Le Monde

Le Monde, daily newspaper published in Paris, one of the most important and widely respected newspapers in the world.

The newspaper was established in 1944—as soon as the German army had quit Paris but while World War II continued—on orders of the new government of Gen. Charles de Gaulle as a means of providing a respected voice for France. It was printed on the presses of the defunct Le Temps, and a prewar correspondent of that paper, Hubert Beuve-Méry, was appointed its editor and director. He insisted on, and was granted, the right to operate Le Monde as an independent organ, with no government or private subsidies and with the right to formulate its own editorial policies. By the end of its first year, Le Monde’s accuracy and independence were widely noted, and it had attained a circulation in excess of 150,000 copies.

Since its start, Le Monde has covered national and world news in depth and analyzed it closely. Its writers have the freedom to present their own views, with the result that Le Monde reveals no unified policies or consistent ideological outlook. Its independence, which never wavered from its founding, despite early and grave financial worries, has brought it denunciation at one time or another from every part of the French political spectrum.

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Journalist Sylvie Kauffmann was the first woman to serve as executive editor (2010–11). Following the purchase of the paper in 2010 by a group of French investors, veteran editor Érik Izraelewicz was hired to serve as both executive editor and director. After Izraelewicz’s death in November 2012, the paper elected former diplomatic correspondent Natalie Nougayrède to replace him in March 2013, marking the first time a woman had held the directorship.