NMPP’s operator, Hachette SA, and the member Cooperatives have reached an agreement on the future of the organization’s press distribution services

Arnaud Lagardère and the cooperative managers (Jean de Montmort, Bernard Villeneuve, Jacqueline Galvez, Alain Ayache, Jean-Pierre Caffin, and Francis Morel for Transport Presse), representing the NMPP and TP Cooperatives, concluded an agreement today aimed at updating the framework of their cooperation in the management of the Nouvelles Messageries de la Presse Parisienne (NMPP).

After an interview with the Minister of Culture and Communications, Mme Christine Albanel, on 22nd June last, Arnaud Lagardère confirmed that Hachette SA will continue on as the NMPP’s General Manager and Operator. The operator and the managers were pleased to announce that, in view of the challenges facing press distribution in France, its main participants, with support from the central government, were able to agree on the conditions for the ongoing viability and development of their activities, by unanimously supporting the 2010 Challenge Plan (Plan Défi), presented by the NMPP’s Managing Director Rémi Pflimlin.

The NMPP’s operator Hachette SA, whose fees will henceforth include a fixed percentage and a variable percentage, agreed to waive the latter for the duration of the plan, while the cooperatives, for their part, agreed to waive any exceptional discounts during the same period.

This mutual effort on the part of the operator, Hachette SA, and the member Cooperatives presupposes that the public authorities, which have indicated their willingness to support this plan, give concrete expression to this interest by strengthening their aid to press distribution.