Rue89 is a French
news website. It was officially launched on 6 May 2007, on the day of the
second round of the French presidential election. Its
news editor is
Pascal Riché, former
Op-ed editor of
Libération, and its
chief editor. The president of the society
Rue 89 is
Pierre Haski, the former deputy editor of
Libération.
History
Rue89 was co-founded by Pierre Haski, Pascal Riché, Arnaud Aubron, Michel Lévy-Provençal, and Laurent Mauriac.
Libération, which had been bought back by
Édouard de Rothschild, was then in the turmoil of a crisis, which included a plan of downsizing and the voluntary resignation of a number of its long-standing employees. As soon as 14 May 2007,
Rue 89 published its first
scoop, taken up by the rest of the French press, which concerned the
censorship of an article which was to be published by the
Journal du dimanche, owned by
Arnaud Lagardère, who is close to Sarkozy. The suppressed article spoke about the
abstention of
Cécilia Sarkozy, the wife of the new President
Nicolas Sarkozy, at the second round of the Presidential election.
On 5 September 2007, Pascal Riché revealed that Alexis Debat, a collaborator of The National Interest and of ABC News, had signed a false interview of Barack Obama, published in Politique Internationale. The article underlined a number of incoherencies concerning Debat's alleged Curriculum Vitae . Rue 89's scoop was taken up by The Washington Post, and Debat resigned from The National Interest .
In February 2008, Michel Lévy-Provençal, one of the founders, who left when the website was launched, sold his shares and criticized Rue89 for being a "marketing success" but a journalistic failure. Michel Lévy-Provençal, Pourquoi je veux (à nouveau) quitter Rue89
In June 2010, Rue89 launched a monthly paper.
Name
According to its editor,
Pascal Riché, the name Rue89 has been chosen as a reference to freedom, through
French Revolution (1789) and
the fall of the Berlin wall (1989) as much as the symbolism of the street (in French:
rue) as a place of meeting and discussion.
Founders
Pierre Haski, President of the society Rue89 and editor in chief (directeur de la publication)
Pascal Riché, news editor (rédacteur en chef)
Arnaud Aubron, webmaster/editor
Michel Lévy-Provençal
Laurent Mauriac
Team
Damien Cirotteau : IT engineer
Zineb Dryef : journalist
Yann Guégan : publisher
Julien Martin : journalist
Augustin Scalbert : journalist
David Servenay : journalist
See also
Bakchich, another news website founded in 2006
References
External links
Official website.
Street 89(English version)
Calle 89(Spanish version)
Rue89Japon(Japanese version)
Stephen Brook, WAN 2008: French news site triumphs against print media, June 4, 2008, The Guardian blogs
Category:French websites
Category:French-language websites
Category:News websites
Category:Newspapers published in France