L'Express

L'Express (French pronunciation: [lɛkspʁɛs] ⓘ) is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris.[2] The weekly stands at the political centre-right in the French media landscape[3] and has a lifestyle supplement, L'Express Styles, and a job supplement, Réussir.[4] Founded in 1953 by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber and Françoise Giroud, L'Express would be considered France's first American-style news weekly.[5] L'Express is one of the three major French news weeklies alongside L'Obs and Le Point.[6][7]

For other uses, see L'Express (disambiguation).

L'Express
L'Express magazine cover, 8–15 January 2020
Editor-in-ChiefArnaud Bouillin
CategoriesNews magazine
FrequencyWeekly
Circulation215,093 (total, 2022)[1]
FounderJean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber and Françoise Giroud
Founded1953 (1953)
CompanyAltice
CountryFrance
Based inParis
LanguageFrench
Websitelexpress.fr
ISSN0245-9949

History and profile

L'Express was co-founded in 1953[8] by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber,[9][10] future president of the Radical Party, and Françoise Giroud,[11] who had earlier edited Elle and went on to become France's first minister of women's affairs in 1974 and minister of culture in 1976.

L'Express' first issue was released on Saturday 16 May 1953, at the corner of the end of the Indochina War and the Algerian War which was about to break out.[12] It was founded as a weekly supplement to the newspaper Les Échos.[13]

The magazine was supportive of the policies of Pierre Mendès-France in Indochina and, in general, had a left-of-centre orientation. The magazine opposed the Algerian War, and especially the use of torture.[14] In March 1958, as a result of an article of Jean-Paul Sartre reviewing the book La Question by Henri Alleg, the magazine was prevented from being published by the French Government. In order to resume publication, L'Express had to print a new issue without the incriminated article. François Mauriac was a regular contributor with his Bloc-Notes column but left L'Express when Charles De Gaulle returned to power.

In 1964, L'Express was modelled on the US magazine Time and the German magazine Der Spiegel.[13]

In 1964, a number of journalists, including Jean Daniel and André Gorz, quit L'Express to found Le Nouvel Observateur. Servan-Schreiber turned L'Express into a less politically engaged publication, and the circulation rose from 150,000 to 500,000 copies in three years.

The magazine's sales surged in 1965 with its investigation into the Ben Barka case, which had shaken the Gaullist government.[13]

In 1971, as a result of Servan-Schreiber's political activities as a deputy of the Radical Party, nine journalists of L'Express, including Claude Imbert, left the magazine and created Le Point to counter what they perceived as the "current breed of French intellectuals in the press and elsewhere, with their leftist dogmas and complacent nihilism".[15]

In 1977, Servan-Schreiber sold his magazine to Jimmy Goldsmith.[16][17]

Jean-François Revel became director in October 1978. He was replaced by Yves Cuau in May 1981. The same year the magazine had a circulation of 507,000 copies.[18]

In 1986, L'Express started a news exchange cooperation with the Belgium-based French language news magazine Le Vif/L’Express.[19]

In 1987, L'Express had a circulation of 555,000 copies and 554,000 copies in 1988.[20][18] The same year the magazine was sold to C. G. E. Yann de l'Ecotais became the new director and served in the post until 1994, when he was replaced by Christine Ockrent. In 1995, L'Express was sold to CEP communications, a filial of Havas. Then Denis Jeambar became the new director.

On 22 April 1996, Christophe Barbier began working for the magazine as editor-in-chief of the political department.[21]

In 1998, after Vivendi took control of Havas, the magazine returned under its control. After the collapse of Vivendi, L'Express was sold in 2002 to Socpresse (80% owned by Dassault Group).

From 2001 to 2002, L'Express had a circulation of 424,000 copies.[22] It was 548,195 copies between 2003 and 2004.[23]

L'Express was acquired by Roularta Media Group in 2006.[4] The same year the circulation of the magazine was 547,000 copies.[24]

Barbier was the editorial director from 2006 to 2016.[21]

In 2014, Roularta sold L'Express to Franco-Israeli billionaire and media entrepreneur Patrick Drahi, founder and owner of Altice.[25]

The magazine had lost several million euros due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.[3]

After buying 51% of the capital (the rest remaining in the hands of Altice), Alain Weill revitalized L'Express in 2020 by emulating the approach of The Economist.[3] Weill refocused the magazine on four themes: international, economics, politics, and ideas.[26] New columnists were hired, such as Marion Van Renterghem (renowned reporter and specialized in the European field), Jean-Laurent Cassely (writer and journalist discussing sociological and urban issues), Jean-Marc Jancovici (engineer, pro-nuclear, and "pioneer of the climate cause"), Robin Rivaton (liberal essayist, close to Bruno Le Maire and Valérie Pécresse), and Emmanuelle Mignon (ex-director of Nicolas Sarkozy's cabinet at the Élysée Palace).[26] Slowly relaunching the magazine, Weill decided to drop the entertainment news section and focus on an audience of lawyers, business executives, physicians, pharmacists, teachers, and students.[3]

In 2021, between 65 and 67 journalists worked for L'Express out of a total of 120 employees.[3]

L'Express is published weekly.[27]

Notable staff

Journalists

Collaborators

References
  1. "History". Alliance pour les chiffres de la presse et des médias (in French). n.d. Archived from the original on 21 June 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  2. L'Express Archived 25 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine Eurotopics.
  3. Dassonville, Aude; Cassini, Sandrine (23 September 2021). "L'Express réaffirme son ancrage libéral" [L'Express reaffirms its liberal roots]. Le Monde (in French). Archived from the original on 21 June 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  4. "L'Express". Roularta. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  5. Riding, Alan (19 January 2003). "Françoise Giroud, Co-Founder of L'Express, Is Dead at 86". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 20 June 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  6. Benedetti Valentini, Fabio; Alcaraz, Marina (25 September 2021). "Les newsmagazines français en quête d'équilibre financier" [French newsmagazines in search of financial balance]. Les Echos (in French). Archived from the original on 23 June 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  7. Hanne, Isabelle (1 March 2012). "Dans le secret de la face cachée des magazines" [In the secret of the hidden face of magazines]. Libération (in French). Archived from the original on 23 June 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  8. "Historical development of the media in France" (PDF). McGraw-Hill Education. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 February 2015. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  9. Richard Aplin; Joseph Montchamp (27 January 2014). Dictionary of Contemporary France. Routledge. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-135-93646-4. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  10. Christopher H. Sterling (25 September 2009). Encyclopedia of Journalism. SAGE Publications. p. 1009. ISBN 978-1-4522-6152-2. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  11. Michael Mould (27 April 2011). The Routledge Dictionary of Cultural References in Modern French. Taylor & Francis. p. 513. ISBN 978-1-136-82573-6. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  12. "L'Express passe le cap des 2 000 numéros. Une histoire mouvementée" [L'Express passes the milestone of 2,000 numbers. A turbulent history]. Le Monde (in French). 10 November 1989. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  13. Cressard, Armelle (16 May 2003). "L'Express a 50 ans" [L'Express is 50 years old]. Le Monde (in French). Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  14. Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber The Guardian, 9 November 2006
  15. "Making Le Point". Time, 27 November 1972.
  16. Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber The Times, 8 November 2006
  17. Sir Jimmy's Cross-Channel Fiefdom TIME Magazine, 18 April 1977
  18. Raymond Kuhn (7 April 2006). The Media in France. Routledge. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-134-98053-6. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  19. "Le Vif/L'Express". VoxEurop. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  20. Peter Humphreys (15 May 1996). Mass Media and Media Policy in Western Europe. Manchester University Press. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-7190-3197-7. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  21. Patri, Alexis (26 November 2020). "Christophe Barbier ..." [Christophe Barbier leaves L'Express after almost 25 years within the magazine]. Europe 1 (in French). Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on 27 November 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2022. [Journalist and columnist]
  22. "Top 50 Finance/Business/News magazines worldwide (by circulation)" (PDF). Magazine Organization. Archived from the original (Report) on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
  23. E. Martin (30 November 2005). Marketing Identities Through Language: English and Global Imagery in French Advertising. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-230-51190-3. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
  24. "France -- Media Guide 2008" (PDF). Open Source Center. 16 July 2008. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  25. "Roularta to sell seven French magazines to tycoon Patrick Drahi". Reuters. 8 January 2015. Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  26. Lefilliâtre, Jérôme (10 January 2020). "L'Express version Alain Weill, des 'valeurs libérales' pour les 'décideurs'" [Alain Weill's version of L'Express, 'liberal values' for 'decision makers']. Libération (in French). Archived from the original on 22 June 2023. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  27. Christoph Fiedler (17 December 2012). "Processing for direct marketing in the context of the trade journal, magazine and newspaper sector" (PDF). Brussels: European Magazine Media Association. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  28. "M. Raymond Aron dans l'Express: ..." [Mr Raymond Aron in l'Express: the affair had no need the statements of the President of the Republic]. Le Monde (in French). 13 November 1978. Archived from the original on 22 June 2023. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  29. Perrignon, Judith (2 December 2011). "Journalistes et politiques: liaisons dangereuses?" [Journalists and politicians: dangerous liaisons?]. Le Monde (in French). Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  30. Burlaud, Antony (December 2016). "André Gorz, vers l'émancipation" [André Gorz, towards emancipation]. Le Monde diplomatique (in French). Archived from the original on 23 June 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  31. "Christian Makarian". CNRS Editions. n.d. Archived from the original on 23 June 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  32. "Le journaliste et académicien Jean-François Revel est décédé à l'âge de 82 ans" [Journalist and academician Jean-François Revel died at the age of 82]. Le Monde (in French). Agence France-Presse. 30 April 2006. Archived from the original on 13 February 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
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