Reworld Media on Wednesday lost its lawsuits against the founders of the scientific magazine Epsiloon, former Science et Vie employees whom the group accused of “unfair competition”, “parasitism” and “defamation”, according to judgments consulted by AFP.
In total, Reworld Media claimed nearly one million euros from Mathilde Fontez and Hervé Poirier, editors-in-chief of Epsiloon, for “defamation”, as well as from their publisher Unique Heritage Media (UHM) for “unfair competition and parasitism”.
Regarding these last two reasons, the Nanterre court dismissed Reworld, owner of the monthly Science et Vie since 2019, “of all of its requests”, ordering it to compensate the other party for legal costs.
defamatory character
Similarly, the Paris court refuted the defamatory nature of remarks made in 2021 by the founders of Epsiloon on France Inter and Europe 1, attacked by Reworld.
This publisher (Grazia, Psychologies, Gamekult, Top Santé, Biba, Marie France, etc.) made a name for itself in recent years through its numerous acquisitions magazines and sometimes controversial methods. The monthly Epsiloon was thus launched by a dozen journalists who left Science et Vie for the most part in March 2021 to preserve their editorial independence.
They blamed in particular Reworld Media to have entrusted the management of the magazine’s website to non-journalistic content managers accumulating errors, as well as a lack of staff. So many elements denounced at the time in the media by Mathilde Fontez and Hervé Poirier. Asked by AFP, Reworld did not wish to react.
Emerging brand
“I am relieved to move on,” reacted Hervé Poirier, happy to be able to devote his “energy” to a “nascent brand” after two years of legal proceedings. “We are happy that justice lets us continue this path, which seems important to us in a democracy, to defend sincere and reliable journalism”, he added.
“We are satisfied with these decisions. They allow us to turn a page and focus on the future of the Epsiloon adventure”, added Emmanuel Mounier, founding president of the Unique Heritage Media group.
Always in search of “financial stability”, Epsiloon claimed in May 35,000 subscribers and 15,000 newsstand sales. The title recently launched a new crowdfunding campaign on Ulule to publish a mook (half-review, half-book) devoted to the moon on July 5. For its part, Science et vie sold nearly 139,000 copies each month on average in 2022, a figure down 15% compared to the previous year, according to the Alliance for press and media figures. media.
SourceAFP