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Le Monde

Le Monde (French: [lə mɔ̃d] ; French for 'The World') is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including 40,000 sold abroad. It has been available online since 1995, and it is often the only French newspaper easily obtainable in non-French-speaking countries. It should not be confused with the monthly publication Le Monde diplomatique, of which Le Monde has 51% ownership, but which is editorially independent.

For the book by René Descartes, see The World (Descartes). For other uses, see Monde (disambiguation).

Type

Daily newspaper

Louis Dreyfus

165

1944 (1944)

  • French
  • English (digital translation)[2][3]

67–69 Avenue Pierre Mendès-France
75707 Paris Cedex 13

France

479,243 (total, 2022)[4]
360,000 (digital, 2020)[4]

0395-2037 (print)
1950-6244 (web)

Le Monde is considered one of the French newspapers of record, along with Libération and Le Figaro. A Reuters Institute poll in 2021 found that Le Monde is the most trusted French newspaper.[5]


The paper's journalistic side has a collegial form of organization, in which most journalists are tenured, unionized, and financial stakeholders in the business. While shareholders appoint the company's CEO, the editor is elected by Le Monde's journalists to uphold the newsroom's independence.


Le Monde has often broken major scandals, for instance, by directly implicating President François Mitterrand in the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand.


In contrast to other world newspapers such as The New York Times, Le Monde was traditionally focused on offering analysis and opinion, as opposed to being a newspaper of record. It de-emphasized maximum coverage of the news in favor of thoughtful interpretation of current events. In recent years the paper has established a greater distinction between fact and opinion.[6]


Le Monde was founded by Hubert Beuve-Méry at the request of Charles de Gaulle (as Chairman of the Provisional Government of the French Republic) on 19 December 1944, shortly after the Liberation of Paris from Nazism, and has published continuously since its first edition.


In the 1990s and 2000s, La Vie-Le Monde Group expanded under editor Jean-Marie Colombani with a number of acquisitions. However, its profitability was not sufficient to cover the large debts it took on to fund this expansion, and it sought new investors in 2010 to keep the company from bankruptcy. In June 2010, French investors Matthieu Pigasse, Pierre Bergé, and Xavier Niel acquired a controlling stake in the newspaper.[7]

Ownership[edit]

In June 2010, investors Matthieu Pigasse, Pierre Bergé, and Xavier Niel acquired a controlling stake in the newspaper.[7] In October 2018, staff learned that Pigasse had sold 49% of his stake in the company to Czech businessman Daniel Křetínský. Le Monde's Independency Group, a minority shareholder that aims to protect the paper's editorial independence, had not been informed of the sale, and asked Pigasse and Křetínský to sign an "approval agreement" that would give the Independency Group the right to approve or reject any controlling shareholder. As of September 2019, they had not done so.[29][30]

Publication schedule[edit]

Le Monde is published around midday, and the cover date on the masthead is the following day's. For instance, the issue released at midday on 15 March shows 16 March on the masthead. It is available on newsstands in France on the day of release and received by mail subscribers on the masthead date. The Saturday issue is a double one, for Saturday and Sunday.


Thus the latest edition can be found on newsstands from Monday to Friday included, while subscribers will receive it from Tuesday to Saturday.

LeMonde.fr[edit]

Le Monde was among the first French newspapers on the web, with its first web edition on 19 December 1995.[31] It is among the 50 most visited websites in France.[32]


Starting in the 2000s Le Monde allowed its subscribers to publish a blog on its website. These blogs were called the "les blogs abonnées du Monde.fr". On 10 April 2019, Le Monde announced that it would be closing its blog platform on 5 June 2019.[33][34] Although the reasons for the closing of the blogs were unclear, it could be linked to the dominance of social networks like Facebook.[35]


Le Monde launched an English language edition of its news website on 7 April 2022, featuring its articles translated from French.[2][3]

Politics[edit]

In 1981, Le Monde backed the election of socialist François Mitterrand, partly on the grounds that the alternation of the political party in government would be beneficial to the democratic character of the state.[36] The paper endorsed centre-right candidate Édouard Balladur in the 1995 presidential election, and Ségolène Royal, the Socialist Party candidate, in the 2007 presidential election.

(1944–1969)

Hubert Beuve-Méry

(1969–1981)

Jacques Fauvet

(1981–1982)

Claude Julien

(1982–1985)

André Laurens

(1985–1991)

André Fontaine

(1991–1994)

Jacques Lesourne

(1994–2007)

Jean-Marie Colombani

(2007–2010)

Éric Fottorino

(2011–2012)

Érik Izraelewicz

(2012–2013)

Alain Frachon

(2013–2014)

Natalie Nougayrède

(2014–)

Jérôme Fenoglio

List of French newspapers

Libération

, newspaper in Spain inspired by Le Monde

El País

journalist

Jean-Louis de Rambures

journalist

Henri Pierre

Merrill, John C.; Harold A. Fisher (1980). The world's great dailies: profiles of fifty newspapers. pp. 202–10.

(in French)

Official website

English edition