no programme interruption. The launches of Elle Brazil, Elle Kazakhstan, etc. The exceptional year for Le Journal du Dimanche, with sales up 6% in terms of value thanks to a four-fold increase in digital subscriptions.
Paris Match, voted magazine of the year (SEPM award) and its series of reports on the heroes of the planet, those adventurers who want to save the world, etc. Our magazines and newspapers came out every week, our radio stations broadcast their programmes every day, our teams worked relentlessly, without a safety net and without visibility as close as possible to the people of France. This period has served as a powerful driving force that attests to the meaning of what we do, the role of our media in providing accurate and high quality information, entertaining people and above all maintaining a sense of connection when isolation becomes too much.
Although it is commonly said that every crisis creates opportunities, this one has clearly stepped up the rate of our transformation. It is a real paradox that the world grinding to a halt has made us take more action, transforming the ways we work with widespread working from home, digital transformation of our media to embrace ever-changing uses, and rapid transformation to implement the structural reforms that will determine our future positioning thanks to the deployment and steering of an ambitious and realistic CSR strategy.
“This period has served as a powerful driving force that attests to the meaning of what we do and the role of our media.”
Constance Benqué