By: The board of directors of the struggling French newspaper Liberation on Monday appointed Laurent Joffrin as chief executive of the left-wing daily.
In a statement, Joffrin said he won the unanimous support of the newspaper's board.
Joffrin, the 54-year-old former director of the Le Nouvel Observateur news weekly, presented the newspaper's staff with a plan to rescue the ailing daily last week.
"I am totally committed to serving the paper by carrying out the changes I announced," Joffrin said in the statement.
In the first six months of this year, Liberation lost more than ?6 million ($7.7 million).
Financier Edouard de Rothschild, who last year paid ?20 million (US$26 million) for control of the newspaper, had proposed a turnaround plan involving firing 100 of the 280 employees. The paper's employees have floated a rival rescue plan that calls for just 66 staffers to be sacked.
Joffrin has warned that layoffs will be inevitable. In his presentation last week to the newspaper's staff, he said 100 layoffs were "too many" and pledged to find an "intermediary solution." He stressed the need to find a balance that would avoid as many firings as possible while allowing the paper the capital necessary to survive.
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