French media company Spir Communication’s board of directors has named Louis Echelard as new president and CEO of the group to replace Patrick Leleu. What is important in this change is that Echelard is (and will remain) CEO of Sipa /Ouest France, the main shareholder of Spir. Market analysts predict that this might announce a major change in Sipa strategy regarding its historically very profitable subsidiary Spir, now in complete financial distress.

All scenarios are now open. One way to analyze this change could be that Echelard is an interim solution after the board’s decision to change presidents. Leleu was appointed six months ago to put back on financial track the classifieds branch of Spir. A reorganization plan was expected on Sept. 16. Leleu evidently failed to convince Sipa that this was possible under his direction.

Other possibilities include the closure or the sale of some of Spir classifieds activities and a merger with other classifieds subsidiaries of newspaper groups  like Paru-vendu (Groupe Hersant) or S3G (Groupe Sud-Ouest), also facing financial difficulties.

Some activities will leave less room to maneuver for Sipa, those where Spir is operating in joint-venture with Schibsted: the free daily newspaper 20 Minutes but also the very successful (at least in audience) Leboncoin.fr (private classifieds ads).Spir Communication, with core activities in print classified and distribution services, announced a net loss of € 36 million ($51 million U.S.) in the first semester of 2009 compared to a benefit of € 12.1 million during the equivalent period of 2008.

Total revenues were down 10.9 percent at €311.6 million ($441.3 million) compared to €349.7 million last year.