The director of information of France Televisions, Laurent Guimier, leaves his functions, Monday October 3, according to an indiscretion of the Parisian confirmed at Monde. In an internal press release sent at the beginning of the afternoon, the president of France Télévisions, Delphine Ernotte, thanks the journalist for « son engagement » and successful coverage of the French elections and the war in Ukraine. These last few months had however been marked by several events likely to weaken this former Radio France and Europe 1.
Two people replace Laurent Guimier. Alexandre Kara, hitherto deputy director of programs, becomes director of national information, while Nathalie Saint-Cricq is appointed coordinator in charge of editorial developments of information at his side. She retains her title of columnist.
On June 30, the editorial staff of France 2, France 3 (national) and Franceinfo (TV and Web) had voted a motion of no confidence in Mr. Guimier. When asked if they did “confidence in Laurent Guimier to direct the information of France Télévisions”, the journalists had answered no to 79.52%.
Reproaches
In addition to the fact that the head of information was criticized for not coming to the editorial conferences, the implementation of his editorial project and the absence of a strategy worried the journalists of France Télévisions. In addition, during the electoral campaign, he had combined his management functions with the co-presentation of “Elysée 2022”, the political program, alongside Léa Salamé, which had been reproached to him by the teams.
Delphine Ernotte had however entrusted him, a few days after the motion, with the establishment of the Tempo project, intended to set up an editorial offer instead of the national editions of France 3 as they had existed since 1986.
Mr. Guimier spent a large part of his career as a journalist at Europe 1, but also directed France Info radio from 2014 to 2017. After directing the radio division of the Lagardère group in 2018 and 2019, he joined France Télévisions as director of Franceinfo (the website and application bringing together public service TV, radio and digital offers), before becoming the director of information in September 2020.