Rémy Pflimlin ([ʁe.mipflim.lɛ̃]; 17 February 1954 – 3 December 2016) was a French media executive. He w as the CEO of France 3 from 1999 to 2005, the Nouvelles Messageries de la Presse Parisienne (later known as Presstalis) from 2006 to 2010, and France Télévisions, France's public national television broadcaster, from 2010 to 2015.
Rémy Pflimlin was born on 17 February 1954 in Mulhouse, France.[1][2][3] His great-uncle, Pierre Pflimlin, was a politician.[1] His father was a Protestant while his mother was a Catholic.[4] One of his brothers, Bertrand-Louis Pflimlin, became a general in the French Army; his other brother, Thierry Pflimlin, went on to work for the oil company Total.[4] His cousin, Étienne Pflimlin, later was the CEO of Crédit Mutuel.[1]
Pflimlin started his career by as the head of advertising for Jours de France, a magazine published by the Dassault Group, from 1979 to 1985.[2][5] He then worked for Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, a regional newspaper in Alsace.[5] In 1991, he was appointed as the deputy-chairman of the Société alsacienne de publications, the publisher of L’Alsace, its competitor.[5] He was its chairman from 1993 to 1999.[5] He also was the vice president of the Syndicat de la presse quotidienne régionale from 1997 to 1999.[5]
Pflimlin was the CEO of France 3 from 1999 to 2005.[1][3][6] He established regional stations within France 3, including Corsica-based Via Stella.[1] In 1999, he launched C'est mon choix, a talk show hosted by Évelyne Thomas.[5] In 2003, he oversaw the creation of Plus belle la vie, a French television series based in Marseille.[2] Additionally, he decided to show Shoah, a 613-minute film directed by Claude Lanzmann.[1] Meanwhile, he hired Audrey Pulvar and Marc-Olivier Fogiel, two new television presenters.[1] However, in 2002, the staff went on strike for 22 days over their salaries; it was the longest strike in the history of France 3.[5]
Pflimlin died of cancer at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris on 3 December 2016.[1][2] He was 62 years old.[2] Upon his death, Jean Rottner, the mayor of his hometown of Mulhouse, described him as "a lover of culture, a humanist, but most of all a friend".[12] Meanwhile, François Hollande, the president of France, said he was "a man who gave his life to the press, to the media, and to informing the public. Beyond his foolproof discretion, he hid a deep commitment to culture, including music."[13]
