Billionaire media moguls join forces to invest in France’s oldest journalism school

PARIS — The billionaires behind some of the largest news organizations in France have teamed up to invest in the Superior School of Journalism of Paris (ESJ Paris), the country’s oldest journalism school.

The unlikely consortium of investors includes companies owned by Europe’s richest man, LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, conservative media mogul Vincent Bolloré and shipping magnate Rodolphe Saadé. The three men own some of France’s most iconic newspapers, radio stations and television networks.

“As part of our media division, it’s important for us to be involved in training journalists,” Saadé told POLITICO about his investment on the sidelines of an event on artificial intelligence organized by two newspapers that he owns.

In its statement, the ESJ Paris said it was looking to “build a new project” and “strengthen its position as a benchmark in journalism education, particularly for economic [journalism].”

The ESJ Paris is not part of a group of journalism schools which are recognized by the country’s professional body and is not included in yearly rankings of French journalism schools.

However, news of the media-owning billionaires’ invest in a journalism school has sparked concern over their commitment to editorial independence, especially in a country where higher education is largely public or not-for-profit.

Hard-left parliamentarian Sophia Chikirou said on X that the ESJ Paris would become a “factory for soldiers of caste journalism” while her colleague Aymeric Caron, a former reporter and well-known TV personality turned politician, said “the billionaires [had] bought their journalism school.”

Media historian Alexis Lévrier described the investment as “concerning” and said “schools must remain independent” from the shareholders of media empires.

Free speech advocates have in recent years voiced concerns the increasing concentration of French news outlets in the hands of a few billionaires.

Arnault owns dailies Le Parisien and Les Echos. Saadé owns local papers La Provence, La Tribune, has invested in the startup Brut and, earlier this year, purchased the news group that owns news network BFM and radio station RMC. Bolloré, known as “the French Rupert Murdoch,” owns conservative weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, radio station Europe 1 and 24-hour news network CNews, which has been likened to a French version of Fox News.

All three men have faced accusations of meddling in editorial affairs of the outlets they own. Bolloré-owned media has been accused of imposing a far-right slant on the news, while Arnault said he would intervene if one of his publications “defend Marxist economics.”

Reporters from different Saadé-owned outlets went on strike last March after the executive director of local daily La Provence was suspended for a front page which gave a negative reading of one French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the city of Marseille. The executive director was later reintegrated and Saadé’s media group claimed the billionaire had never intervened in the process.