''Sud Ouest'' (; ) is a daily French newspaper, the second largest regional daily in France in terms of circulation. It was created in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

, on August 29, 1944, by Jacques Lemoine, as a successor to ''La Petite Gironde''. In 1949, the Sunday edition, ''Sud Ouest Dimanche'' was launched. ''Sud Ouest'' covers the

Gironde Gironde ( , US usually , ; , ) is the largest department in the southwestern French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,623,749.

, the

Charente Charente (; Saintongese: ''Chérente''; ) is a department in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It is named after the river Charente, the most important and longest river in the department, and also the r ...

, the

Charente-Maritime Charente-Maritime (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Chérente-Marine''; ) is a Departments of France, department in the French Regions of France, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, on the country's west coast. Named after the river Charente (river), Charen ...

, the

Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; ) is a large rural departments of France, department in south west France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and ...

, the Lot et Garonne, the Landes and the Pyrénées Atlantiques départements. It is owned by the Groupe Sud Ouest, which was directed by Jacques Lemoine from 1944 to 1968, and by his son Jean-François Lemoine from 1968 to 2001. The president of the group since February 2008 has been Pierre Jeantet. 80% of the group belongs to the Lemoine family, 10% to the journalists, and the remaining 10% to the staff.

The Sud Ouest group

Besides ''Sud Ouest'', the group has progressively broadened and now also owns ''La Charente Libre'', ''La Dordogne Libre'', ''La République des Pyrénées'' and ''L’Eclair des Pyrénées-Pays de l’Adour''. In 2007, the Groupe Sud Ouest bought ''Le Midi Libre'', ''L’Indépendant'', ''Centre Presse (Aveyron)'' and ''Montpellier Plus'' from the group

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

, which was forced to sell these titles because of its crushing debt. These local papers of the

Languedoc-Roussillon Languedoc-Roussillon (; ; ) is a former regions of France, administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, it joined with the region of Midi-Pyrénées to become Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. It comprised five departments o ...

region, allow Groupe Sud Ouest to extend outside the

Aquitaine Aquitaine (, ; ; ; ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne (), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former Regions of France, administrative region. Since 1 January 2016 it has been part of the administ ...

and

Poitou-Charentes Poitou-Charentes (; ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ) was an administrative region on the southwest coast of France. It comprised four departments: Charente, Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres and Vienne. It included the historical provinces of Angoumo ...

regions. Besides the dailies, the Groupe Sud Ouest also owns the weekly magazines ''Le Résistant'' (

Libourne Libourne (; ) is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is the wine-making capital of northern Gironde and lies near Saint-Émilion and Pomerol. Geog ...

), ''Haute Saintonge'' (

Jonzac Jonzac (; ) is a commune of the Charente-Maritime department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. The historian Jean Glénisson (1921–2010) was born in Jonzac as well as the philosopher Jean Hyppolite (1907–1968). Geography The r ...

), ''Haute Gironde'' (

Blaye Blaye (; ) is a commune and subprefecture in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. For centuries, Blaye was a particularly convenient crossing point for those who came from the north and went to Bordeaux or fur ...

), ''l’Hebdo de Charente Maritime'' (

Surgères Surgères () is a Communes of France, commune in the Charente-Maritime Departments of France, department, southwestern France. It is the home of the Surgères 48 Hour Race. History Middle ages The site of Surgères was occupied in Neolithic tim ...

), ''La Semaine du Pays Basque'', ''La Dépêche du Bassin'' and ''Le Journal du Médoc''. The weeklies ''La Semaine du Roussillon'', ''le Journal de Millau'', ''l’Aveyronnais'', ''le Catalan Judiciaire'', ''Terre de Vins'' and ''Terres Catalanes'', all published in

, were also sold by Le Monde to Groupe Sud Ouest in 2007. Groupe Sud Ouest publishes various surf magazines, including ''Surf Session'', ''Bodyboard'' and ''Surfer's Journal''. A publishing house, ''éditions Sud Ouest'', specializes in local history, tourism and food and owns the local TV station, TV7 Bordeaux. The revenue of the group was 325 million euros in 2006,"Qui Possède quoi ?"
''

Le Nouvel Observateur (), previously known as (2014–2024), (1964–2014), (1954–1964), (1953–1954), and (1950–1953), is a weekly French news magazine. Based in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, ' is one of the three most prominent French news magazines ...

'', December 26, 2007 and after the absorption of the Languedoc-Roussillon papers, it expected a 555 million Euro revenue."Pierre Jeantet retrouve la direction du Groupe Sud Ouest"
''

Libération (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...

'', February 7, 2008

The newspaper

The newspaper ''Sud Ouest'' distinguishes itself by a coverage more thorough than usual for a French local daily of the national and international news. Politically, the paper is rather neutral although it has once compared Bruno Mégret with Philippe Henriot after a meeting of the Front National in Bordeaux in the 1990s. It features an editorial cartoonist, Michel Iturria, and a regular opinion column signed by Franck de Bondt.

Circulation

The paper circulation dropped from around 300,000 copies in 2007Groupe Sud Ouest
Ecole Supérieure de journalisme de Lille to 210,000 copies in 2021.

Sources

External links

Sud Ouest newspaper

The Sud Ouest group
{{Authority control Newspapers established in 1944 Daily newspapers published in France Mass media in Bordeaux