While many publishers have resorted to slashing their editorial teams, Le Monde is charting a different course – expanding its newsroom instead of pulling back.

“I suppose it’s quite old-fashioned, but we decided to invest in the newsroom – in journalists,” Louis Dreyfus, president and chief executive of Group Le Monde, said at WAN-Ifra’s World News Media Congress in Krakow.

This has been a pivotal decision in helping Le Monde turn its fortunes around. When Dreyfus took over in 2010, the company was, in his words, “nearly bankrupt.”

Since then, Le Monde has significantly expanded its newsroom. In 2010, the publisher employed 310 staff journalists. Today, that number has grown to more than 560 – an increase of 80 per cent.

“Why did we do that? Because we needed more people to have more time to do better reporting,” said Dreyfus. “We think that if people subscribe to Le Monde, it’s for exclusivity and quality journalism. We cannot do that without this larger staff,” he said.

Investing in the newsroom has paid off: Le Monde’s subscriber base has grown steadily during the past few years and reached 663,000 in March 2025. Ninety per cent are digital subscribers.

At the current growth rate, Dreyfus said Le Monde’s digital revenues would cover its newsroom costs in two years. These are forecast at about €80 million (A$143 million) this year, while the digital subscriber revenues are expected to reach about €70 million.

In June, Groupe Le Monde announced its latest results, revealing that its EBITDA had increased from €18.7 million in 2023 to €26.2 million in 2024. This is quite a reversal from 2010, when Dreyfus said the publisher was losing €10 million a year.

“So we think that with digital subscription, but furthermore with journalists, we can make a turnaround, and we can make a business model,” he said.

–WAN-Ifra with thanks