''Courrier International'' ( French for "International Mail") is a Paris-based French weekly newspaper which translates and publishes excerpts of articles from over 900 international newspapers. It also has a Portuguese and a Japanese edition. ''Courrier Japon'' was launched on 17 November 2005 and is published by Kodansha Limited.

History and profile

Conceived in the autumn of 1987 by five Parisians, Jean-Michel Boissier, Hervé Lavergne, Maurice Ronai, Jacques Rosselin and Juan Calderon, ''Courrier international'' was first published on the 8 November 1990, one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, financed by

Pierre Bergé Pierre Vital Georges Bergé (; 14 November 1930 – 8 September 2017) was a French industrialist and patron. He co-founded the fashion label Yves Saint Laurent, and was a longtime business partner (and onetime life partner) of its namesake des ...

and Guy de Wouters (of the

Société Générale de Belgique The ' ( nl, Generale Maatschappij van België; literally "General Company of Belgium") was a large Belgian bank and later holdings company which existed between 1822 and 2003. The ''Société générale'' was originally founded as an investme ...

). The paper is published by the media group '' La Vie-Le Monde'' (literally, "The Life - The World"). A "Volume Zero", in a print run of several hundred demonstration copies, was printed on the 22 June 1988. It was financed by a fund-raising round from family and friends of the founders, brought together a few months earlier in a method dubbed the "calendar multiplier" by Ronai and Rosselin. The magazine's publication was prescient, it was a time of important international news and the second issue sold . The issues published during the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

, begun in January 1991, which translated Arab newspapers banned in France, were especially successful. A series of big world developments proved the viability of the concept: the

1993 Russian constitutional crisis The 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, also known as the 1993 October Coup, Black October, the Shooting of the White House or Ukaz 1400, was a political stand-off and a constitutional crisis between the Russian president Boris Yeltsin and t ...

described by Russian journalists, Algerian elections through the eyes of the Arab press, the Maastricht referendum as written about in Europe, and Bill Clinton's election as predicted by American newspapers. Jacques Rosselin, one of the founders, managed the magazine until the end of 1994, less than a year after it was bought by

Générale Occidentale Générale Occidentale is a French investment company. History The company was founded in 1969 by James Goldsmith, rapidly absorbing a large number of companies. In 1973, it took control of Générale Alimentaire and its brands Amora, Vandam ...

(a subsidiary of

Alcatel Alcatel may refer to: * Alcatel, a former French telecommunications equipment company, which became Alcatel-Lucent and is now part of Nokia * Alcatel Mobile, a brand of mobile phones, tablets and wearables, formerly a joint venture between Alcatel ...

, which also owned ''

L'Express ''L'Express'' () is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris. The weekly stands at the political centre in the French media landscape, and has a lifestyle supplement, ''L'Express Styles'', and a job supplement, ''Réussir''. History ...

'' and ''

Le Point ''Le Point'' () is a French weekly political and news magazine published in Paris. History and profile ''Le Point'' was founded in September 1972 by a group of journalists who had, one year earlier, left the editorial team of '' L'Express'', w ...

''). The deal was completed in March 1994 for 83 million francs, though the magazine would wait until 1999 to break even. ''Courrier International'' was then sold to

Vivendi Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...

, together with ''L'Express'', then to

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

group, which had looked to buy it since its creation. Rosselin was succeeded by Bernard Wouts, who joined via Générale Occidentale. Wouts, a former executive of ''le Monde'', had met with the founders in 1989 but declined their offer to join the then fledgling magazine. Today the paper is part of ''

'' group and edited by Philippe Thureau-Dangin, who joined in 1993. A number of original employees are still there, the most senior are Hidenobu Suzuki and Kazuhiko Yatabe, who worked on number zero in June 1988. For its twentieth anniversary, on the 9 September 2010, ''Courrier international'' unveiled a new logo and layout. The redesign was accompanied by a marketing campaign which included an image of two planes circling, without colliding with, the digitally shortened towers of the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

in New York. The implication being that if the towers had been smaller there would have been no collision. The image, which illustrated the magazine's new slogan « ''Learn to anticipate'' » (« Apprendre à anticiper »), solicited numerous negative reactions in the United States. In 2020 the circulation of ''Courier International'' was of 168,766 copies.

References

External links

Official website

The Portuguese ''Courrier internacional''

The Japanese ''Courrier Japon''
{{authority control 1990 establishments in France Centrist newspapers Liberal media in France Newspapers published in Paris Publications established in 1990 Weekly newspapers published in France

History and profile

See also

References

External links