Le Journal du Dimanche (French pronunciation: [lə ʒuʁnal dy dimɑ̃ʃ]; lit. 'Sunday's newspaper'), also known as the JDD [ʒedede] is a French weekly newspaper published on Sundays in France.
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| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Large tabloid |
| Owner(s) | Hachette Filipacchi Médias |
| Founder(s) | Pierre Lazareff |
| Founded | 1948 |
| Language | French |
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
| Circulation | 151,007 (2020) |
| Website | lejdd |
JDD was bought in 2023 by Vivendi of media mogul Vincent Bolloré, triggering a strike movement against the new editorial stance perceived as far-right.[1]
History and profile
Le Journal du Dimanche was created by Pierre Lazareff in 1948.[2] He was managing editor of France Soir at that time.[2]
The weekly paper belongs to the Lagardère Group[3] through Hachette Filipacchi Médias.[4] The company is also the publisher of the paper[5] which is based in Paris[4] 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.[3] On 6 March 2011 the paper again changed its format to large tabloid format.[3]
In the period of 2001–2002, Le Journal du Dimanche had a circulation of 275,000 copies.[5] In 2010, this had decreased slightly to 257,280 copies,[3] but by 2020, it had dropped to 151,007 copies.[6]
2023 strike after takeover by Vivendi
On 23 June 2023, days after the takeover of Lagardère group by Vivendi, the appointment of Geoffroy Lejeune 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. 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,[7] thought to have been engineered by Vincent Bolloré.[1] 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[1] after being taken over by Canal+, whose oversight committee is also chaired by Bolloré.[8] The European Commission opened a formal investigation into Vivendi's takeover of Lagardère group on 25 July for potential violation of European Union rules.[9]
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.[10][11]
Staff
- Alain Genestar
- Jean-Claude Maurice between 1999 and December 2005
- Jacques Espérandieu (ex-Le Parisien) 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.