Categories News magazine Total circulation
(December 2011) 160,070 Country Canada | Frequency 20 per year Company Rogers Media | |
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Year founded 1909; 108 years ago (1909) | ||
L'actualité is a Canadian French-language news and general interest magazine published in Montreal by Les Éditions Rogers, which is owned by Rogers Communications. The magazine has over a million readers, according to Canada's Print Measurement Bureau, from its circulation which is mainly subscribers. Eighty-six percent of its readership are Québécois.
History and profile
The magazine was established in 1909 with the name Bulletin paroissial. Its name was changed several times: L'Action paroissiale (1932), Ma paroisse (1949), L'actualité (1960) and L'actualité magazine (1967). Until 1945 Jesuit Armand Proulx served as the editor-in-chief of the magazine.
Maclean Hunter, publisher of Maclean's, acquired the mailing list of the defunct Actualité magazine in the 1970s, and merged it with its own French-language edition, Le Magazine Maclean (c. 1961) in 1976. Maclean Hunter was acquired by Rogers Communications in the 1990s. Journalist Jean Paré was the editor-in-chief of L'actualité until 1998. The magazine has published special reports on the regulation of genetically modified organisms, the rise of the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ), the rehabilitation process of soldiers and the story of Captain Simon Mailloux, the record of the Quebec welfare state and on the possible legalization of sharia law in Ontario.
L'actualité publishes a ranking of high schools in Quebec which compares private schools with public ones. The Centrale des syndicats du Québec is opposed to these rankings, believing that they tend to overstate the attractiveness of private schools. Former Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa holds the record for appearing the most often on the cover of the magazine, with ten appearances. Former Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chrétien, former Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau, Pope John Paul II and singer Céline Dion have also often appeared on the cover of the magazine.
Rogers Media announced on September 30, 2016 plans to sell its French print media, including L'actualité.