Le Monde Editor Quits As Problems Mount

The editor-in-chief of Le Monde, France's best-known and most authoritative newspaper, said yesterday that he was resigning in a move likely to plunge the 60-year-old daily into further editorial and financial difficulty.

Edwy Plenel, 52, who joined the paper in 1980 as education correspondent, told staff in an email that after "10 years devoted to the editorial division of our venture, I wanted to return to the simple joys of journalism and writing".

He added that the paper's chairman, Jean-Marie Colombani, had tried to persuade him to stay to help it overcome its financial problems, but that "his propositions failed to conquer my reluctance". He will stay on in his job until Le Monde moves to new offices next month, and will continue to work for the paper.

His decision means the left-leaning Le Monde, which over the coming months aims to shed 100 of its 750 staff through voluntary redundancies and is seeking €50m (£35m) of new capital to bolster its €630m turnover, will be struggling to maintain editorial direction at perhaps the most critical period in its recent history.

As France's leading investigative reporter in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mr Plenel broke some big stories, including the French secret service's involvement in the sinking of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour in 1985.

He was appointed Le Monde's managing editor in 1994, and editor-in-chief in 1996, when he and Mr Colombani set about a largely successful revamp. But the paper is now in difficulty, suffering from a general malaise in the French newspaper sector that has seen circulation and advertising revenue fall across the board.

While its 380,000 daily sales make it still France's biggest-selling national daily, industry observers predict the rightwing Le Figaro will overtake it in the next few months.

For many, Le Monde's biggest problem is that it has lost touch with its readers, being often perceived as arrogant and elitist.