Condé Nast France CEO Xavier Romatet rumoured to be leaving

By

Anaïs Lerévérend

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Feb 19, 2018

The departure of CEO Xavier Romatet from Condé Nast France is an increasingly insistent rumour. Since 2002 in charge of the French subsidiary of the publisher of Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Glamour and AD magazines, Romatet may be switching allegiances in the coming months, according to our sources. While Condé Nast has not commented on the matter for the time being, French subscription-only weekly La Lettre de l'Expansion and the PresseNews website have both mentioned the possibility of Romatet's departure.

Xavier Romatet has launched several magazines for Condé Nast France, including GQ and Vanity Fair. The French launch of Wired had also been announced, but did not eventually go through. In 2016, Romatet was appointed Vice-President of the Condé Nast International group, while still remaining in charge of its French subsidiary.

Besides the talk of Romatet's possible departure, there are hints he may be about to leave Condé Nast to take charge of future French group Lagardère Mondadori, if their proposed merger takes place, according to a rumour published by media and web specialist site L'Electron Libre.

Talks are indeed being held between Lagardère, Marie Claire magazine (of which Lagardère is already a shareholder) and the French subsidiary of Italian publishing group Mondadori.

At the root of the proposed consolidation of their French periodicals into a new entity is the troubled situation of the printed press industry, which is affecting Condé Nast too. Last year, the group deployed a worldwide cost-rationalisation strategy involving extensive job cuts and a reduction in the number of issues for some of its magazines, which also hit the group’s French subsidiary.