Overview
- Dov Alfon, who has led Libération since 2020, told colleagues Wednesday he is stepping down to return to writing.
- Denis Olivennes, who heads the paper’s main shareholder, proposed Nicolas Barré to take over, with the nomination going to a newsroom vote as required by the statutes.
- Barré led Les Echos for about a decade before being removed in 2023 in a move the paper’s journalists blamed on owner LVMH, then joined Politico in early 2025 and left in January 2026.
- Under Alfon, digital subscriptions grew 444% to 110,000 and monthly site visits doubled to 40 million, while average issue sales rose to 117,000 in 2025 from 90,000 in 2021.
- The vote will test Libération’s independence model that gives journalists a formal say after the title moved in 2020 from Altice to a fund designed to protect editorial freedom.