Le Monde (French:[l(ə)mɔ̃d]; "The World") is a French newspaper founded in 1944 byHubert Beuve-Méry. It is the most widely read paid national daily newspaper in France, with 2.44 million readers in 2021, and the most widely circulated, with around 500,000 subscribers, including 414,000 digital subscribers and 87,000 print subscribers.
It presents itself as a "newspaper of record".[4][5] Former editor Éric Fottorino preferred not to describe the newspaper as a "newspaper of record", stating instead that it was "not just any newspaper", but rather one that "claims to become the reference, an alloy of competence and editorial independence built over several decades".[6] It is nevertheless widely regarded as such,[7] including internationally.[8][9][10]
Le Monde is the last French daily traditionally described as an "evening paper". It is published in Paris in the early afternoon with the following day's date, and later in some major cities, before being distributed elsewhere the next morning.
According toRadio France,Le Monde has adopted successive editorial lines since its founding, generally located, albeit reductively, on thecentre-left.[11] A 2010 academic work also characterises its editorial stance as centre-left.[12] In April 2022, anIfop survey indicated that among regular readers ofLe Monde, 48% voted for left-wing candidates in the first round of the2012 presidential election, and 27% voted forEmmanuel Macron.
The editorial offices ofLe Monde were located at 5, Rue des Italiens, Paris, from its creation until 1989 (photograph taken in 2015).
The first issue ofLe Monde was published on 18 December 1944,[14] dated 19 December 1944, and consisted of a single double-sided page. It succeeded the newspaperLe Temps, which had been shut down under theOrdinances of 1944 on the press [fr] targeting publications that appeared during theGerman occupation of France during World War II. The premises ofLe Temps were requisitioned and its equipment seized.Le Monde, as beneficiary of this confiscation, adopted its format and layout, took over much of its editorial staff, workers, and employees, as well as its former offices on Rue des Italiens, where it would remain for 44 years. This location earned it the nickname "the Rue des Italiens daily".
General de Gaulle, who wished to provideFrance with a "prestige newspaper" oriented toward international affairs and serving as an unofficial voice of the Republic, was a driving force behind its creation.[15] He tasked hisMinister of Information,Pierre-Henri Teitgen, with finding a director, a difficult task since many press figures of the time had either collaborated during the occupation or were already leading newspapers of theclandestine press.[16]Georges Bidault, president of theNational Council of the Resistance, suggested Hubert Beuve-Méry. Beuve-Méry hesitated for a long time, as he sought to run a newspaper independent of political, economic, and religious powers.
On 11 December 1944, Hubert Beuve-Méry founded the limited liability company (SARL)Le Monde with capital of 200,000 francs divided into 200 shares. Its first editorial committee also includedRené Courtin, a professor of law, and Christian Funck-Brentano, formerly responsible for press matters in General de Gaulle's cabinet.[17] LikeLe Temps, the daily was intended for elites, and reached a circulation of 150,000 copies as early as 1945. Born in the shadow of political power,Le Monde gradually emancipated itself under Beuve-Méry, who secured its editorial independence during theCold War and theFirst Indochina War.[18]
Employees have played a central role in the management of the newspaper. In 1951, theLe Monde Journalists' Society was created to safeguard the paper'seditorial independence. It was initially allocated just over 28% of the shares of SARL Le Monde.[19] (This was followed by companies representing employees and managers in 1968, and readers in 1985.) In 1956,Le Monde became the owner of its building at 5 Rue des Italiens. From the early 1960s onward, its circulation expanded rapidly, tripling over 20 years, from 137,433 copies in 1960 to 347,783 in 1971, and nearly 500,000 by the late 1970s.[20]
This financial and editorial independence was also political. The newspaper became a meeting point for several major currents of thought, primarily linked toChristian democracy in domestic affairs and to moderateanti-colonialism in foreign policy.
These positions generated debate. In addition to tensions with de Gaulle,Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, head of the foreign affairs section, left the newspaper in the early 1950s, criticizing what he saw as its neutralism in East–West relations.[21] In 1954,Le Monde diplomatique was launched.[22] In 1955–1956, theConseil national du patronat français, chaired byGeorges Villiers, consideredLe Monde too left-leaning and decided to support the launch of a competing daily,Le Temps de Paris [fr]. The operation was coordinated byJean Jardin [fr], a former close adviser toPierre Laval. When the first issue appeared in March 1956, Beuve-Méry was reassured by what he considered the competitor's mediocre quality; publication ceased after only a few months.
Hubert Beuve-Méry, the founder of the newspaper, retired in 1969.[25] During the 1970s, the paper clearly moved toward supporting theUnion of the Left[16] and denounced the financial scandals that erupted under the Presidency of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (notably theDiamonds Affair). The strong hostility of the newspaper's journalists towardValéry Giscard d'Estaing was examined in a 2014 investigation entitledLe jour où... « Le Monde » choisit de torpiller Giscard ("The day when... 'Le Monde' chose to torpedo Giscard").[26]
In her investigation, Raphaëlle Bacqué revisited the Diamond affair as it was experienced withinLe Monde and emphasized the highly political nature of its coverage. She noted in particular the general hostility of the newsroom's journalists toward Giscard d'Estaing and their closeness to the Socialist and Communist opposition. She also described internal debates between those, such as political editor Raymond Barillon, who were cautious and reluctant to relay the revelations ofLe Canard enchaîné, and others, such as columnist Philippe Boucher, who strongly opposed "Giscardism" and wanted to push the story further by linking it to additional revelations, including those reported byMinute concerning a building permit obtained byRaymond Barre and information about the African assets of Giscard's cousins. Philippe Boucher, later appointed to theCouncil of State byFrançois Mitterrand, acknowledged in 2014 that he had been somewhat excessive in his handling of the affair.[26]
At the time, although the editorial line did not explicitly claim to be left-wing, it was generally sympathetic to revolutionary socialist movements (Vietnam, thePortuguese Revolution), going so far as to headline "Phnom Penh liberated" when the city was taken by theKhmer Rouge in April 1975.[27]
In 1981,Claude Julien succeededJacques Fauvet. Readership was then at its peak. The newspaper supported the candidacy of François Mitterrand in the1981 French presidential election.[28] After the Socialist candidate's victory, Jacques Fauvet wrote in the 11 May 1981 issue:
This victory is finally that of respect over disdain, realism over illusion, frankness over artifice—in short, that of a certain morality.
Following the election, the newspaper's open support for François Mitterrand cost it a significant number of readers.[29]
In 1985,André Laurens [fr], who had succeeded Claude Julien in 1982, was removed from the newspaper's leadership following a decline in circulation. While the paper had sold an average of 434,000 copies between 1974 and 1981, circulation fell to 335,000 copies in 1985, dropping below the break-even point.[17] Laurens was criticized in particular for his relationship withFrançois Mitterrand's brand of socialism.
In 1989, due to competition fromLibération and the revival ofLe Figaro, circulation had declined by 40,000 copies over a ten-year period.[38]
In February 1990, atriumvirate was appointed to succeed André Fontaine. Composed ofDaniel Vernet (managing director),Bruno Frappat [fr] (editor-in-chief), and Martin Desprez (managing director for administration), it was ultimately replaced, following internal rivalries, by Bruno Frappat, who remained head of the newsroom, and economistJacques Lesourne. Lesourne was elected director of publication ofLe Monde on 8 January 1991, becoming the first non-journalist to hold the position.[39]
In 1994,Le Monde changed its legal status from alimited liability company (société à responsabilité limitée, SARL) to apublic limited company (société anonyme, SA) with anexecutive board and asupervisory board. Following the resignation of Jacques Lesourne, who had been unable to halt the decline in circulation and advertising revenue,Jean-Marie Colombani, editor-in-chief, was elected director of publication of the newspaper in March 1994,[38] first by the journalists' association and then by the newspaper's shareholders. In April 1994, he appointed Noël-Jean Bergeroux as editor-in-chief. In 1995, Colombani launched a new format for the daily newspaper.
During the1995 French presidential election, Colombani's hostility towardJacques Chirac following theOuvéa cave hostage taking, the anti-Mitterrand stance of Edwy Plenel,[Note 1] and the globalist outlook associated withÉdouard Balladur and promoted byAlain Minc, chairman of the supervisory board of SA Le Monde, led the newspaper to be accused by its peers of "Balladurism."[40]Le Canard enchaîné headlined on 18 January 1995, "Le Monde Balladurized? It's not a Minc affair," a controversy that unsettled part of its readership.[41]
After an initialrecapitalization of 295 million francs in 1995,Le Monde launched its presence on theInternet in 1996.LeMonde.fr offered online feature packages, a graphical version of the front page from 1:00 p.m., the full newspaper before 5:00 p.m., current news in cooperation with theAgence France-Presse, and sections devoted to the stock market, books, multimedia, and sports. Two years later, full online access to the newspaper cost fiveFrench francs (equivalent to €0.76), compared with 7.50 francs (€1.15) for the printed edition.[42] Some articles from the weekly print supplementTélévision-Radio-Multimédia were made freely available online in a multimedia section later renamed "New Technologies."
Re-elected in 2000, Jean-Marie Colombani undertook the construction of a media group, theGroupe Le Monde. After an unsuccessful attempt to acquireL'Express from Vivendi Universal Publishing (formerly Havas) in 1997,[43] he took control of theLes Journaux du Midi [fr] group (formerly Midi Libre SA) in 1999 and acquired a 30% stake in the "Publications de la vie catholique" in 2003, notably includingLa Vie,Courrier International, andTélérama, whose real estate assets were later sold.[44] In 2002 and 2003, more than €60 million were raised throughbonds redeemable in shares, increasing an already high level of long-term debt.[45][46][47]
2003–2008: Crisis of the newspaper and the executive board
In 2003, a series of books and academic works criticized the neutrality of the newspaper and targeted the three leading figures ofLe Monde: Jean-Marie Colombani, Edwy Plenel, andAlain Minc. In the journalActes de la recherche en sciences sociales, sociologistPatrick Champagne [fr], associated with theBourdieusian school, analyzed the evolution of the daily newspaper and the influence of Jean-Marie Colombani in an article entitled "Le médiateur entre deux mondes." These criticisms escalated into accusations with the publication of the essayLa Face cachée du « Monde ». In February 2003, the book byPierre Péan andPhilippe Cohen [fr] argued, among other points, that the management team had deliberately shifted toward a logic of profitability and sales at the expense ofjournalistic ethics.[48]
The authors also denounced the monthly salary of the newspaper's editor-in-chief (€26,000 per month), despite an estimated group loss of €25 million for the 2003 financial year (with consolidated revenue of €460 million, the year of acquisition of theLa Vie catholique group). According to the book, the original editorial line had been altered to serve the power objectives of a small affiliated group, involving collusion with economic elites. Alleged disregard forraison d'État was also central to the critique. Other commentators accused the newspaper of editorial bias, claiming that it actively campaigned forLionel Jospin during the2002 French presidential election.[49]
A highly publicized defamation lawsuit brought by the group[50][51] was ultimately resolved through mediation byGuy Canivet, First President of theCourt of Cassation, in June 2004, thereby avoiding a trial.[52][53]
This mediation was criticized by the media watchdog groupAcrimed [fr] as an attempt to stifle debate.[54]
Alain Rollat [fr], a journalist atLe Monde from 1977 to 2001, also sharply criticized what he viewed as managerial failings under Jean-Marie Colombani, whom he considered chiefly responsible for the growing influence of financial interests over the so-callednewspaper of record. The publication of his testimony was largely ignored by his former colleagues.[55]
Daniel Schneidermann, then an employee ofLe Monde, criticized the newspaper's leadership in his bookLe Cauchemar médiatique, arguing that management failed to respond substantively to the arguments made inLa Face cachée du « Monde ». He was dismissed in October 2003 for "real and serious cause," with management claiming that a passage in his book was damaging to the company. Schneidermann sued the newspaper before thelabour courts in Paris and won in May 2005, a decision upheld on appeal in March 2007.[56]
Another investigative book, published the following year byPatrick de Saint-Exupéry on theRwandan genocide, contributed, according toÉric Fottorino, to unease among journalists atLe Monde, as the newspaper had in 1994 endorsed what he later described as an erroneous narrative of a "double genocide" that exonerated French diplomacy.[57]
On 29 November 2004, Edwy Plenel resigned as editor-in-chief[58] and left the newspaper entirely in September 2005. Colombani appointedPatrick Jarreau [fr] as interim editor, recalling him from Washington.[59]
In response to the crisis,Le Monde accepted a capital increase by theLagardère Group and published a new format on 7 November 2005, prepared by Éric Fottorino and his think tank "Vivaldi."[60] According to Fottorino, the overhaul of the newspaper's structure led to a sustained rise in reader satisfaction, exceeding 80 percent.[60]
Tensions surrounding Lagardère's role intensified. In September 2005, after 24 years of partnership with the RTL programLe Grand Jury, the newspaper was replaced byLe Figaro, following Lagardère's capital increase and its ownership of rival radio stationEurope 1.[61]
On 3 May 2007, Colombani publicly called for a vote forSégolène Royal.[62] Three weeks later, on 22 May 2007, the journalists' association ofLe Monde refused to grant him a third term as head of the executive board. Subsequent leadership changes culminated in a collective resignation in December 2007, followed by Éric Fottorino's appointment as president of the executive board in January 2008.
In January 2008, the newspaper was ordered by a Barcelona court to pay €300,000 in damages for defamation in an article concerning alleged doping practices atFC Barcelona.[63]
The daily newspaper lost €15 million in 2007 alone, with circulation down 10 percent over four years and advertising revenue down 40 percent.[64] Facing continued debt, the group undertook restructuring measures in 2008, including the sale of several subsidiaries.
In May 2009, Éric Fottorino criticizedNicolas Sarkozy in an editorial for what he described as the president's "boastfulness and frenzy," triggering a crisis with shareholders. BillionaireVincent Bolloré, a friend of the head of state, announced that he would stop printing his free dailyDirect Matin onLe Monde printing presses.Le Journal du Dimanche, owned by billionaireArnaud Lagardère, another close associate of Sarkozy, announced that it would change printers. Finally,Les Échos, owned by billionaireBernard Arnault, also a personal friend of the president, terminated its contract with the printing plant owned byLe Monde. According to Éric Fottorino, "power was trying to suffocate us through industrial means."
During the same period, an investigation published byLe Monde highlighted the central role of the bankBNP Paribas in French crony capitalism, repeatedly citing its CEO,Michel Pébereau. This episode led BNP Paribas, despite beingLe Monde's long-standing bank, to refuse to assist the newspaper while it was in severe financial difficulty. Fottorino later reflected that it was probably ill-timed, while negotiating the newspaper's future, to antagonize someone who held part of the solution, asking whether displeasing powerful actors condemned the paper to decline, while concluding that it was too late to turn back.[65]
This bid prompted a meeting between President Nicolas Sarkozy and Éric Fottorino on 9 June 2010. The head of state warned that if the Bergé–Pigasse–Niel option were chosen, the state would forgo contributing €20 million to rescue the newspaper's printing operations.[67][68]
At the end of June, the Bergé–Pigasse–Niel offer was overwhelmingly supported by employee shareholders. Orange andLe Nouvel Observateur withdrew their bids, and the choice was validated by a vote of the supervisory board on 28 June 2010 (11 votes in favor and 9 abstentions).[69]
On 2 November 2010, the acquisition of the newspaper by the trio was formally approved. The Le Monde Group then came under the control of the holding companyLe Monde libre [fr], which held 64 percent of the capital and was owned by the three businessmen along with the Spanish media groupPrisa.[70]
The circumstances surrounding the sale were criticized in an article published in June 2011 byLe Monde diplomatique, entitledComment « Le Monde » fut vendu.[71]
On 14 September 2010,Le Monde announced that it had filed a complaint against unknown persons for violation of the protection of journalists' sources, after French intelligence services were used by the executive branch to identify the source of a newsroom journalist.Bernard Squarcini, head of theDirection centrale du renseignement intérieur (DCRI), acknowledged that he had ordered an intelligence inquiry into leaks related to theBettencourt affair, an action widely viewed as infringing press freedom.
On 15 December 2010, Éric Fottorino was dismissed from his positions as chairman of the management board and publisher ofLe Monde because of disagreements with shareholders. He was replaced as chairman by Louis Dreyfus, and on 7 February 2011,Érik Izraelewicz was appointed editor-in-chief of the group, a choice approved by journalists with 74 percent of the vote. Izraelewicz died suddenly on 27 November 2012, at the age of 58, after a heart attack at the newspaper's headquarters.
After an interim period led byAlain Frachon,Natalie Nougayrède was proposed on 1 March 2013 by the three main shareholders and became editor ofLe Monde following a positive vote by the newsroom. Her mandate, alongside Louis Dreyfus, was to place the digital transformation at the center of their leadership.[72]
This quickly led to tensions with the newsroom. In February 2014, protests erupted following the announcement of a mobility plan that involved shifting around fifty positions toward digital operations and eliminating several sections. On 6 May 2014, seven members of the editorial management resigned, citing major dysfunctions and a lack of trust and communication with editorial leadership. Lacking support from shareholders, Natalie Nougayrède resigned on 14 May 2014, stating that she no longer had the means to fully and calmly perform her duties.
A new organizational structure was introduced on 28 May 2014.Gilles van Kote [fr] was appointed interim director by the Bergé–Niel–Pigasse trio, pending a vote by the journalists' association, whileJérôme Fenoglio became head of the editorial staff.
On 6 October 2014,Le Monde launched a new layout described by its chief executive Louis Dreyfus as clearer and more open.
On 30 June 2015, following the resignation of Gilles van Kote and a second vote by the journalists' association, Jérôme Fenoglio became director of the daily newspaper, whileLuc Bronner [fr] was appointed editor-in-chief.
The fact-checking sectionLes Décodeurs [fr] was created on 10 March 2014, and on 1 February 2017, its journalists launched a search engine known as Décodex.
Following the death ofPierre Bergé in September 2017,Xavier Niel andMatthieu Pigasse each bought half of his shares in Le Monde libre, which then held 72.5 percent of the Le Monde Group.[73]
On 25 October 2018, Matthieu Pigasse sold 49 percent of his stake in the company Le Nouveau Monde to Czech billionaireDaniel Křetínský, owner ofCzech Media Invest [fr] and the weeklyMarianne, as well as part of the magazine division of theLagardère Group. This move raised concerns within the newspaper's independence pole, which described the operation as abrupt, and generated tensions with Xavier Niel.
In March 2019, theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded the publishing company a grant ofUS$2,126,790 over three years forLe Monde Afrique,[74][75] in order to support its coverage of development andglobal health in Africa and to inform and engage audiences through high-quality journalism.[74]
The foundation was already a partner ofLe Monde Afrique, having supported the project since its creation in 2015, and had previously awarded grants in this context.[76][77][78]
In July of the same year,Matthieu Pigasse andDaniel Křetínský negotiated the purchase of the shares held by the Spanish groupPrisa, which owned 20 percent of the Le Monde Group, triggering renewed tensions withXavier Niel. Discussions also raised the possibility that Křetínský could take control of the holding company Le Nouveau Monde. These developments caused concern within the newsroom, which called for the preservation of editorial independence in a collective op-ed published inLe Monde.[79]
The two main shareholders, Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse, agreed to sign the approval rights mechanism requested by the newsroom.
Negotiations between Le Nouveau Monde and Prisa ultimately failed, and the approval rights granted the newspaper's independence pole the power to block changes in shareholder control.[80][81]
At the beginning of 2020, all departments of the Le Monde Group moved into a new headquarters designed by the Norwegian architectural firmSnøhetta. The building is located onAvenue Pierre-Mendès-France [fr], in theParis Rive Gauche district of the 13th arrondissement of Paris, overlooking the railway tracks ofGare d'Austerlitz.[82]
In July 2020, the group announced that it had recorded a net profit of €2.6 million in 2019 on revenue of €302.7 million, driven by strong growth in its digital subscriber base.[83] For the third consecutive year, the group posted a positive financial result.[84] However, the first half of 2020, marked by theCOVID-19 pandemic in France, was expected to reduce group revenue by €18 million, with a 50 percent drop in advertising income.[85]
According to the magazineMarianne, the newsroom ofLe Monde, like other left-leaning newspapers, was divided between two camps described asmulticulturalists andrepublican universalists. The divide was said to focus less on economic and political models, such asclass struggle versussocial democracy, and more on social issues includingfeminism, minorities, andIslam.[86] The emergence of the#MeToo movement against harassment was described as triggering a major internal crisis at the newspaper, and an article by Zineb Dryef devoted toAssa Traoré also prompted internal criticism. Luc Bronner, then editor-in-chief, rejected accusations that the newspaper was being overly accommodating on these issues.[87]
In April 2021,Le Monde announced the creation of an endowment fund intended to ensure the group's long-term capital independence.[88]
The newspaper's new headquarters in 2021, located at 67–69 Avenue Pierre-Mendès-France.
On 1 January 2022, management announced a 20-cent increase in the newsstand price, citing rising production costs, particularly the price of paper.[89]
The daily also faced the departure of its two most prominent cartoonists.Plantu, who had worked for the newspaper since 1 October 1972, ended his career atLe Monde in March 2021 after 50 years, leaving the front-page space to colleagues from theCartooning for Peace collective. In January 2021, the newspaper's managing editorCaroline Monnot [fr] issued an apology for publishing a cartoon byXavier Gorce [fr] that could be interpreted as minimizing the seriousness ofincest and using inappropriate language with regard to victims andtransgender people.[90] After 18 years of collaboration, Gorce announced his departure from the newspaper, stating that "freedom is not negotiable" and criticizing pressure from social media activists.[91][92]
In September 2022, the newspaper's management decided to remove from publication an opinion column by researcher Paul-Max Morin entitled "Réduire la colonisation en Algérie à une 'histoire d'amour' parachève la droitisation de Macron sur la question mémorielle" following protests from theÉlysée Palace.[93][94][95]According to the Élysée, the article contained a factual error resulting from a misinterpretation of remarks made by the President of France in Algiers.
In October 2024, the supervisory board was renewed, with Aline Sylla-Walbaum appointed as chair. A former chief of staff toFrançois Fillon, she is employed by Chaumet, owned byBernard Arnault, and also serves as a board member ofUnibail-Rodamco-Westfield, a company linked toXavier Niel, the main shareholder ofLe Monde and Arnault's son-in-law. She was joined on the board by Cécile Cabanis, also employed by Xavier Niel through Unibail.[97]
In January 2025,Le Monde announced its decision to leave theX social network, citing the "intensification of activism" byElon Musk and the "growing toxicity of exchanges" on the platform.[98] The newsroom emphasized that this decision, though difficult, was part of an effort to preserve editorial independence and to avoid contributing to an environment harmful to public debate.[99]
Le Monde is distinctive in that it is dated one day ahead of its actual publication date. In France, it is the only daily newspaper, together withPrésent, that intended to retain this formula as of 2013. Its issue of the day is thus available from around 1:00 p.m. in Paris,Lyon, andToulouse[100] (as well as in printable digital format), and in the evening in a few major French cities, and everywhere else the following day, including internationally.
For example, an edition printed on Friday the 1st is dated Saturday the 2nd.
Although it is still commonly referred to as an "evening daily",Le Monde has in practice become a midday newspaper. Editorial deadlines take place in the morning at10:30 a.m., making it possible to include news that breaks overnight or early in the morning, unlike most competing newspapers, which close their editions during the night.
As of 18 December 2025[update], the newspaper is structured as follows:
Front page: consisting of an opinion column, very often accompanied by a current-affairs photograph; the editorial of the day in the center; a cartoon byPlantu at the bottom of the page; and other short items developed later in the paper;
Page two: notably featuring the daily press cartoon by Xavier Gorce;
Page three: named for its position, this page is devoted to an in-depth investigation of a specific topic, whether linked to recent events or to longer-term investigative reporting. A large space is devoted to images;
Planet: one to two pages devoted to environmental news;
International, International & Europe: four to five pages devoted to international and European news;
France: three to four pages devoted to French news, primarily political;
Economy: two to three pages devoted to economic, financial, and industrial news;
Analysis: three to four pages reserved for debates (op-eds, opinion columns, public reactions, open letters, etc.) or for in-depth analysis of a current issue;
Culture: two to three pages devoted to French and international cultural news. The Wednesday issue focuses on new film releases;
& You: one page devoted to practical, everyday life;
Obituaries: death notices, tributes, marriages, and births;
Weather & games: the weather section has no longer appeared in print since 6 October 2014 following the launch of a new formula; it is available online on the newspaper's website;
Final page (generally page 28): devoted to readers' letters and an opinion column by a public figure.
Each issue ofLe Monde includes a counter-investigation, which may concern any section of the newspaper.
While the overall structure of the newspaper usually remains almost identical from one day to the next, the editorial staff may devote additional pages to a given topic in response to major news events. For example, during its coverage of theearthquake of March 2011 in Japan, the Planet section occupied nearly ten pages in some issues.
Since 2009,Le Monde has designated a "Personality of the Year". Recipients have included Brazilian presidentLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2009 andJulian Assange in 2010.
For just over twenty years (2000–2021),Le Monde offered subscribers a PDF version of the print newspaper. In spring 2021, it informed subscribers that the PDF version was being discontinued due to fraud and unauthorized content sharing.[101]
Almost all of the newspaper's textual content is freely accessible on the website every day in the early afternoon. Articles less than three days old are also freely available, although without the newspaper's photographic and infographic material. Additional sources are made available to readers, including news agency dispatches and blog posts.
Access to the archives is limited for subscribers to the newspaper, who are entitled to consult up to 25 archive articles per month free of charge; beyond that limit, archive access is paid. Since April 2002, it has been possible to subscribe to the paid section of the website, providing access to agency dispatches (AFP,AP, andReuters), a database of election results updated since 1969, and multimedia content, including nearly one millionLe Monde articles online, corresponding to the complete daily newspaper since 1987.
In addition, since September 2006,Le Monde has launched a new service, theElectronic Newspaper.[103] This service makes it possible to readLe Monde online while benefiting from features specific to digital formats, such as page-flipping, digital zoom, and search functions. In July 2008, and again in March 2012, the website's homepage was completely redesigned.
The electronic edition of the newspaper was first created in 1994. It was developed internally and distributed on electronic networks through an agreement withCompuServe and Edelweb, a French company specializing in online security. Theweb version was launched on 19 December 1995, 51 years after the first print issue, and was produced by a team of three journalists recruited byMichel Colonna d'Istria [fr].[104]
Since 1999, the website has been published by the company Le Monde interactif, a majority-owned subsidiary ofLe Monde with a 34% stake held byLagardère. Le Monde interactif was initially chaired by Alain Giraudo, then byBruno Patino [fr], following the failure of the Tout.lemonde.fr portal launched in 2000. The CEO of Le Monde interactif was subsequentlyPhilippe Jannet [fr], who was replaced in 2012 by Isabelle André.[105]
Les Décodeurs is a section of theLe Mondewebsite, created on 10 March 2014. According to a book byRémy Rieffel [fr] and Jean-Baptiste Legavre, professors of information and communication sciences at Paris II Panthéon-Assas University and at theInstitut français de presse, the success of sections such asLes Décodeurs atLe Monde or "Désintox" atLibération[106] is the result of "the valorization within newsrooms of fact-checking, intended to control the accuracy of statements made by politicians".[106]
It is "a well-deserved success", according to journalist Fidel Navamuel, editor of the website "Les Outils du Web".[107] Around ten journalists work in this section, which was formally created in 2014 after operating for three years as a blog.[108]
According to Louis Dreyfus, "it is Facebook that enabled us to finance part of the growth of our teams, while respecting the integrity of the content".[111]
This partnership was strengthened in 2019, with Facebook becoming the newspaper's leading external driver of subscriptions.[111]
On 1 February 2017, three years after its creation,Les Décodeurs launched "Décodex", asearch engine accessible via its website or through abrowser extension. It is presented as "a tool for verifying information intended for teachers (and others)". Décodex relies on a database of hundreds of websites, mainly French but also English, American, and German. Its primary purpose is to help distinguish reliable sources from misleading, conspiratorial, or highly biased websites.[112]
Since the early 2000s,lemonde.fr allowed its subscribers to publish blogs hosted on the website. On 10 April 2019, the newspaper announced that this service would end on 5 June of the same year.[113][114] Posts from the 400 subscriber blogs hosted byLe Monde were preserved by theBibliothèque nationale de France, with some blogs also archived by theGerman National Library.[115]
On 13 November 2008,Le Monde launched one of the first news applications for smartphones and tablets, initially for theiPhone andiPad. The application was available free of charge via the newly createdApp Store.[116][117] It was downloaded more than 100,000 times within fifteen days[118] and 500,000 times within six months.[119]
In 2011, the application "Le Monde: l'info en continu" was released onAndroid.[120]
Since 15 September 2016,Le Monde, along with seven other French newspaper publishers (Paris Match,Vice,L'Équipe,Melty,Cosmopolitan,Konbini, and Tastemade), has published daily exclusive content and a distinctive visual experience on Discover, the media section of theSnapchat application.[122]
Le Monde éco & entreprise, a daily supplement (since May 2013), published in 8 to 12 pages. Previously a weekly supplement, it appeared with the Tuesday-dated edition of the newspaper. TitledLe Monde économie until April 2012, it then changed its name to the current one while keeping the same publication day and frequency (except for several weeks during summer and Christmas). This supplement contained feature stories, analyses, and interviews devoted to the economy, markets, and business life. From March 2019,Le Monde returned to the original format by reintegrating the Economy pages into the main section, marking the end of eight years of development of the supplement with its own front page.[123]
Le Monde Science & Médecine, published as a supplement to the Wednesday-dated edition of the daily (except in August and at Christmas), comprising 8 pages. Until May 2013, the supplement was titledLe Monde science&techno and appeared with the "Weekend" edition dated Saturday;
Le Monde des livres, founded in 1967 byJacqueline Piatier [fr],[124] published as a supplement to the Friday-dated edition of the daily (except in August and at Christmas), comprising 8 to 10 pages. It covers publishing news and reviews of major new releases across all genres, from classical literature to graphic novels;
Le Monde Idées (formerlyLe Monde culture&idées), published as a supplement to the Saturday-dated "Weekend" edition of the daily, comprising 8 pages. From March 2019, this supplement was discontinued and replaced by "Ideas" pages integrated into the main section;
M, le magazine du Monde [fr] (formerlyLe Monde 2 andLe Monde magazine), published as a supplement to the Saturday-dated edition of the daily. It features lifestyle news, fashion and beauty, design, culture, and related topics.
Le Monde Argent, focusing on financial news (loans, savings, investments, real estate, borrowing). The supplement becameLe Monde argent & patrimoine in November 2012, with a variable monthly publication date, then adopted its current name from February 2014;
Le Monde Université et Grandes Écoles, analyzing education news for parents, teachers, and students. The supplement took the nameLe Monde universités & grandes écoles in May 2012 and appears as a supplement to the Thursday-dated edition of the daily.
The daily newspaper also publishes more than 30 occasional special supplements each year, includingLe Monde des vins,Europa (in collaboration with non-French newspapers), and supplements devoted to major cultural events (Avignon Festival, Lyon Biennale, etc.).
Le Monde géopolitique, a former supplement to the Thursday-dated edition of the daily, usually comprising 8 pages. Initially titledLe Monde géo&politique, it was first published with the Sunday-dated edition and, from May 2013, with the Thursday-dated edition, along with a name change in September 2013. Publication of the supplement ceased with the issue dated 19 December 2013. Four geopolitics pages were reintegrated into the main section of the Sunday–Monday-dated edition ofLe Monde from late 2015;
Le Monde Sports (formerlyLe Monde sport&forme), published as a supplement to the Saturday-dated "Weekend" edition and comprising 8 pages. Publication of this supplement permanently ceased on 18 March 2017, with two sports pages reintegrated into the main section of the Saturday-dated issue;
Le Monde télévisions, published as a supplement to the Sunday-dated edition of the daily, comprising 28 or 32 pages. It covered news across all screens (television and web), as well as a selection of television and radio programs for the coming week. From 6 October 2014, this supplement was discontinued in favor of a daily page in the main section of the newspaper and three pages in the Sunday–Monday-dated edition.
The most significant articles published inLe Monde and its supplements are also collected and published in various formats:
Le Monde Sélection hebdomadaire (since 1948), dated Saturday, a 12-page publication featuring the best articles from the previous week, sold exclusively by subscription;
Le Monde mensuel, a selection of the best articles from the previous month, published from February 2010 to January 2014;
Dossiers et Documents [fr], a monthly publication issued from 1973 to September 2013, aimed at high school and university students, compiling one or two dossiers per issue on economic, historical, political, or social topics.
ThePôle d'Indépendance du Monde brings together several organizations, including the Société des rédacteurs du Monde (editors' society), the Société des lecteurs du Monde (readers' society), the Société des employés du Monde (employees' society), the Société des personnels deCourrier international, the staff association ofL'Obs, and the association of minority shareholders.
To avoidshareholder pressure on journalists, as can occur in some media outlets,[126][127]Le Monde has adopted specific governance safeguards.
Under the newspaper's statutes, the appointment of the editor-in-chief must be approved by at least 60% of the journalists on staff.
Since 2017, following amendments toLe Monde statutes, thePôle d'Indépendance du Monde has held agolden share protecting its statutory rights regardless of its capital share. Minority shareholders therefore have the power to block certain decisions by majority shareholders.
In 2020, Xavier Niel, one of the shareholders of theLe Monde Libre holding, placed all of his shares into a special endowment fund. This fund is legally inalienable. However, the researcherJulia Cagé, who heads the Société des lecteurs du Monde, has pointed out weaknesses in the governance of the fund, which remains under the control of Xavier Niel and his heirs.[128][129]
The growing number of employees directly linked to Xavier Niel on the supervisory board has also raised concerns about independence, especially as some have close ties to the political sphere.[130]
Each year, the Le Monde Group shares its financial statements (balance sheet and income statement) withLe Monde readers.[131] In 2021, the group's revenue amounted to €301 million.
Subscriptions are currently the newspaper's main source of revenue.
The newsroom ofLe Monde employs 520 journalists on permanent contracts,[132] not including the staffs of other Le Monde Group publications (L'Obs,Télérama, orLa Vie).
Journalists belong to a union, the Société des rédacteurs du Monde.[133]
Le Monde also benefits from French press subsidies. From 2003 to 2010, it received €2.95 million from the press modernization fund.[134] In 2010, it was the second French daily newspaper receiving the most state subsidies, with €17 million in direct aid. In 2011 and 2012, it ranked first, with €16.9 million and €18.6 million respectively.[135]
According to the OJD, in 2003 just over half of subscribers to the online edition were print subscribers using their digital access rights:
January 2003: 30,597
December 2003: 44,687
In 2007, the newspaper's readership reached 1,895,000 readers (EPIQ 2006–2007–LNM), 56% of whom belonged to higher socio-professional categories.
In 2020, circulation reached 393,109 copies per issue, an increase of 20.75%.[145]
Until the 2000s,Le Monde was the most widely circulated French newspaper abroad, with daily foreign circulation of around 40,000 copies, falling to 26,000 copies in 2012.
As of 31 October 2023,Le Monde had 592,000 subscribers, including 517,000 digital-only subscribers.[146]
In 1976, Michel Legris publishedLe Monde tel qu'il est [fr]. According to this formerLe Monde journalist (1956–1972), the newspaper's editorial line had shifted to the left, notably by supportingFrançois Mitterrand, and by adopting a conciliatory stance towardMao Zedong's China.[147]
TheMitrokhin Archive—documents provided byVasili Mitrokhin, a formerKGB agent—also mentionLe Monde reporting on theVietnam War, asserting that in July 1975 the newspaper used a "distorted account" of a speech by Russian dissidentAleksandr Solzhenitsyn in the United States in order to "defame him by portraying him as a Nazi sympathizer".[148] Although there was no evidence that the account had been introduced by a KGB agent, it was, according to Mitrokhin's book, "entirely consistent with the disinformation the KGB sought to spread in the Western press".[148]
In January 1977,Le Monde published apetition and a statement written byGabriel Matzneff in support of defendants in a pedophilia case (theVersailles affair [fr]). In May of the same year, it also published anopen letter "calling for the revision of certain legislative texts governing relations between adults and minors".[149]
In September 1998, Érik Izraelewicz, then editor-in-chief ofLe Monde and previously responsible for its economic coverage, published an article in the journalRevue des sciences humaines [fr]. He explained how social news, which had previously taken precedence atLe Monde, was gradually merged with economic news as the latter gained prominence, and how corporate news progressively came to dominate the economic and social section.[150]Serge Halimi, director ofLe Monde diplomatique, added ironically in his political essayLe Grand Bond en arrière (2004; reissued in 2006 and 2012): "Then an 'business' supplement is created (Le Monde des affaires). Finally, it will regularly beLe Monde Argent."
In 1999, the newspaper's editorial staff "chose intervention" inKosovo, as acknowledged by Edwy Plenel. Journalists Pierre Rimbert and Serge Halimi accused the paper of contributing todisinformation by uncritically relaying accusations made by Western governments againstSerbia. The newspaper devoted several front pages toOperation Horseshoe (a purported plan for ethnic cleansing by Serbia), which was in fact an invention of the German government intended to justifyNATO's entry into the war.[151]
In March 2021,Le Monde was accused by the director of the magazineLe Point,Franz-Olivier Giesbert, of having, two decades earlier under the editorship of Edwy Plenel, "conducted a disgraceful campaign" againstDominique Baudis, who was "falsely accused of sexual crimes before dying shortly afterward of advanced cancer". The accusation referred to an article written by one of Plenel's associates,Jean-Paul Besset, in which "red masses and sadomasochistic parties" were mentioned.[152]
In the spring of 2003, the false nature of testimonies given before the investigating judge and broadcast on television news against Dominique Baudis—who died eleven years later, in 2014—was quickly established. The emotion generated by the so-calledAlègre affair, named after one of its protagonists, was later used in 2010, during the Bettencourt affair, by the government against the former editor-in-chief ofLe Monde,[153] who had since become a co-founder of the investigative journalism websiteMediapart.
On 27 September 2003, the mediator ofLe Monde published an assessment of the newspaper's coverage of the affair, recalling that it had "avoided falling into certain traps, in particular, unlike other media outlets, the false testimony of the mythomaniac transvestite Djamel". Although "aware for a long time that Dominique Baudis's name was mentioned in police reports", the newspaper stated that it had "waited, before reporting it, until he agreed to speak and respond in our pages", and that it had consistently "reported on the counterattacks" by the former mayor of Toulouse, "to the point of being the first to reveal his denunciation of a 'political conspiracy'". The newspaper nevertheless expressed regret over "the publication of certain excerpts from investigative records, a report from the outskirts of Toulouse whose content was contradicted by the courts, and the uncorroborated account of the late testimony of a prostitute".[154]
The report from the outskirts of Toulouse, devoted to the search of a house by gendarmes and signed by Nicolas Fichot and Jean-Paul Besset, was dated 16 June 2003.[155] This was three weeks after a male prostitute questioned by gendarmes had testified on 22 May 2003, filmed from behind under the pseudonym Djamel, on TF1's 8 p.m. news, about sadomasochistic parties, claiming that there had been "deaths".[156] Three days later, on 25 May 2003, he claimed on France 2's 8 p.m. news that he had seen, at these gatherings, a young girl who had disappeared in the region.[157]
The role of television and of the regional dailyLa Dépêche du Midi, which had launched a press campaign starting on 1 April 2003 on the basis of statements by two prostitutes—triggering the media frenzy that affected Dominique Baudis—was later denounced in the television filmNotable, donc coupable [fr], broadcast in November 2016.[158] The film was adapted from the bookLe Bûcher de Toulouse [fr] byMarie-France Etchegoin [fr] andMatthieu Aron [fr], journalists atL'Obs and France Info.[159]
In May 2011, irritated by the content of an article inLe Monde devoted to François Mitterrand and written by historianFrançois Cusset, shareholder Pierre Bergé said that he "regretted" having invested in the daily newspaper.[160]
In June 2011, the monthlyLe Monde diplomatique published an article by journalist Pierre Rimbert criticizing the gradual erosion of editorial independence atLe Monde. The article notably quoted a statement by billionaire andLe Monde shareholderXavier Niel: "When journalists piss me off, I buy a stake in their paper and then they leave me alone".[161]
In July 2012,Le Monde diplomatique reported remarks by Éric Fottorino, former director ofLe Monde, who stated: "Le Monde has joined the ranks of those renowned titles whose fate is now tied to capital and the goodwill of industrial or financial captains". Serge Halimi, director ofLe Monde diplomatique, added ironically that "having been an advocate of "happy globalization," Le Monde has become its prey".[162]
InUn Monde à part (2013), Jean-Marie Colombani also criticized the newspaper's 'evolution as a result of its new shareholders, arguing that it was no longer a "journal run by journalists", but rather "engaged on the left simply by virtue of its ownership" (Pierre Bergé, Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse). Because of this same ownership structure, the former editor stated that the newspaper "is no longer independent of economic power".[163]
Journalists at the daily have also been criticized for excessive politicization.Adam Nossiter [fr] ofThe New York Times describedLe Monde as "frenetic toward Nicolas Sarkozy and lacking distance with respect to the National Front".[164]
In 2013, the media watchdog association Acrimed accusedLe Monde of participating in the near-unanimous support of French media for European austerity policies,[165] of failing to review certain widely successful books critical of French journalism,[166] and of using its brand image to sell products unrelated to journalism.[167]
Although the newspaper's management has denied these accusations,[168] the neutrality ofLe Monde's coverage of candidates in the French presidential election has been questioned by Acrimed andArrêt sur images, which denounced an unacknowledged bias in favor ofEmmanuel Macron.[169][170]
In October 2019, the newspaper's website mistakenly announced the death ofBernard Tapie. The article was quickly withdrawn.[171]
On 10 April 2012,Le Monde ran a front-page headline stating that "Marine Le Pen comes out on top among 18–24-year-olds", based on a survey by theCSA Institute [fr] conducted from 12 to 18 March 2012. In that poll, "the subsample of 18–24-year-olds included fewer than 200 people", whichLe Monde did not disclose to its readers, according to theCommission des sondages [fr].[172]
Other polling institutes produced different results regarding young voters' intentions. For all other polls during the2012 French presidential election,Le Monde partnered withIpsos. Its poll dated 10 April 2012 did not yet show an increase for Marine Le Pen, who then received 15 percent of voting intentions, compared with 16 percent two weeks earlier.[173] Marine Le Pen ultimately obtained 18 percent of the votes among 18–24-year-olds in the first round,[174] almost the same proportion as in the overall electorate (17.90 percent).
Les Décodeurs have prompted questions and criticism. JournalistVincent Glad [fr] considers the intentions laudable but highlights the difficulty of expressing an "impartial and transparent" judgment.[175][176]
Daniel Schneidermann also argued inLibération that, in this role,Le Monde is "judge and party." He further fears that the ranking has little effect on readers, as it would mainly be useful to those already convinced, and criticizes its tendency to favor professional media outlets, citingValeurs actuelles as an example—then rated green by Décodex (later downgraded to orange).[177]
In 2021,Le Monde was heavily criticized by scientists and other media outlets after publishing a summer feature perceived as overly sympathetic toAnthroposophy and itspseudoscientific tenets.[178][179]
During the2022 FIFA World Cup, an editorial in the newspaper denounced what it described as "last-minute accusations" against host countryQatar.[180] Critics noted that concerns about Qatar andFIFA had been raised since the tournament was awarded more than a decade earlier.
On 2 December 2023, the government ofBurkina Faso suspendedLe Monde from "all distribution channels" following the publication of an article on a deadly attack in the north of the country carried out by the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM). The newspaper was reinstated and then suspended again in April 2024, with its correspondent expelled, after publishing an article alleging massacres of civilians by the national army.[181]
In January 2024, controversy arose within the newsroom following the appointment ofRayan Nezzar [fr], partner of political editor Ivanne Trippenbach, to the cabinet of Prime MinisterGabriel Attal. Several journalists raised concerns about a potentialconflict of interest, prompting the Société des rédacteurs du Monde to refer the matter to the ethics committee of the Le Monde Group. Trippenbach subsequently stepped down from her position and moved to the special correspondents' desk.[182]
In December 2024, an investigation byLe Figaro journalistEugénie Bastié alleged internal unease atLe Monde over its coverage of Israeli policy and the Palestinian question.Le Monde removed internal displays referenced in the article, stating they "may have shocked" readers.[183]
A subsequent counter-investigation byOff Investigation claimed that several assertions in theFigaro article were false or exaggerated.[184]Le Monde also criticized the use of anonymous sources to undermine a competing outlet widely regarded by some scholars as France's newspaper of record.[185][186]
In November 2009,Le Monde and its subsidiaryLe Monde Interactif were each fined €1,500 by the Paris Criminal Court for defaming Socialist MPJulien Dray.[188] The 17th chamber of the Paris Tribunal de grande instance criticized the journalist for using information fromTracfin relating to an investigation into the MP, which gave it "an appearance of credibility," without warning readers of the necessary caution at that stage of the investigation; and for having "failed to exercise due care" by not giving Mr. Dray the opportunity to respond, and by not recalling the "unilateral and non-adversarial" nature of the Tracfin note. Julien Dray ultimately received only a formal warning.[189]
In February 2014,Le Monde was definitively convicted by the Spanish courts and ordered to compensate two football clubs for infringement of the right to honor. The newspaper was ordered to pay €300,000 in damages toReal Madrid and €15,000 toFC Barcelona following an article accusing players of doping without evidence.[191] In rejectingLe Monde's appeal in the case involving FC Barcelona, theSupreme Court of Spain ruled in 2011 that "the information published was not truthful, the newspaper having used inconsistent and uncorroborated data, and the journalist having insufficiently verified his sources in a case whose seriousness would have plunged the club into disrepute."[192]
Le Monde was convicted on 7 October 2016, of defamation after attributing to actorJohn Malkovich a hidden Swiss bank account in a subsidiary ofHSBC.[193] This conviction was upheld on 24 May 2017, by the Paris Court of Appeal.[194] JournalistsGérard Davet andFabrice Lhomme were each fined €1,500, and the publication director €1,000. All three were jointly ordered to pay €10,000 in damages to John Malkovich.
On 17 December 2019,Le Monde and journalist Adrien Senecat were convicted by the Paris Tribunal de grande instance of public defamation againstOlivier Berruyer [fr], founder and editor of the blogles-crises.fr, and ordered to pay €1,500 in damages. On the same day, Samuel Laurent—then head of theLes Décodeurs section atLe Monde—was convicted for a defamatory tweet against Olivier Berruyer.[195]
In June 2023,Le Monde was convicted by theParis Commercial Court ofunfair competition by disparagement againstFranceSoir [fr] and ordered to pay €25,000 in damages.[196] The commercial judge held that "the criticism byLe Monde againstFrance-Soir [...] is likely to cause serious harm to its business model [...] which runs counter to free competition and freedom of trade."Le Monde appealed the decision, viewing it as "a serious and disproportionate infringement on freedom of criticism." An analysis byCheckNews ofLibération noted that the procedure was based on commercial law and was applicable only between entities in a potential competitive situation withFrance-Soir due to the "distribution of information via their websites."[197]
Le Monde is blocked in China, including its digital edition.
In 2009, an issue ofLe Monde was banned from sale inMorocco because it contained a poll on the popularity of KingMohammed VI.[198]
In 2010, an issue ofLe Monde was blocked in Morocco after publishingWikiLeaks revelations deemed defamatory by the Moroccan authorities, concerning corruption in the country and implicating individuals close to the king.[199]
Le Monde au Bain Turc (after Ingres) is a 1973 lithograph by the Peruvian painterHerman Braun-Vega. In this work, the artist juxtaposes the conviviality of the scene inThe Turkish Bath painted byJean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres with the harsher reality of current events surrounding theVietnam War, as reported on the front page ofLe Monde dated 26 January 1973.[200][201]
^His 1994 bookUn temps de chien recalls the Rainbow Warrior affair, the Irish of Vincennes affair, the Carrefour du développement affair, theUrba affair, thePechiney-Triangle affair [fr], among others.
^For some supplements whose names use an ampersand,Le Monde adopts a distinctive typographic style, without spaces around the ampersand in the specific part of the supplement title:éco&entreprise,science&médecine,culture&idées,sport&forme,argent&patrimoine. The case of the supplementuniversités & grandes écoles is particular: its name is printed on two lines, with a space after the ampersand. Finally, the supplement formerly calledgéo&politique was later renamedgéopolitique.
^"Le Monde" [Le Monde].Courrier international. Retrieved16 December 2025.
^Olivier Perrin (27 January 2009)."« Le Monde » fait sa toilette" ["Le Monde" undergoes a makeover].Le Temps. Retrieved16 December 2025.
^Éric Fottorino (14 November 2010). "Écrire une nouvelle page" [Writing a new page].Le Monde (in French). No. 20460. p. 19.
^Patrick Eveno (13 October 2010)."Le Monde, un journal en péril ?" [Le Monde, a newspaper in danger?].La Revue des médias. Institut national de l'audiovisuel. Retrieved16 December 2025.
^"Le Monde" [Le Monde].Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved16 December 2025.
^"France profile – Media" [France profile – Media].BBC News. 25 April 2017. Retrieved16 December 2025.
^"Le Monde" [Le Monde].Radio France. 15 May 2009. Retrieved16 December 2025.
^Piet, Grégory; Wintgens, Sophie; Stans, David (2010).La guerre à Gaza, de l'analyse du discours médiatique à l'analyse politologique : l'état et les relations internationales en question [The war in Gaza, from media discourse analysis to political science analysis: the state and international relations in question] (in French). Bern: Peter Lang. p. 25.
^Collectif (2002).Le guide de la presse [The Press Guide] (in French). Mâcon: Alphom. pp. 108–110.ISBN2-9508627-1-3.
^Eveno 1996, p. 53. sfn error: no target: CITEREFEveno1996 (help)
^abEveno 2001, p. 24. sfn error: no target: CITEREFEveno2001 (help)
^abcEveno 2004, p. 33. sfn error: no target: CITEREFEveno2004 (help)
^Annie Finkeldei (1993).Histoire et idéologie du journal Le Monde [History and Ideology of the Newspaper Le Monde] (in French). Verlag Shaker. p. 61.
^Jacques Thibau (1978).Le Monde : Histoire d'un journal, un journal dans l'Histoire [Le Monde: History of a Newspaper, a Newspaper in History] (in French). J.-C. Simoën. p. 239.
^Laurent Martin.La presse écrite en France au XXe siècle [The Written Press in France in the 20th Century] (in French). Le Livre de poche.
^Jacques Thibau (1996).Le Monde : 1944–1996 (in French). Paris: Plon. p. 195.ISBN2-259-18299-2.
^Anne Mathieu (1 November 2004)."Jean-Paul Sartre et la guerre d'Algérie" [Jean-Paul Sartre and the Algerian War].Le Monde diplomatique (in French). Retrieved16 December 2025.
^Jacques Thibau (1996).Le Monde : 1944–1996 (in French). Paris: Plon. pp. 322–323.ISBN2-259-18299-2.
^Eveno 2001, p. 52. sfn error: no target: CITEREFEveno2001 (help)
^Eveno 2001, p. 48. sfn error: no target: CITEREFEveno2001 (help)
^Edwy Plenel (25 February 2003). "" Le Monde est-il un danger pour la démocratie ? "" ["Is 'Le Monde' a danger for democracy?"].Le Monde (in French).
^Jérôme Dupuis (11 September 1997)."Le journaliste et le président" [The journalist and the president].L'Express (in French). Retrieved16 December 2025.
^Patrick Eveno (2008).La presse quotidienne nationale : Fin de partie ou renouveau ? [The national daily press: End of the road or renewal?] (in French). Vuibert. p. 69.
^Catherine Mallaval; Olivier Costemalle (4 April 2003)."« Le Monde » attaque fort" ["Le Monde" strikes back forcefully].Libération (in French). Retrieved16 December 2025.
^Amaury de Rochegonde (14 June 2004)."Le procès de La face cachée du Monde n'aura pas lieu" [The trial over The Hidden Face of Le Monde will not take place].Radio France Internationale (in French). Retrieved16 December 2025.
^"Intervention du président Sarkozy dans la reprise" [President Sarkozy's intervention in the takeover] (in French). 11 June 2010.
^Jean-Luc Porquet (16 June 2010). "Bientôt, la fin d'un Monde" [Soon, the end of a "Monde"].Le Canard enchaîné (in French). p. 1.
^Frédérique Roussel (29 June 2010)."110 millions pour refaire « le Monde »" [110 million euros to remake "Le Monde"].Libération (in French). Retrieved16 December 2025.
^"Le groupe Le Monde" [The Le Monde Group].sdllemonde.fr (in French). Archived fromthe original on 26 November 2013. Retrieved16 December 2025.
^Pierre Rimbert (June 2011). "Comment « Le Monde » fut vendu" [How "Le Monde" was sold].Le Monde diplomatique (in French).
^"Natalie Nougayrède officiellement à la tête du Monde" [Natalie Nougayrède officially at the head of Le Monde].Le Point (in French). 6 March 2013.
^Nicolas Madelaine (9 September 2017). "Le Monde : Xavier Niel et Matthieu Pigasse rachètent les parts de Pierre Bergé" [Le Monde: Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse buy Pierre Bergé's shares].Les Échos (in French).ISSN0153-4831.
^"Bill Gates : « Rien ne compense la générosité défaillante d'un pays riche »" [Bill Gates: "Nothing compensates for the failing generosity of a wealthy country"].Le Monde (in French). 16 September 2017.
^"Qu'est-ce que « Le Monde Afrique » ?" [What is "Le Monde Afrique"?].Le Monde (in French). 15 January 2019.
^"Les milliardaires au chevet de la presse" [Billionaires at the bedside of the press].La Croix (in French). 8 April 2019.
^La rédaction du « Monde » (10 September 2019). "Nous, journalistes du "Monde"..." [We, journalists of "Le Monde"...].Le Monde (in French).
^Fabienne Schmitt; Nicolas Madelaine (16 January 2020). "Prisa n'a pas réussi à vendre sa participation dans « Le Monde »" [Prisa failed to sell its stake in "Le Monde"].Les Échos (in French).
^"Le Monde : Matthieu Pigasse et Xavier Niel signent le droit d'agrément réclamé par les rédactions" [Le Monde: Matthieu Pigasse and Xavier Niel sign the approval rights demanded by the newsroom].Le Monde (in French). 23 September 2019.
^"Le Monde Headquarters" [Le Monde Headquarters].snohetta.com. 17 August 2019. Archived fromthe original on 17 August 2019. Retrieved16 December 2025.
^"Groupe Le Monde : 2019 en croissance et un début 2020 marqué par la crise du Covid-19" [Le Monde Group: growth in 2019 and an early 2020 marked by the Covid-19 crisis].Le Monde (in French). 8 July 2020.
^Agence France-Presse (8 July 2020). "Le groupe Le Monde dans le vert en 2019 mais secoué par le Covid en 2020" [Le Monde Group in the black in 2019 but shaken by Covid in 2020].Le Figaro (in French).
^"Le journal Le Monde quitte à son tour le réseau social X" [The newspaper Le Monde in turn leaves the social network X].Le Figaro (in French). 20 January 2025.
^abJean-Baptiste Legavre; Rémy Rieffel (2017).Le Web dans les rédactions de presse écrite. Processus, appropriations, résistances [The Web in Print Newsrooms: Processes, Appropriations, Resistance] (in French). Éditions L'Harmattan.
^Solange Recorbet (8 April 2020). "Cinq sites pour vous aider à démasquer les fake news" [Five Websites to Help You Unmask Fake News].Le Progrès (in French).
^Enguérand Renault (11 December 2018)."Le Monde réintègre son cahier éco" [Le Monde Reintegrates Its Economy Section].Le Figaro (in French). Retrieved16 December 2025.
^"Décès de Jacqueline Piatier" [Death of Jacqueline Piatier].Libération (in French). 23 January 2001. Retrieved16 December 2025.
^"Le Monde" [Le Monde].ACPM (in French). Retrieved16 December 2025.
^"« Le Monde » réalise une année historique en 2001" [Le Monde Records a Historic Year in 2001].Le Monde (in French). 3 April 2002.
^"La vente en France du « Monde » a progressé de 7,4 % en 1988" [Sales of Le Monde in France Increased by 7.4% in 1988].Le Monde (in French). 15 March 1989.
^"La diffusion du « Monde » en France a augmenté de 1,5 % en 1989" [Circulation of Le Monde in France Increased by 1.5% in 1989].Le Monde (in French). 26 April 1990.
^"La diffusion du « Monde » en France a augmenté de 2,13% en 1990" [Circulation of Le Monde in France Increased by 2.13% in 1990].Le Monde (in French). 5 April 1991.
^"Baisse de la diffusion du « Monde » et de « Libération » en 92" [Decline in Circulation of Le Monde and Libération in 1992].Les Échos (in French). 2 April 1993.
^"Devant Le Figaro" [Ahead of Le Figaro].ACPM (in French). Retrieved16 December 2025.
^Caroline Bonacossa (16 November 2023). "" Nous créons un modèle exemplaire "" [We Are Creating an Exemplary Model].Stratégies (in French) (2195): 8.
^Legris, Michel (1976).Le « Monde » tel qu'il est [Le Monde As It Is] (in French). Plon. pp. 31–32,35–37.
^Izraelewicz, Érik (September–October 1998)."Le journaliste économique" [The Economic Journalist].Sciences Humaines (in French). Retrieved16 December 2025.
^Halimi, Serge; Rimbert, Pierre (1 April 2019)."Le plus gros bobard de la fin du XXe siècle" [The Biggest Hoax of the Late 20th Century].Le Monde diplomatique (in French). Retrieved16 December 2025.
^Giesbert, Franz-Olivier (25 March 2021)."Edwy Plenel, notre grand tartuffe national" [Edwy Plenel, Our Great National Tartuffe].Revue des deux mondes (in French). Retrieved16 December 2025.
^Magnin, Blaise; Lemaire, Frédéric (13 May 2013)."Les éditocrates au secours d'Angela Merkel" [Editorialists to the Rescue of Angela Merkel].Acrimed (in French). Retrieved16 December 2025.
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