France’s leading magazine publisher, Prisma Media, has announced plans to cut nearly 40 percent of its workforce by the end of this year in order ‘to restructure’.
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Founded by the German company Bertelsmann, Prisma Media has already lost more than a third of its workforce since its takeover in April 2021 by Vivendi – the Bolloré group which is the operation’s main shareholder.
The plan was presented to staff representatives on 30 March.
In total, 261 jobs will be cut by the end of 2026, out of a workforce of 650 – including 90 journalists.
Magazines such as Géo, Voici and Femme Actuelle, will see their page counts reduced. Others will disappear.
This new redundancy plan is “a real tragedy, a massacre,” said Emmanuel Vire, CGT union representative for the Prisma Media group.
Vire has also questioned the strategy of the Bolloré Group, which – since the takeover of Prisma – has been steadily scaling back operations: “Mr Bolloré wants to shut down Prisma Media. That’s what we really think. Why doesn’t he just sell us off? Let him go! We don’t want Bolloré anymore.”
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‘Falling profits’
The group’s management points to “the decline in print” (printed magazines) as well as in digital, with a drop in online advertising revenue.
Prisma needs to rethink and adapt its business model in light of “the economic climate in the media sector” and “the major platforms that capture the value,” Viret told French news agency AFP. The aim is to “downsize to 400–450 employees.”
This argument has failed to convince him.
“I would point out that Prisma Media still made a profit of €6 million in 2025,” explained Vire.
“Whereas within the group to which we belong, the publication JDD and JDNews – the famous weekly that has turned far-right – are losing €7 million a year. But as it’s one of Mr Bolloré’s ideological stooges, there’s no problem!”
Management has given itself four months to negotiate redundancy plans with French unions.
This latest move marks the third wave of redundancies announced by the group in two years.
This article was adpated from the original version in French.
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