Le Monde

• 1. Introduction

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  Le Monde printed its first issue on the 18th of December 1944, dated the following day, and it ran to a single double-sided page. France had just emerged from German occupation, and General de Gaulle wanted the country to have a prestige newspaper aimed at international affairs, an unofficial voice of the Republic. The man chosen to run it, Hubert Beuve-Méry, hesitated for a long time before agreeing. He wanted a newspaper free of political, economic, and religious powers. How does a paper born in the shadow of state power become the title many call France's newspaper of record? What does it cost to stay independent when billionaires, presidents, and your own bank all want a say? And how does a single sheet of newsprint grow into a group read by 2.44 million people, with around 500,000 subscribers? The answers run through eight decades of feuds, lawsuits, and quiet acts of defiance.

• 2. Born From Le Temps

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  The premises on Rue des Italiens had belonged to Le Temps, a paper shut down for publications that had appeared during the occupation. Le Monde took over its requisitioned offices, its seized equipment, much of its editorial staff, and its format. It stayed at that address for 44 years and earned the nickname the Rue des Italiens daily. On the 11th of December 1944, Beuve-Méry founded the limited liability company Le Monde with capital of 200,000 francs split into 200 shares. His first editorial committee included René Courtin, a professor of law, and Christian Funck-Brentano, who had handled press matters in de Gaulle's cabinet. Pierre-Henri Teitgen, the Minister of Information, had been tasked with finding a director, a hard job since so many press figures had collaborated or already led clandestine papers. Georges Bidault, president of the National Council of the Resistance, suggested Beuve-Méry's name. Like Le Temps, the paper aimed at elites, and it reached a circulation of 150,000 copies as early as 1945.

• 3. The Price Of Independence

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  In 1951, the Le Monde Journalists' Society was created to guard the paper's editorial independence, and it received just over 28% of the company's shares. Companies for employees and managers followed in 1968, and one for readers in 1985. By 1956 the paper owned its building at 5 Rue des Italiens. Beuve-Méry steered the title through the Cold War and the First Indochina War while keeping it independent. That independence drew fire from many directions. Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, head of the foreign affairs section, left in the early 1950s, accusing the paper of neutralism in East-West relations. In 1955-1956, the Conseil national du patronat français, chaired by Georges Villiers, found Le Monde too left-leaning and backed a rival daily. When the competitor appeared in March 1956, Beuve-Méry was reassured by what he judged its mediocre quality, and it folded within months. In 1957, the paper refused to publish an article by Jean-Paul Sartre on the use of torture during the Algerian War. Beuve-Méry, the founder, retired in 1969.

• 4. Torpedoing Giscard

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  During the 1970s, Le Monde moved openly toward supporting the Union of the Left and attacked the scandals of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's presidency, including the Diamonds Affair. A 2014 investigation titled Le jour où... Le Monde choisit de torpiller Giscard examined the newsroom's hostility to the president. Raphaëlle Bacqué, revisiting the Diamond affair, described journalists close to the Socialist and Communist opposition. Political editor Raymond Barillon was cautious about relaying the revelations of Le Canard enchaîné. Columnist Philippe Boucher, who fiercely opposed Giscardism, wanted to push further, linking the story to claims about a building permit obtained by Raymond Barre and the African assets of Giscard's cousins. Boucher, later named to the Council of State by François Mitterrand, admitted in 2014 that he had been somewhat excessive. The paper headlined Phnom Penh liberated when the Khmer Rouge took the city in April 1975. After Mitterrand won in 1981, Jacques Fauvet wrote in the 11th of May issue that the victory was that of respect over disdain, realism over illusion, frankness over artifice, in short, that of a certain morality. The open support cost the paper a significant number of readers.

• 5. Years Of Crisis

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  By 1985, circulation had fallen below the break-even point, and the leader who had succeeded Claude Julien in 1982 was removed. André Fontaine replaced him and pulled the editorial line away from Mitterrandism, voicing skepticism about Pierre Mauroy's nationalizations. The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior let the paper show its independence and lifted sales. Le Monde then helped expose scandals of the Mitterrand era, including the Irish of Vincennes affair, and animosity grew between the president and the paper, focused on journalist Edwy Plenel. Pressed by its bank BNP in 1985, the paper sold the historic Rue des Italiens building. It moved in April 1989, then again in 1996, and in 2004 to Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui in the 13th arrondissement, a Christian de Portzamparc building inspired by the old headquarters of The New York Times. In January 1991, economist Jacques Lesourne became director of publication, the first non-journalist to hold the post. In 1994, the paper changed its legal status from a limited liability company to a public limited company with an executive board and a supervisory board.

• 6. Colombani And The Group

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  Jean-Marie Colombani became director of publication in March 1994 after Lesourne resigned, unable to halt the decline in circulation and advertising. In 1995 he launched a new format, and the paper turned to the Internet in 1996. LeMonde.fr offered a graphical front page from 1 p.m. and the full paper before 5 p.m., working with the Agence France-Presse. Two years later, full online access cost five francs, against 7.50 francs for the print edition. Re-elected in 2000, Colombani built the Groupe Le Monde, taking control of one group in 1999 and a 30% stake in Publications de la vie catholique in 2003, which included La Vie, Courrier International, and Télérama. In February 2003, the essay La Face cachée du Monde by Pierre Péan and a co-author accused the management of chasing profit at the expense of ethics. The book cited the editor-in-chief's monthly salary of 26,000 euros against an estimated group loss of 25 million euros that year. A defamation suit was settled through mediation by Guy Canivet of the Court of Cassation in June 2004. Colombani called for a vote for Ségolène Royal on the 3rd of May 2007. Three weeks later the journalists' association refused him a third term.

• 7. The Niel-Pigasse Era

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  Éric Fottorino became president of the executive board in January 2008, then criticized Nicolas Sarkozy in a May 2009 editorial for what he called boastfulness and frenzy. A crisis with shareholders followed. Vincent Bolloré stopped printing his free daily on Le Monde presses, Le Journal du Dimanche changed printers, and Les Échos, owned by Bernard Arnault, ended its contract with the paper's plant. Fottorino said power was trying to suffocate the paper through industrial means. In June 2010, five potential buyers emerged, among them a trio of Pierre Bergé, Matthieu Pigasse, and Xavier Niel, the founder of Free. At a meeting on the 9th of June 2010, Sarkozy warned that if the trio were chosen, the state would withhold 20 million euros for the printing operations. The supervisory board validated the trio on the 28th of June, and the acquisition was approved on the 2nd of November 2010. Fottorino was dismissed on the 15th of December 2010 and replaced as chairman by Louis Dreyfus. Érik Izraelewicz, made editor-in-chief in February 2011, died suddenly on the 27th of November 2012, after a heart attack at the headquarters, aged 58.

• 8. Guarding The Golden Share

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  The Le Monde Group is owned 75% by the holding company Le Monde Libre and 25% by the Pôle d'Indépendance du Monde. Under the statutes, the appointment of the editor-in-chief must be approved by at least 60% of the journalists on staff. Since 2017, after amendments to the statutes, the independence pole has held a golden share that protects its rights regardless of its capital share, letting minority shareholders block certain decisions. In 2020, Xavier Niel placed all his shares into a legally inalienable endowment fund, though researcher Julia Cagé, who heads the readers' society, has pointed to weaknesses in its governance. That same year, the group moved into a new headquarters designed by the Norwegian firm Snøhetta, overlooking the tracks of Gare d'Austerlitz. In January 2025, the paper announced it was leaving the X social network, citing the intensification of activism by Elon Musk and the growing toxicity of exchanges. The newsroom called the decision difficult but part of an effort to preserve editorial independence. As of the 31st of October 2023, Le Monde counted 592,000 subscribers, including 517,000 digital-only ones.