''Le Journal du Dimanche'' (; ), also known as the JDD , is a French weekly newspaper published on Sundays in France. JDD was bought in 2023 by

Vivendi Vivendi SE (stylized in all lowercase) is a French investment company headquartered in Paris. It currently wholly-owns Gameloft as well as a number of investments in several companies, primarily involved in content, entertainment, media, and t ...

of media mogul

Vincent Bolloré Vincent Bolloré (; born 1 April 1952) is a French billionaire businessman. He was the chairman and CEO of the investment group Bolloré until his retirement from the family business in 2022. In January 2025, his net worth was estimated at US$ ...

, triggering a strike movement against the new editorial stance perceived as

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

History and profile

''Le Journal du Dimanche'' was created by

Pierre Lazareff Pierre Lazareff (1907–1972) was a French newspaper editor and publisher. He was the son of a Russian Jewish emigrant, David Lazareff, and an Alsatian Jew, Marthe Helft. He was passionate about newspapers from his childhood, even running a fam ...

in 1948. He was managing editor of ''

France Soir ''France Soir'' () was a French newspaper that prospered in physical format during the 1950s and 1960s, reaching a circulation of 1.5 million in the 1950s. It declined rapidly under various owners and was relaunched as a populist tabloid in 2006 ...

'' at that time. The weekly paper belongs to the

Lagardère Group Lagardère S.A. () is an international group with operations in over 40 countries. Based in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, the group was founded and created in 1992 by Jean-Luc Lagardère under the name Matra, Hachette & Lagardère. Headed ...

through

Hachette Filipacchi Médias Hachette Filipacchi Médias, S.A. (HFM) is a magazine publisher. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Active, a division of the media conglomerate Lagardère Group of France. History '' Hachette'' was founded by Louis Hachette (Fre ...

. The company is also the publisher of the paper which is based in Paris and which is published on Sundays. ''Le Journal du Dimanche'' was published in broadsheet format until 1999 when it began to be published in the

Berliner format Berliner is a newspaper format with pages normally measuring about . The Berliner format, or "midi", is slightly taller and marginally wider than the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid/Compact (newspaper), compact format, and is both narrower ...

. On 6 March 2011 the paper again changed its format to large tabloid format. In the period of 2001–2002, ''Le Journal du Dimanche'' had a circulation of 275,000 copies. In 2010, this had decreased slightly to 257,280 copies, but by 2020, it had dropped to 151,007 copies.

2023 strike after takeover by Vivendi

On 23 June 2023, days after the takeover of Lagardère group by Vivendi, the appointment of

Geoffroy Lejeune Geoffroy Lejeune (born 3 September 1988) is a French journalist. He was the editor-in-chief of ''Valeurs actuelles'' which is associated with the far right. In August 2023, he was made editor-in-chief of ''Le Journal du Dimanche''. Early life ...

as editor-in-chief was announced, just a few days after he had been fired from his position as editorial director of the far-right-wing weekly magazine ''

Valeurs Actuelles ''Valeurs actuelles'' (; ) is a French weekly news magazine published in Paris. It was initially considered to be Right-wing politics, right-wing but is today associated with the Far-right politics, far-right. It was founded by Raymond Bourgine i ...

''. This set off a firestorm among the editorial staff, 93% of whom voted to go on strike on 22 June to protest against this potential arrival, thought to have been engineered by

. One month later, negotiations were broken off again when the Lagardère group confirmed that Lejeune would take over editorial control of the newspaper on 1 August. 98% of the journalists voted to continue the longest strike in the newspaper's history. This vote made the strike longer than the 31-day strike at I-Tele when the latter was transformed into

CNews CNews (; stylised as CNEWS, formerly i>Télé) is a French free-to-air opinion channel launched on 4 November 1999 by Canal+. It provides 24-hour national and global news coverage. It is the second most watched news network in France, after ...

after being taken over by

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

, whose oversight committee is also chaired by Bolloré. The European Commission opened a formal investigation into Vivendi's takeover of Lagardère group on 25 July for potential violation of European Union rules. On 1 August, journalists voted to abandon the strike after reaching an agreement on severance terms for those intending to leave the newspaper as a result of the change. It was revealed in June 2024 that 95% of the journalists left the newspaper after the change.

Staff

* Alain Genestar * Jean-Claude Maurice between 1999 and December 2005 * Jacques Espérandieu (ex-''

Le Parisien ''Le Parisien'' (; ) is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of ...

'') between December 2005 and May 2008 * Christian de Villeneuve between May 2008 and February 2010 * Olivier Jay between March 2010 and December 2011 * Jérôme Bellay (2011–2016) * Hervé Gattegno (2016–2021) * Jérôme Bellay (2021–2022) * Jérôme Béglé, (January 2022 – June 2023) * Geoffroy Lejeune (since June 2023)

References

*Article on the French Wikipedia.

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Journal du Dimanche, Le Newspapers published in Paris Sunday newspapers Weekly newspapers published in France Lagardère Active Newspapers established in 1948 1948 establishments in France