Vargas David, who is currently chairman of the board of Euronews, has proposed 170 million euros from his fund to buy the media in 2022, during a time of financial hardship. The son of a center-right European People’s Party lawmaker, he was described by three people who have worked closely with him as someone with a genuine interest in European affairs.
He also said he is first and foremost a businessman, with years of experience as a consultant at McKinsey and a manager trained at France’s elite business school INSEAD and Harvard Kennedy School. As a fund manager, he takes losses seriously, surrounds himself with strategic consultants (from McKinsey) and publicists, and is unyielding about difficult decisions, according to three people who have worked with him. He says he won’t.
In 2022, Euronews recorded a loss of 15 million euros out of a total revenue of 44 million euros. A large part of this was due to the gradual reduction in EU subsidies. The European Commission was pumping between €20 million and €23 million a year into the company until July 2024 as part of a three-year partnership. Its support has been reduced to €11 million per year and is now subject to open competition through an open tender process. A European media executive said, “The European Commission’s subsidy cuts are an expression of doubts about Euronews.”
This created a hole in the company’s bottom line. Euronews also suffered a loss of 30 million euros related to the firing of employees from its former Lyon headquarters, according to former employees.
“At this stage, as a shareholder, you have to ask yourself, where is the growth coming from?” said another senior media industry executive in Brussels.
“The dependence on EU funds meant the company did not diversify its income sources sufficiently,” said a former senior manager at Euronews.
