Groupe Le Monde (previously known as groupe La Vie-Le Monde) or ''Société éditrice du Monde'' is a French mass media company that publishes ''

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 ...

'' newspaper. Their headquarters are located in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

History

Before the end of the year 2006, the group La Vie-Le Monde, majority shareholder since 2005 of the group Les Journaux du Midi (

Midi Libre ''Midi Libre'' () is a French daily newspaper in Montpellier that covers general news. It began publication in 1944. Since 1949, the newspaper has organised a cycling stage race, the Grand Prix du Midi Libre. References External links Web ...

, L'Indépendant, Centre Presse), formed a plan to take control of the regional daily papers of the company Groupe Hachette-Filipacchi ( Groupe Nice-matin,

La Provence ''La Provence'' is a French language daily newspaper published in Marseille, France. History and profile In 1997 ''La Provence'' was created in Marseille from the merger of two daily newspapers, '' Le Provençal'' of former Interior Minister Ga ...

) through a holding company with the subsidiary

Lagardère Lagardère may refer to: * Lagardère Group, a French media group * Jean-Luc Lagardère (1928–2003), French engineer and businessman and CEO of the Lagardère Group * Arnaud Lagardère (born 1961), French businessman and son of Jean-Luc Lagardèr ...

. The new entity would then become the owner of all the regional daily newspapers in the southeast of France, from Perpignan to Nice and Corsica. This plan having fallen through by 2007, les Journaux du Midi were bought by Groupe Sud-Ouest, whereas the journals of the South-east came under the aegis of

Groupe Hersant Média A group is a military unit or a military formation that is most often associated with military aviation. Air and aviation groups The terms group and wing differ significantly from one country to another, as well as between different branches ...

. In 2006, Groupe Monde sold Éditions Desclée de Brouwer to the Swiss publisher Parole et Silence, specializing in Christian spirituality. In July 2007,

Pierre Jeantet Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

succeeded Jean-Marie Colombiani as president of the Board, with Bruno Pattino as vice-president and

Éric Fottorino Éric Fottorino (born 26 August 1960, in Nice), is a French journalist and writer. He is the winner of the Prix Femina, 2007, for ''Baisers de cinéma''. After having been a reporter for the daily newspaper ''Le Monde'', then becoming editor-in-c ...

as the

executive editor Executive (Exe (disambiguation), exe., Exec (disambiguation), exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (exec ...

of ''Le Monde''. After his resignation on September 17, 2007, following disagreements regarding the management and development strategy with the editorial staff of Le Monde, a leading shareholder in the group, he was replaced by the editorial director of Le Monde,

on January 25, 2008. At the end of 2008, it let go of the religious bookstore La Procure, which had been under the control of the groupe des Publications de la Vie catholique since 1975. In April 2008, it put the publishing company of ''Cahiers du cinéma'', les Éditions de l'Étoile, up for sale. In January 2009, the art publishing company Phaidon, headquartered in London, became the new owner. Also in 2009, the company sold its youth division, composed of Fleurus presse, Junior hebdo to Héros et Patrimoine, a company held by Financière de loisirs and by the American investment fund Open Gate Capital. Following the buyout of the company on November 2, 2010 by the trio "BNP", composed of Pierre Bergé, Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse the president of the group, Éric Fottorino, was removed as president because of diverging points of view with the new shareholders on December 15, 2010. In January 2015, the group announced the construction of a new headquarters in the

13th Arrondissement of Paris The 13th arrondissement of Paris (''XIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''treizième''. The arrondissement, called Gobelins, is situated ...

near the

gare d'Austerlitz The Gare d'Austerlitz (English: Austerlitz Station), officially Paris-Austerlitz, is one of the six large Paris rail termini. The station is located on the left bank of the Seine in the southeastern part of the city, in the 13th arrondissemen ...

. It would house the publishing staff of

as well as

L'Obs (), previously known as (1964–2014), is a weekly French news magazine. Based in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, it is the most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation. Its current editor is Cécil ...

. The seven-story building, covering 22,500 square meters, was designed by the Norwegian design firm

Snøhetta Snøhetta is the highest mountain in the Dovrefjell mountain range in Norway. At , it is the highest mountain in Norway outside the Jotunheimen range, making it the 24th highest peak in Norway, based on a topographic prominence cutoff. At , it ...

. On November 25, 2018 Matthieu Pigasse publicly announced the sale of 49% of his shares in le Nouveau Monde - to the Czech billionaire

Daniel Křetínský Daniel Křetínský (, born 9 July 1975) is a Czech billionaire businessman and lawyer, who is the chief executive officer (CEO) and 94% owner of Energetický a průmyslový holding (EPH), the largest energy group in Central Europe, co-owner an ...

. In July 2019, Daniel Kretinsky and Matthieu Pigasse announced that they had entered into exclusive negotiations with PRISA to buy the 20% held by the Spanish company. A decision which provoked the anger of Xavier Niel and of the editorial staff of Le Monde. In July 2020, Groupe Le Monde announced that it had it had made a net profit of 2.6 million euros.

Capital

The group is controlled by the company Le Monde Libre, which possesses 72.5%.. This company is controlled in equal shares by Le Nouveau Monde (

Matthieu Pigasse Matthieu Pigasse (born 1968) is a French investment banker, media mogul and investor. He previously served as Lazard's Global Head of Mergers and Acquisitions and Sovereign Advisory, as well as CEO of Lazard France. He currently serves as head of C ...

and Daniel Kretinsky), NJJ Presse (

Xavier Niel Xavier Niel (born 25 August 1967) is a French billionaire businessman involved in the telecommunications and technology industry. He is best known as founder and majority shareholder of the French Internet service provider and mobile operator Il ...

) and Berlys Media (Madison Cox), who each possess 26.66% of the shares, the 20% remaining belonging to the Spanish media group Prisa. The independance pole, composed notably of several different societies of employees (such as the society of editors of ''Le Monde''), the society of readers of ''Le Monde'', and the association of minority shareholders, controls 25.5% of the group, yet retains a Society of editors of ''Le Monde'' and of the publications of the group, of the society of readers of ''Le Monde''. This pole has held since 2019 the right to approve changes to the shareholders..

Holdings

Groupe Le Monde owns ''

Courrier international ''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. '' ...

'', ''

Le Monde diplomatique ''Le Monde diplomatique'' (meaning "The Diplomatic World" in French) is a French monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. The publication is owned by Le Monde diplomatique SA, a subsidiary com ...

'', '' Manière de voir'', '' La Vie'', '' Le Monde des religions'', ''Prier'', ''Danser'', ''

Télérama ''Télérama'' is a weekly French cultural and television magazine published in Paris, France. The name is a contraction of its earlier title: ''Télévision-Radio-Cinéma''. Fabienne Pascaud is currently managing editor. Ludovic Desautez is dep ...

'' and other publications.

References

{{Reflist Conglomerate companies of France Newspaper companies of France Year of establishment missing Magazine publishing companies of France