Le Figaro

Le Figaro (French: [l(ə) fiɡaʁo] ) is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. The oldest national newspaper in France, Le Figaro is considered a French newspaper of record, along with Le Monde and (to a lesser extent) Libération. Le Figaro is the second-largest national newspaper nationally, after Le Monde. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Beaumarchais (1732–1799): Le Barbier de Séville, La Mère coupable, and the eponymous Le Mariage de Figaro. One of his lines became the paper's motto: "Without the freedom to criticise, there is no flattering praise". It has a centre-right editorial stance, and has published writing by renowned contributors such as Émile Zola, Anatole France, Marcel Proust, François Mauriac, as well as Raymond Aron. The paper is published in Berliner format. Its editorial director has been Alexis Brézet since 2012. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Since 2004, it has been owned by Dassault Group. Other Groupe Figaro publications include Le Figaro Magazine and TV Magazine. Le Figaro is the main sponsor of the yearly Solitaire du Figaro sailing race. History Le Figaro was founded as a satirical weekly in 1826, taking its name and motto from Le Mariage de Figaro, the 1778 play by Pierre Beaumarchais that poked fun at privilege. Its motto, from Figaro's monologue in the play's final act, is "Sans la liberté de blâmer, il n'est point d'éloge flatteur" ("Without the freedom to criticise, there is no flattering praise"). In 1833, editor Nestor Roqueplan fought a duel with a Colonel Gallois, who was offended by an article in Le Figaro, and was wounded but recovered. Albert Wolff, Émile Zola, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, Théophile Gautier, and Jules Arsène Arnaud Claretie were among the paper's early contributors. It was published somewhat irregularly until 1854, when it was taken over by Hippolyte de Villemessant. In 1866, Le Figaro became a daily newspaper. Its first daily edition, that of 16 November 1866, sold 56,000 copies, having highest circulation of any newspaper in France. Its editorial line was royalist. Pauline Savari was among the contributors to the paper at this time. On 20 February 1909 Le Figaro published a manifesto signed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti which initiated the establishment of Futurism in art. On 16 March 1914, Gaston Calmette, the editor of Le Figaro, was assassinated by Henriette Caillaux, the wife of Finance Minister Joseph Caillaux, after he published a letter that cast serious doubt on her husband's integrity. In 1922, Le Figaro was purchased by perfume millionaire François Coty. Abel Faivre did cartoons for the paper. Coty enraged many in March 1929 when he renamed the paper simply Figaro, which it remained until 1933. By the start of World War II, Le Figaro had become France's leading newspaper. After the war, it became the voice of the upper middle class, and continues to maintain a conservative position. In 1975, Le Figaro was bought by Robert Hersant's Socpresse. In 1999, The Carlyle Group obtained a 40% stake in the paper, which it later sold in March 2002. Since March 2004, Le Figaro has been controlled by Serge Dassault, a conservative businessman and politician best known for running the aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation, which he inherited from his father, its founder, Marcel Dassault (1892–1986). Dassault owns 80% of the paper, by way of its media subsidiary Groupe Figaro. Franz-Olivier Giesbert was editorial director of Le Figaro from 1998 to 2000. In 2006, Le Figaro was banned in Egypt and Tunisia for publishing articles allegedly insulting Islam. Le Figaro switched to Berliner format in 2009. The paper has published The New York Times International Weekly on Friday since 2009, an 8-page supplement featuring a selection of articles from The New York Times translated into French. In 2010, Lefigaro.fr created a section called Le Figaro in English, which provides the global English-speaking community with daily original or translated content from Le Figaro's website. The section ended in 2012. In the 2010s, Le Figaro saw future presidential candidate Éric Zemmour's columns garner great interest among readers that would later serve to launch his political career. Logo Editorial stance and controversies Le Figaro has traditionally held a conservative editorial stance, becoming the voice of the French upper and middle classes. The newspaper's ownership by Serge Dassault was a source of controversy in terms of conflict-of-interest, as Dassault also owned a major military supplier and served in political positions from the Union for a Popular Movement party. His son Olivier Dassault served as a member of the French National Assembly. Dassault has remarked in an interview in 2004 on the public radio station France Inter that "newspapers must promulgate healthy ideas" and that "left-wing ideas are not healthy ideas." In February 2012, a general assembly of the newspaper's journalists adopted a motion accusing the paper's managing editor, Étienne Mougeotte, of having made Le Figaro into the "bulletin" of the governing party, the Union for a Popular Movement, of the government and of President Nicolas Sarkozy. They requested more pluralism and "honesty" and accused the paper of one-sided political reporting. Mougeotte had previously said that Le Figaro would do nothing to embarrass the government and the right. Mougeotte publicly replied: "Our editorial line pleases our readers as it is, it works. I don't see why I should change it. [...] We are a right-wing newspaper and we express it clearly, by the way. Our readers know it, our journalists too. There's nothing new to that!" Circulation history In the period of 1995–96, the paper had a circulation of 391,533 copies, behind Le Parisien's 451,159 copies. Le Figaro Group Le Figaro formed the Groupe Figaro (a subsidiary of the Marcel Dassault Industrial Group). The former company, Socpresse, which was dismantled in 2005, officially became Dassault Media (Figaro Group) in 2011. The daily Le Figaro and its supplements The newspaper was accompanied by two daily supplements: Le Figaro Économie, since 1984, printed on salmon-colored paper, and Le Figaro et vous, since 2005, dedicated to culture and lifestyle. Additionally: The Monday edition was accompanied by a tabloid-format supplement, Le Figaro Réussir, as well as four special "Health" pages since February 2010. The Tuesday edition was accompanied by an 8-page supplement, New York Times. The Wednesday edition, in addition to the usual four sections, included the Le Figaro Étudiant section and was accompanied in Île-de-France by a supplement on entertainment and leisure, Le Figaroscope. The Thursday edition was accompanied by an 8-page supplement, Le Figaro Littéraire. The Friday and Saturday editions optionally included more voluminous magazine-type supplements: Le Figaro Magazine, Madame Figaro, and TV Magazine. Other supplements, sections, and titles Le Figaro Patrimoine was a monthly supplement of Le Figaro. Le Figaro Étudiant was a monthly supplement of Le Figaro. F, l'art de vivre du Figaro (formerly Almaviva) was a supplement of Le Figaro published six times a year (September, October, November, March, April, May) since September 2015. Figaro plus was a thematic supplement (sports or others) published irregularly; Le Figaro demain was an irregularly-published supplement; Paris Chic was a section of about thirty pages offering a selection of articles from the "Et vous" section, dedicated to lifestyle and the Figaroscope, aimed at wealthy Chinese visitors in Paris. The Figaro Group relaunched the title Jours de France, specializing in celebrity news and European royal families. It first appeared as a website in 2011, then as a quarterly print magazine from 7 August 2013. Every week, a volume of the "essentials" of the Encyclopædia Universalis was sold as a supplement on Tuesdays, with the first volume being free. This encyclopedia contained 6,000 articles, 17,000 notices, and 200,000 links. Online edition The online newspaper's address has been lefigaro.fr since 1999. In January 2010, lefigaro.fr introduced features reserved for subscribers. Access to archived articles was also made available for a fee. In September 2011, the newspaper launched an online wine magazine. In February 2014, FigaroVox, a platform for debates and ideas, was launched. In 2008, Le Figaro became the leading news site on the Internet according to Internet audience data published by Nielsen Médiamétrie/NetRatings. On 17 November 2011, the site was awarded the title of "Best Mobile Media" for the second time at the 2011 Mobile Internet Trophies. In 2013, it was still ranked as the leading French online press site in France. In November of the same year, it broke the record of 11 million unique visitors on a French news website. On 13 April 2015, Figaro Premium was launched, a paid offer (€9.90 per month initially, increasing to €15; free for newspaper subscribers). It provided access to all articles from Le Figaro and its related magazines in a more comfortable reading format with minimal advertising, available from 10 p.m. the evening before the print daily. At this stage, digital activities represented 25% of the group's revenue and 22% of advertising revenue. Various platforms were simultaneously created: Scan Politique, Scan Sport, Scan TV, Figaro Immobilier, Figaro Jardin, and recently, Scan Éco. The number of digital subscribers grew rapidly. In 2017, Le Figaro had 80,000 digital subscribers, in addition to 70,000 subscribers to both print and digital editions. In 2019, it was among the 50 most visited sites in France and had 130,000 digital subscribers. The milestone of 200,000 website subscribers was reached in November 2020. A study conducted in early 2020 by a cybersecurity company indicated that the personal data of the newspaper's website subscribers had been exposed on an unprotected server. In July 2021, the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty fined Le Figaro €50,000 for installing third-party cookies without users' consent, in violation of the GDPR. FigaroVox FigaroVox is an online section of figaro.fr created in 2014 by Alexis Brézet, a former journalist at Valeurs actuelles (from 1987 to 2000), "holding a very right-wing line", on the advice of Patrick Buisson, a figure associated with Nicolas Sarkozy's shift to the far-right in 2012. FigaroVox was an extension of the "debates and opinions" pages of the print daily on Internet; appearing on the homepage of Figaro's website, FigaroVox articles accentuated the political character of the daily. The journalists contributing to FigaroVox were positioned at the crossroads of the right, practicing Catholicism, and the "new reactionaries". FigaroVox was led by Vincent Trémolet de Villers, who co-authored a book on La Manif pour tous (And France Awoke. An Investigation into the Revolution of Values). It was edited by Alexandre Devecchio, a former journalist for the site Atlantico. Its contributors included Maxime Tandonnet, a former advisor on immigration to Nicolas Sarkozy, and Gilles-William Goldnadel, an attorney for Patrick Buisson. FigaroVox's preferred themes were "the decline of the republican school, poorly controlled immigration, and Islam as the primary threat to national identity". Sociologist Philippe Corcuff considered FigaroVox an "ultraconservative" section. Sociologist Jean-Louis Schlegel of the magazine Esprit described it as a platform for "the right of the right", akin to Causeur or Valeurs actuelles. Political scientist Eszter Petronella suggested that FigaroVox allowed Le Figaro to "balance" the more moderate positions of the print by giving voice to an "identitarian and militant journalism," thereby catering to the needs of all readers. Nolwenn Le Blevennec of Rue89 described it as a "platform for the hard-right of Le Figaro". Information science specialist Aurélie Olivesi noted the proximity between the "polemical site" FigaroVox and the magazine Causeur, with some journalists having worked for both media. According to Causeur, the section opened its doors to authors from both the left and the right. According to Nolwenn Le Blevennec, however, FigaroVox was haunted by an "identitarian obsession," exhibited an ultra-conservative and sovereigntist editorial line, and remained a platform where "one could read the National Front in the text, or link Islam and Daesh". Left-wing figures, such as Gaël Brustier, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and Thomas Guénolé, were invited "sometimes" or more regularly like Laurent Bouvet. Éric Zemmour and Alain Finkielkraut were very appreciated there. According to L'Express, the invited authors included liberals and left-wing sovereigntists, but in larger numbers were advocates of the "conservative reaction." These intellectuals and polemicists used the platform to criticize globalization. Since 2019, the section has been headed by Guillaume Perrault; Alexandre Devecchio, whom Le Monde associates with the far-right, was its deputy editor. In 2020, the section had six regular columnists, Bertille Bayart, Nicolas Baverez, Renaud Girard, Mathieu Bock-Côté, Luc Ferry, Ivan Rioufol, along with guest contributors. Participation and subsidiaries In February 2006, Le Figaro acquired the sports information and content site sport24.com, which had already been managing the sports section of figaro.fr since 2004; this was the first time that Figaro made such an acquisition. In May 2007, Le Figaro purchased the cultural site evene.fr, which quickly found synergies with Le Figaroscope, and then in June 2007, the ticketing service Ticketac.com was acquired by the group. In 2008, the group took over the company Météo Consult, which included La Chaîne Météo, and in December 2008, it acquired La Banque Audiovisuelle, the publishing company of vodeo.tv, through its subsidiary The Skreenhouse Factory, dedicated to TV and video on the Internet. On 18 May 2009, it purchased Particulier et Finances Éditions, which included Le Particulier, Le Particulier pratique, Le Particulier Immobilier, and La Lettre des Placements, as well as about thirty practical guides and the site leparticulier.fr. In September 2010, it took over Adenclassifieds, following a friendly takeover bid; the subsidiary became Figaro Classifieds, which included Cadremploi, Keljob.com, kelformation, kelstage, kelsalaire.net, CVmail, Explorimmo, CadresOnline, OpenMedia, Seminus, Microcode, achat-terrain.com. The sites achat-terrain.com and constructeurs-maisons.com, created in 2005, were acquired in September 2012. Campus-Channel, a video platform for students launched in 2011, was acquired by Figaro Classifieds in June 2014. In 2015, CCM Benchmark Group was fully acquired, including leading websites like L'Internaute, Journal du Net, Le Journal des femmes, Droit-finances.net. The acquisition of these leading sites allowed Figaro to move from the fifteenth place in non-mobile web traffic to fourth place, with 24 million unique visitors, behind Google (41 million), Microsoft (35 million), and Facebook (26 million). Media Figaro (formerly Publiprint, formerly Figaro media) (advertising agency), Météo Consult and La Chaîne Météo, Particulier et Finances Éditions, Figaro Classifieds (Cadremploi, Keljob.com, Explorimmo, Propriétés Le Figaro, Le Figaro Étudiant, KelFormation, etc.) Marco Vasco. Partnerships Le Figaro has sponsored the Solitaire du Figaro sailing race since 1980; the race exists since 1970, when it was created as the Course de l'Aurore. After Le Figaro bought L'Aurore the name was changed. The newspaper and the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po (CEVIPOF) presented their "Political Studies". Le Figaro replaced Le Monde as a partner of the program Le Grand Jury in September 2006. The newspaper has maintained partnerships with Chinese state media. Until 2020, Le Figaro published inserts from China Daily. In April 2025, it agreed to strengthen "communication and coordination" with Xinhua News Agency. In partnership with Dargaud Benelux, the newspaper launched in 2010 a 20-volume collection of XIII in a "prestige" edition and a pre-publication of the latest volumes of the series throughout the summer of the same year in Le Figaro Magazine. Additionally, the daily also offered a selection of comic books, from Largo Winch to Blake and Mortimer to Gaston, Tintin, Lucky Luke, and Spirou and Fantasio. See also Le Monde Libération Madame Figaro References Further reading Merrill, John C. and Harold A. Fisher. The World's Great Dailies: Profiles of Fifty Newspapers (1980) pp 124–29 External links Le Figaro website (in French) Le Figaro digital archives from 1826 to 1952 in Gallica, the digital library of the BnF