Charlie Hebdo staff are embroiled in a bitter dispute over who gets to control the French magazine , months after eight of its writers and cartoonists were murdered by terrorists . The row was sparked by a sudden increase in the magazine 's sales and revenue in the wake of the brutal attacks on January 7 , according to the Times . It has reportedly made £21.6million since then after its usual circulation of 30,000-a-week rocketed to hundreds of thousands . Now the surviving staff members want that money and shares of the magazine - 40 per cent of which are owned by its murdered editor 's parents - to be divided equally . Six of the Charlie Hebdo staff killed in Wednesday 's attack are pictured together in this photo , taken in 2000 . Circled top from left is Philippe Honore , Georges Wolinski , Bernard Maris and Jean Cabut . Below them on the stairs , from left , is editor Stephane Charbonnier and cartoonist Bernard 'Tignous ' Verlhac . Terror : On January 7 , brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi raided the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris and killed 11 people , sparking a string of terror attacks across the city . As many as 11 employees have instructed their lawyers to turn the magazine - which has published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad on its cover - into a workers ' cooperative . It would mean they all have a stake in the company but their move has been attacked by another anonymous contributor in a leaked email to French news agency Agence France-Presse . The unnamed contributor accused the plotters of trying to grab the shares that belonged to the magazine 's murdered editor Stephane Charbonnier 'before the worms have finished eating him ' . 40 per cent of the company is owned by his parents , another 40 by the magazine 's new editor Laurent Sourisseau and the final 20 per cent belongs to financial director Eric Portheault . One of the magazine 's journalists Laurent Léger said : ' A new distribution of the capital would allow for the incredible influx of funds to the newspaper to be used in the most transparent manner possible . ' And Patrick Pelloux - who writes a column for Charlie Hebdo - believes a co-operative would bind contributors to the newspaper . He said : 'When a company has been decimated , you feel completely tied to it . It is not a question of sharing the cake . The money does not interest us . ' However a spokesman for Sourisseau and Portheault said : 'All this money is doing more harm than good . Greedy : An unnamed contributor has accused staff of trying to grab the shares that belonged to the magazine 's murdered editor Stephane Charbonnier ( pictured ) 'before the worms have finished eating him ' Demand : Since the brutal attack on Charlie Hebdo in January , the magazine 's usual circulation of 30,000 a week has boomed to hundreds of thousands . 'It makes you think of those funerals where everyone is fighting over the grandmother 's jewellery on the way back from the cemetery . ' He added that the owners had promised not to pay themselves dividends for three years and wanted to ensure the £3million received in donations after the attack went to victims ' families . 'We note the desire of the staff to be associated with the life of the newspaper . But we are a long way from thinking about the make-up of the shareholders . ' This is not the first time that Charlie Hebdo has been split over financial matters . In 2008 , it 's then-editor Philippe Val faced a backlash when it emerged he paid himself dividends of over £200,000 when sale rose following the controversial publication of issues featuring the Propher Muhammad .
Staff instructed their lawyers to turn the magazine into a workers ' cooperative . They claim they deserve an equal share for 'risking their lives to work there ' But unnamed employee claims they 're trying to take deceased editor 's shares . Said they were trying to take them 'before the worms had finished eating him ' Stephane Charbonnier was one of eight employees killed in January attack . Comment: