Hachette CEO’s Downbeat View of the Book Market
The market for books whether print or digital should remain flat in the next three to five years and then decline slightly over the following decade, according to Arnaud Nourry, chairman and CEO of Hachette Livre. But the picture could be bleaker, as books are holding up better than all other culture and entertainment sectors, he told the Association over an elegant lunch in the group’s two-year…
Macron’s Labour Market Reforms Crucial: Medef Chief
President Emmanuel Macron represents the last chance to reform France's rigid labour market, but his reforms should not make the country end up like the US or the UK, Pierre Gattaz told AAPA members over breakfast at Medef headquarters on June 23. “France won’t have another opportunity. Now we have no option,” the head of France's biggest employers’ federation said. Gattaz and his fellow business…
AAPA MEMBERS FLOCK TO ANNUAL GARDEN PARTY
Dozens of AAPA members and their guests ignored a searing heatwave to gather for the association’s annual garden party, held on June 21 at the ornate residence of the U.S. ambassador. Neither the muggy conditions nor the absence of the host ambassador – still to be named by the Trump Administration – could dampen the enthusiasm of the 58 members and guests who sipped champagne and exchanged…
Macron’s Big Challenges Are Still to Come: Pollsters
In the midst of an extraordinary French political season, pollsters Edouard Lecerf of Kantar Public, Bruno Jeanbart of OpinionWay, and Jérôme Fourquet of Ifop spoke to members of the Anglo-American Press Association for a second time this year to make sense of a shake-up that continues to reverberate around us. The three polling experts met with some 20 AAPA members on June 6, just a few days…
Political Scientist Sees Bumpy Road Ahead for Macron
Dominique Reynié, CEO of the think tank Foundation for Political Innovation (Fondapol--liberal, progressive and European) and professor at Sciences Po, spent nearly two hours on June 2 sharing his thoughts with the AAPA on topics ranging from Emmanuel Macron’s election as president to the miscasting of Gérard Collomb as interior minister. Democracy has been plunged into a historic crisis by three…
AAPA Members Visit World’s Biggest Auction Space
The AAPA’s evening field trip on May 18 to Drouot, Paris' historic and esteemed auction house, was an eye-opener to most of the group who had never experienced a high-powered auction in full swing. Drouot opened in 1852 and is the world’s largest public auction space, with 18 auction halls where 110 affiliated auctioneers sell off objects to the highest bidders from premium art works to more…
French presidential elections unprecedented, researcher says
The run-up to France’s 2017 presidential elections is unlike any in the past, with an electorate confused by waning confidence in politicians, worried about security and distressed by chronic unemployment, a respected political researcher told the AAPA on March 28. It’s the first presidential election to be held under a state of emergency, Sciences Po professor Pascal Perrineau told a…
French Elections Could Spring Some Surprises, Pollsters Say
France’s presidential election could spring some surprises even if the lineup for the second round currently seems fairly clear-cut today, a panel of polling experts told the AAPA on April 7. Once they got into the voting booths, many voters confounded polling agencies in recent crucial votes in the U.S. and the U.K. by making choices that they hadn’t previously shared with canvassers, and…
The EU Couldn’t Survive Le Pen Presidency - INSEAD professor
“It would be almost impossible for the EU to survive if Marine Le Pen should win the up-coming French Presidential elections and withdraw France from it,” INSEAD Political Science Professor Douglas Webber told 17 AAPA members on March 21. “Europe can survive without the UK, but not without France. It would be a political earthquake,” he continued, referring to Le Pen’s vow to negotiate new EU…
Pompidou Center’s Attraction Still Rising After 40 Years
Terror attacks scared off visitors to the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay last year, but the numbers kept on rising for the Pompidou Centre, its president Serge Lasvignes told AAPA members over lunch on Jan. 11 as the centre marks its 40th anniversary. The nine percent rise at the Pompidou - 3.33 million people turned up in 2016 - was because the bulk of its visitors are French and they see the…