Érik Izraelewicz, editorial director of Le Monde, died on Tuesday in Paris. He was 58.
Employees said Mr. Izraelewicz collapsed from a heart attack while working on the French newspaper’s Wednesday issue. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead at a Paris hospital, the newspaper said Wednesday.
The death of Mr. Izraelewicz, who had served in the top editorial post for less than two years, opens a new chapter in the turbulent history of the newspaper. Mr. Izraelewicz had been hired by the new owners of the paper, a group of French investors who acquired control from the paper’s employees in 2010. Le Monde did not immediately name a successor.
Mr. Izraelewicz, a former top editor at two French business dailies, Les Échos and La Tribune, had moved to overhaul Le Monde, known for its highbrow writing and left-leaning politics. Articles about pressing economic matters, especially the euro crisis, were featured on the front page.
Though Mr. Izraelewicz was close to prominent members of the Socialist Party, he was no leftist ideologue. In an obituary in its Thursday issue, Le Monde described Mr. Izraelewicz as having been from a pragmatic generation of French socialists “eager for reforms that shape the world as it is, for better or worse.”
Before joining Les Échos and, later, La Tribune, Mr. Izraelewicz had worked as a journalist at Le Monde, where one of his postings was in New York. “From the Anglo-Saxon world, which he knew well, he adopted his professional codes, but also a certain coolness and a great sense of humor,” the newspaper’s journalists said in a statement.
Co-workers said Mr. Izraelewicz, known for his long hours, had guarded his private life carefully.
Mr. Izraelewicz was born on Feb. 6, 1954, in Strasbourg, in the Alsace region of France.
He was a graduate of the elite international business school HEC, one of the grandes écoles that train much of the French ruling and intellectual class.
His death brought a tribute from President François Hollande, who described him in a statement as a “renowned economist, a distinguished professional and a man as demanding as generous.”
“His kindness to other people never prevented him from being intractable in judging their actions or commenting on their choices,” Mr. Hollande said. “France has lost a journalist of great talent.”
Mr. Izraelewicz was also the author of a number of books, including two volumes about the rising economic power of China.