Rue 89

In 2014, the businessman Claude Perdriel (see below) sold his group Nouvel Obs, owner of Rue 89, to the Le Monde Libre holding, the major shareholder of Le Monde. The trio of Bergé-Pigasse-Niel, together with the Spanish Prisa media group (see Le Monde section), became the new owners of the outlet.

Founded in 2007 by former journalists from Libération, the pure player appeared at the dawn of the web news era. Conceived as a general-interest debate platform, it was quickly labeled as a left-wing media outlet.

Its editorial line is quite similar to Libération’s. Rather liberal and libertarian. The site with 2.5 million unique visitors per month is faithful to its "convictions."

Like many French media bosses, the personal story of Claude Perdriel oscillates between industry and media. King of sanitation, he began his career in the construction of wastewater treatment plants. In 1964, he co-created the famous Nouvel Observateur. Today, it is a weekly journal, renamed L’Obs. To this day, L’Obs remains the media work of Claude Perdriel’s life. In 2011, his group took control of Rue 89, and shaped it to its taste, having however some issues with Rue 89’s editorial board. In 2014, Claude Perdriel completed the sale of his group (Rue 89 included) to the trio already at the head of Le Monde (see Le Monde journal).

He has connections to the highest sphere of the French establishment. He is a close friend of the French President François Hollande. In December 2013, the day before selling his journals, the president told his friend "Claude, be careful when you sell it, don’t do anything stupid." Perdriel replied with a smile "Do not worry; it is going to be someone who shares our political views."

Besides the president, the industrialist is also a friend of Antoine Bernheim, former Lazard banker (the bank of Mathieu Pigasse), and former director of the Italian insurance company Generali.

According to the Echos, the man who is also a member of the Siècle, has formed a heavy-weight network. Starting with another polytechnician, regatta-lover and chief of Vuitton Yves Carcelle, his relationships also include the Kouchner/Ockrent couple. Every year, there are quite a few of them to participate in his birthday party at the Petit Journal Montparnasse.

Sometimes Rue 89 is accused of being too militant and not objective enough. Mathieu Deslandes, 
associate editor and a mainstay of the site provided a perfect example on January 30, 2013. While Assemblée nationale (the French Parliament) was being discussing the gay marriage law project, the journalist took Republican Assembly member Hervé Mariton for a ride. The article was headlined shortly: Hervé Mariton: a troll at the Assemblée. The politician from Drôme department is a fierce opponent of the law in question. Quite the reverse of the man who decided to write about him. Mathieu Deslandes supported gay marriage more-or-less openly in numerous articles. And this time he had the luxury of dislodging his opponent. In that famous article, Deslandes characterizes Mariton as "extremely unsustainable", "exasperating" and "despicable". He even attacked physical attributes of the MP, arguing that he has a "hoarse castrato’s voice" and a "strange featherless bird’s head". First-class arguments that greatly advance the debate...