the slow decline of “France-Soir”, a historic title of the French press

What remains of the legendary post-war daily? Almost nothing: a name and a website, without journalists. After several months of proceedings, France Evening lost its status as an online press service in mid-August, by decision of the Paris administrative court. If it continues to exist, it must do without certain tax advantages and potential aid from the Strategic Fund for the Development of the Press (FSDP). France Evening announced on its website that it was appealing this decision on Thursday, August 22, while denouncing a “political censorship”.

In its opinion, the Joint Committee for Publications and Press Agencies (CPPAP) considered that the title did not present the “character of general interest” required for this status. France Evening is also identified as “participating in the French-speaking covido-skeptic conspiracy sphere since 2020”according to the specialist website Conspiracy Watch. How did this legendary and renowned publication, whose circulation reached a million copies in the 1950s, get to this point? Franceinfo traces the slow and inexorable fall of the press title.

The Golden Age under Pierre Lazareff

France Evening born in 1944, “year zero of the print press as we know it today”estimates historian Alexis Lévrier, a specialist in the history of journalism, to franceinfo. The daily newspaper is a synthesis of two titles: Defense of Francean underground newspaper of the Resistance, and Paris Evening, one of the leading daily newspapers of the popular press of the 1930s. Pierre Lazareff, former editorial director of Paris Eveningtakes charge of the daily routine and implements his know-how.

“It is a newspaper that covers all political subjects and news items, which is aimed at all classes of the population, unlike the World or to Figaro“explains the lecturer at the University of Reims. “We are banking on the field, photography, and hyper-immediacy. We can have six to seven editions per day, the peddlers go into the field to sell as close as possible to the reader.” In short, France Evening invented continuous news. At the height of its glory, the editorial staff employed 400 journalists, including the greatest writers, such as Joseph Kessel, Henri Troyat, Georges Simenon and Françoise Giroud.

The daily newspaper, which was then owned by Hachette, had a circulation of over a million copies per day in 1953 and ran for thirteen years, according to France Culture. However, the signs of decline were already there. “Pierre Lazareff is a genius caught up in technical developments and cultural practices. He couldn’t do anything about itAlexis Lévrier decides. The golden age of the written press has already disappeared: it was during the Belle Epoque [1871-1914]. He managed to revive it a little in the 1950s-1960s with France-Evening.”

The beginning of the decline in the face of competition

The model that made the success of France Evening will also condemn him. “At the time, the income of the written press was based on newsstand sales. Because of the drop in sales, money was no longer coming in, and doing major reports, with Albert Camus or Jean-Paul Sartre, was expensive.”analyzes Adrien-Guillaume Padovan, journalist and author of a memoir (PDF) on the daily. Another pitfall according to the journalist: the lack of editorial identity of the publication. “Focusing on news items does not create reader attachment to the newspaper”he believes.

From the end of the 1960s, the newspaper began a slow loss of influence, under the cumulative effect of competition from television, radio, and later, like many other newspapers, the internet. “Television has the ability to reach people, and the acceleration of information that it allows condemns Lazareff’s model, based on instantaneity.”explains Alexis Lévrier. A visionary to the end, Pierre Lazareff launched in 1959 the pioneering news magazine program, Five columns in the headlines. “He got involved in this thinking it would save his newspaper.says Adrien-Guillaume Padovan. He actually creates France Evening for television.”

The innovative press boss died in 1972, and with his death, internal management problems emerged. “France Eveningit was Pierre Lazareff. And Pierre Lazareff, it was France Evening. He was the one who had the ideas and the impulses. From the moment the management of the newspaper dies, it’s the end.”judges the journalist. At that time, the circulations still remained at around 600,000 copies per day.

Buyouts, social plans and financial setbacks

Robert Hersant buys France Evening in 1976. The press magnate has already bought himself The Figaro. His thirst for conquest earned him the nickname “Papivore”, devourer of paper, as France Inter recounts. He put in place a social plan and sold the historic headquarters, rue Réaumur, in the heart of Paris. The daily was finally sold in 1999, three years after the death of the businessman, who “failed to modernize” the title, according to Alexis Lévrier.

At the same time, its competitor, The Parisian (created in 1944), and its national edition, Today in France (1994), established themselves on the market, also positioning themselves in the “popular” niche. “Daily life is more suitable than France Evening, It offers themes from everyday life such as the tiercé or sport”analyzes the historian. “The rolling news channels then gave him the final blow.”he adds.

Alexander Pugachev, son of a Russian oligarch close to the Kremlin, bought the paper in 2009. Between Robert Hersant and him, no fewer than eight presidents had succeeded one another in ten years. Attempts to transform the newspaper into a tabloid flopped and drove away a large number of journalists. The newspaper now only had a circulation of just over 20,000 copies per day. The young billionaire’s recovery plan included a new layout, new bylines, a large advertising budget and a reduction in the sale price. Nothing worked: two years later, France Evening disappears from newsstands, replaced by a free digital edition, against a backdrop of strong protest. Out of 127 jobs, 89 are being cut. France Evening was placed in receivership in 2012.

The conspiratorial turn with Xavier Azalbert

Bought by a new owner, the company Cards Off SA, the press title became a tablet magazine for a while in 2013, combining information and online sales. Three years later, its president, Xavier Azalbert, became the site’s publishing director. The only four journalists on the editorial staff went on strike in 2019, denouncing significant deterioration in working conditions and fearing the mixing of genres between journalism and communication. They were dismissed for economic reasons, while the site continued to produce content.

During the pandemic, the site of France Evening takes a new turn, echoing disinformation and conspiracy theories about Covid-19. Xavier Azalbert even intervenes in the conspiracy documentary Hold-upor even at a pseudo-scientific conference in 2023. “The worst adversaries of the press feed on the legacy of the press. Xavier Azalbert benefits from the brand image of France Evening to betray her better. This is also what Vincent Bolloré does with the JDD“analyzes Alexis Lévrier. In 2021, the singer Francis Lalanne chooses France Evening to publish a column calling on the army to “put the State out of harm’s way” and to “remove” Emmanuel Macron. An investigation was then opened. Concerned, the Minister of Culture at the time, Roselyne Bachelot, requested a review of the status of the online media, which lost its approval for the first time at the end of 2022, before regaining it at the beginning of 2023.

Today, this approval is once again under threat, and with it, a reduced VAT rate and financial aid. “They may compensate for this loss with an even more conspiratorial line to satisfy their donors.anticipates Alexis Lévrier. Those who will pay are the most radicalized, hostile to democracy, favorable to Russia.” France Evening has already been deprived of Google’s advertising service, after the broadcast of a report by “Complément d’enquête” in 2021. But disinformation is a financial windfall: according to The Expressthe site collected more than 500,000 euros in tax-deductible donations between 2020 and 2021. “The sad story of France Evening tells the story of the gradual decline of the printed press in France, which we see every day, in a more accelerated version”summarizes the historian.