Le Monde

Swipe Le Monde Vs...

Le Monde (French pronunciation: [lə mɔ̃d] ; lit. 'The World') is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 479,243 copies per issue in 2022, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad.

It has had its own website since 19 December 1995 and 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.

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.

The paper's journalistic side has a collegial form of organization, in which most journalists are also 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 protect 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. Hence, it was considered less important for the paper to offer maximum coverage of the news than to offer thoughtful interpretation of current events. The paper has established a greater distinction between fact and opinion in recent years.

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 is 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 debt loads it took on to fund this expansion, and it sought new investors in 2010 to keep the company out of bankruptcy. In June 2010, French investors Matthieu Pigasse, Pierre Bergé, and Xavier Niel acquired a controlling stake in the newspaper.

*[lit.]: literal translation