Édouard de Rothschild was refusing to invest more money in the paper unless Louis Dreyfus (directeur général) and himself left the paper. July had accepted, believing the paper's future existence to depend on his decision. The journalists were shocked. The next day, they published a public statement praising the paper's founder and expressing their worries about journalistic independence. Serge July left the paper on 30 June 2006. A debate between Bernard Lallement, the first administrator-manager of Libération and Edouard de Rothschild took place in Le Monde newspaper. In a column published on 4 July 2006, Lallement argued that July's departure was the end of an era where "writing meant something". Lallement painted a bleak picture of Libération's future, as well as that of the press as a whole. Criticizing Rothschild's interference, Lallement quoted Sartre, who had famously said that "Money doesn't have any ideas". Later, on his blog, Lallement argued that Rothschild, who had had no historic attachment to the paper, was only interested in making money, not in the paper itself. On 6 July, Rothschild declared: "Libération needs help and moral, intellectual and financial support. Libération doesn't need a requiem." Sixty-two employees—including 35 journalists, such as Antoine de Gaudemar, chief editor, Sorj Chalandon, who was awarded the Albert Londres Prize, both present since the 1973 creation of Libé, and Pierre Haski, deputy editor, present since 1981—were about to resign at end of January 2007 (on a total of 276 employees). With the 55 other employees who left the newspaper at the end of 2005, this made a total of about 150 staff who had left since Rothschild's ownership, not including tens of resignations (including Florence Aubenas, Dominique Simonnot, Antoine de Baecque, Jean Hatzfeld) In May 2007, former Libération journalists, including Pierre Haski and Pascal Riché (Op-Ed editor of Libération) created the news website Rue 89. In 2014, the newspaper once again found itself in the news, following a public dispute between its journalists and shareholders over the future of the newspaper. In the face of falling circulation the latter had sought to re-invent the paper's web site as a social network. The editor-in-chief Nicolas Demorand resigned over the row. Circulation statistics See also Chunichi Shimbun, affiliated newspaper in Japan List of French newspapers References External links Regular French Press Review – Radio France International OJD ACPM English translations of Libération articles from nonprofit WorldMeets.US 1973 establishments in France Newspapers