Last week the contents of a letter sent by LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault was made public by La Lettre, a campaigning online newspaper in France, in which the sometime-richest man in the world imposes an “absolute ban” on executives in the group speaking to a named list of investigative titles.
The letter names La Lettre, Le Canard enchaîné, Mediapart, Glitz Paris, Puck, L’Informé and Miss Tweed, and accuses these titles of seeking out confidential information from internal sources that can be used to generate public attention and use sensationalism to attract readers and subscribers.
“I formally condemn any behaviour that consists of maintaining relations with unscrupulous journalists and giving them information or comments on the life of the group,” Mr Arnault urges, and insists on “an absolute ban” on speaking to them.
Ironically, the content of the letter was leaked, leading to a backlash by almost 50 publications and press organisations including La Société des Rédacteurs du Monde, La Société des Journalistes of Libération, AFP, Les Échos, BFMTV, Radio France, RFI, France 24, RTL, TF1, Arte, M6, France TV rédaction nationale, Challenges, L’Express, France 3 rédaction nationale, La Tribune, L’Usine nouvelle, Télérama, Ouest-France and La Société des rédacteurs de Marianne.
The outlets have all put their names to an open letter condemning the interference to press freedom, which is fiercely guarded in France.
Miss Tweed may be the only title on the “banned” list that is known to readers of WatchPro since we interviewed its owner and editor, Astrid Wendlandt, last year.
In the interview, she described how she launched Miss Tweed in 2020 after 13 years as European luxury goods correspondent for Reuters and a contributor to titles including Business of Fashion and The New York Times.
She is also author of a business book on the major luxury houses titles How Luxury Conquered the World: The Inside Story of its Pioneers.
Every business has the right to set rules on how its employees speak to the press, but the sheer imbalance of power between one of the world’s wealthiest companies and small, subscription-based titles whose sole aim is to get to the truth of what is happening behind the scenes, strikes me as a troubling over-reach.
Miss Tweed generates all its revenue from reader subscriptions, which means brands cannot use the more common tactic of withholding advertising to control it.
According to Ms Wendlandt, Richemont has also made her life difficult by withdrawing her press pass to Watches and Wonders in 2023 and has blacklisted her for the past three years.
The luxury industry on which Miss Tweed reports will ultimately be weaker for shooting the messenger when stories break that it does not like.
It is an industry run by exceptionally talented individuals and teams who diminish themselves by trying to supress scrutiny and a free press.