Getting to tour Le Monde was definitely a highlight of my stay in France. The night before we went, I was definitely feeling the pressure since this industry visit was geared towards my interests. I never really speak up in group settings since I over think a lot and don’t want to sound stupid in a group, but I knew that everyone in our group was counting on me to be the most engaged and ask the most questions. I researched the newspaper for HOURS and developed a few questions to ask during the visit. On our way there, I constantly went over the questions in my head and how I was going to word them to our Le Monde representative. When we got there, I lost all of my focus. I was immediately transfixed by the atmosphere of quiet murmuring, telephone conversations and the sounds of paper being printed. I knew I was in my element. The Le Monde representative gave us a tour of the facility and showed us the print, digital, and marketing departments. After touring the different departments, we got to see the founder of Le Monde’s desk, and even got to meet the director in chief, who was super nice! After the main part of the tour, we were able to have a small Q&A session before we got to look in on a conference. The Le Monde representative answered all of our questions about how he felt about the struggle of print journalism, as well as how things are different in France than in America.
One thing that really interested me about Le Monde was how different they cover news. In America, newspapers are clearly either very left or very right, but French newspapers seem better at being unbiased and neutral. On international political stories, the representative said that the paper just tells the story and doesn’t take a specific side.
All in all, I really enjoyed my experience with Le Monde. I was completely overwhelmed with star-struck-ness and geeked out the entire time. If I ever take a job abroad, I know that I would try my hardest to work with Le Monde.