Hachette Livre removes Isabelle Saporta from management of Fayard

The number one French publisher Hachette Livre announced on Tuesday that it had dismissed Isabelle Saporta, who was head of Editions Fayard, due to “strategic differences”. “Hachette Livre regrets the strategic differences which led it to terminate the functions of Isabelle Saporta as CEO of Editions Fayard,” the group said in a press release.

The dismissal procedure was launched in March because of Ms. Saporta's refusal to transfer the Fayard brand to another Hachette house (Vivendi group), Mazarine. However, in February, Hachette Livre announced the recruitment as general director of Mazarine of Lise Boëll, the publisher behind the bookstore successes of the former far-right presidential candidate, Eric Zemmour. Isabelle Saporta, 48, wanted Fayard's name to appear in any way on the books published by Ms. Boëll, with whom her political disagreements are public knowledge.

According to internal sources at Fayard, Hachette Livre left her with only two choices: sign the agreement to let Mazarine exploit the Fayard brand or be licensed. Ms. Saporta herself arrived at the head of this house in June 2022 at the end of a crisis triggered by the departure of the former boss, Sophie de Closets, in a climate of mistrust and denunciation of political pressure. Quoted in the Hachette press release, Ms. Saporta “warmly thanks the authors and her teams for the extraordinary work accomplished together” at Fayard and believes “to have advanced this house by relying on its heritage, cultural and moral heritage”.

Hachette Livre came under the control of Vivendi at the end of 2023, the group of billionaire Vincent Bolloré, accused by many rivals of wanting to use its publishing houses to promote a very right-wing political project. Mr. Bolloré, who denies this, explained to deputies in March: “I have no ideological project, I am very gentle and good-natured.”