"Do we stop everything?" " The team asked the question in "one" of its edition of Friday March 13 : the tennis, skiing, Formula 1 and American basketball (NBA) seasons were put on hold or canceled the day before due to the coronavirus pandemic. Sports daily does not stop, even if the world of sports has stopped turning. "Faced with this unprecedented crisis, The team will keep you informed ", wrote the editorial director Sunday, Jérôme Cazadieu, in an editorial published in "one".
"We have a lot of things under our elbows, we have launched series and investigations, explains Jérôme Cazadieu to World. We are not very worried about our ability to produce a rather rich and complete newspaper and site for the next fortnight. For now, we’ve planned until Tuesday, March 24. Beyond that, it’s difficult. "
In the meantime, the newspaper will run without a noticeable drop in circulation, and with a page size – 24 pages – which is usually that of hollows in sports news, in the heart of summer or the holiday season. The future will depend on government decisions: "If distributing the newspaper to kiosks becomes impossible due to the upcoming confinement, we will make a digital newspaper in PDF, which may drop to 10 or 12 pages depending on the news. And if the PDF turns out to be complicated to set up, we will see how to adapt. "
Pulling the thread of sport
What can we tell when almost all the athletes on earth have been forced to cut their efforts simultaneously? "We are going to pull the thread of sport to the end", announces Jérôme Cazadieu: the retirement of the biathlete Martin Fourcade made the “front page” on Saturday and Sunday, the victory of the rally driver Sébastien Ogier that of Monday. "Obviously, we will also “some” concerning the coronavirus as soon as the news is linked to it, specifies the editorial director. For example, with the UEFA press conference scheduled for Tuesday ", which is expected to influence the fate of the ongoing European Cups and the Euro 2020 football tournament scheduled for June.
The coronavirus provides a number of angles: the economic consequences for clubs and athletes, the regularity of competitions if they do not go to their end, the puzzle of reorganizing calendars, the expectation of athletes who continue their training before a possible resumption or their Olympic preparation for the Tokyo Games which have not yet been canceled. A streak slated for this week is set to tour the few fields where we still play, whether it's football championships – Russia, Turkey – or e-sport competitions.
"Once we have said who has the coronavirus and how athletes organize themselves, we will go around in circles. There may still be portraits, series, retrospectives, but if we do that in all the sections, it may be daunting. ”, worries a football journalist wishing to remain anonymous, who continues: " Everything was organized to the millimeter over the next six months according to the Euro and the Olympic Games. There is a bit of panic, we are in the dark. "
Archives and legendary matches
Same problem for the other publications of the Amaury group, like The Team Magazine, France Football or Vélo Magazine : "We have topics that run until late March or early April, explains Jérôme Cazadieu, and if ever the conditions were to deteriorate, we would switch to PDF formats, or more reduced. " The L'Equipe television channel, which broadcasts live competitions and talk shows related to sports news, is also forced to adapt and create new meetings by going into its archives, or by re-broadcasting outright races and legendary matches. " We have enough stock, even if this period should last ”, says its director, Jérôme Saporito.
If it is still too early to measure the economic consequences of the pandemic within the group, the situation is already particularly delicate for the forty regular freelancers who take turns to feed the many lives on L'Equipe.fr, and waiting for answers about the partial unemployment measures announced by the executive.
Another collateral damage at the heart of this collateral damage, two of the largest feathers of The team will retire without a lap of honor: Pierre-Michel Bonnot will not have seen the end of his last Six Nations Tournament, whose outcome has been postponed sine die, and Philippe Brunel, the lover of the Giro he told like nobody, will not be entitled to a final Tour of Italy in May.
