“We need a new impetus for France Bleu. » In a press release published Monday February 6 by Radio France, the CEO of Radio France, Sibyle Veil, announced that the journalist Céline Pigalle, hitherto editorial director of BFM-TV, will take the helm, on April 3, of the network local public radio stations France Bleu, whose audiences have plunged.
Céline Pigalle, who spent thirteen years at Europe 1 before joining Canal+, succeeds Jean-Emmanuel Casalta, who has been running France Bleu since September 2018. “I decided to entrust it to a great media professional. Céline Pigalle knows radio and has managed major newsrooms »underlined the CEO of Radio France in an internal letter to employees quoted in the press release.
A major concern for the public radio group, France Bleu fell for the first time below the symbolic bar of 5% in cumulative audience (4.9%) during the last Médiamétrie wave of November-December 2022, according to the audience figures revealed, Thursday 12 January. “We will need an editorial renewal, a modernization of the brand and work on distribution. This is a project that is very important to us”then agreed Laurence Bloch, the director of the antennas and the editorial strategy of Radio France.
These hearings at half mast had led the journalists’ union SNJ-Radio France to challenge the president of the public group to stop “this infernal fall”. “These poor audience results weaken not only the network, but all of Radio France, at a time when the financing and independence of public radio are at stake”had alerted the union.
A few months earlier, in September 2022, a motion of no confidence had been adopted against the information management of France Bleu. Two journalists’ unions (SNJ and SNJ-CGT) organizers of the election then denounced an editorial strategy deemed to be imposed from Paris without taking into account local specificities. They also pointed “the brutality of management” of the information department.
Ousted in September 2015 from Canal+
Céline Pigalle began her career at Europe 1 as a reporter then correspondent in Berlin (2000-2004) and Brussels (2005-2007). In 2008, she became editor-in-chief of the station, then, the following year, deputy editor-in-chief.
In 2011, the journalist joined the Canal+ group as editor-in-chief of the show “La Matinale”. In May 2012, she became editorial director of the continuous news channel i-Télé (now CNews), then director of information for the Canal+ group in January 2014.
Ousted in September 2015 by Vincent Bolloré when he took over the Canal+ group, Céline Pigalle took over as editorial director of the LCI news channel (TF1 group) in February 2016. A position she left three months later before to join BFM-TV, France’s leading news channel, in December 2016 as editorial director.