We'll Always Have Paris

Call it strike deux, or a creative approach to shortening an already moderate 35-hour work week.

Whatever you call it, today's strike at Le Monde, France's prestigious "newspaper of record," is nothing short of historique.

For only the second time since its creation in 1944, Le Monde will not appear on newsstands, as employees protest a restructuring plan to slash 130 jobs, or 25 percent of the staff.

In Paris today, roughly 100 employees protested outside the newspaper's headquarters. And colleagues at the paper's Website, lemonde.fr, refused to update content today in a show of solidarity 2.0.

With a circulation of about 320,000 -- the paper claims a daily readership of 2 million - Le Monde has struggled with losses for years, like much of France's newspaper industry.

Plunging sales, coupled with mounting debt, have finally forced the paper to take drastic action, according to management officials. The restructuring plan will stop the hemorrhaging at the daily, they say, which cost the newspaper $31 million in 2007, up from a 22.6-million loss in 2006.

Le Monde expects to save $23.7 million in two years and return to profit by 2010.

The paper also plans to sell off its niche publication dedicated to film criticism, Cahiers du Cinema, another monthly magazine focused on dancing and a small publishing house.

Le Monde's only previous strike occurred in 1976, when employees protested the sale of its sister paper, France Soir, to a new owner.

The 24-hour strike means Tuesday's issue will be absent from newsstands.

Alfonso Serrano F.

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