Paris Match

History and profile

The magazine was started as a news magazine with the name Match in 1938 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost and closed in June 1940. It was relaunched in 1949 with a new name, Paris Match. The magazine temporarily ceased its publication between 18 May and 15 June 1968 upon the call for a strike by the Syndicat du Livre, the French Printers’ Union.

In 1976 Daniel Filipacchi purchased the ailing Paris Match, and turned it into one of France's most successful and influential magazines. It is published weekly and is now part of Hachette Filipacchi Médias, which is itself owned by the Lagardère Group.

On occasion, Paris Match has sold more than one million copies worldwide when covering major events such as the first flight by a French astronaut aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle in June 1985. Benoît Clair, a senior writer for Paris Match, was the first journalist allowed to join the shuttle crew members from training until the departure for the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. A series of reports on the training was published in Paris Match on 22 April 1985, 17 June 1985 and 20 January 1986.

As of 1996 the magazine had an independent political stance.

Circulation

Paris Match had a circulation of 1,800,000 copies in 1958. The 1988 circulation of the magazine was 873,000 copies, making it the best-selling news weekly in the country. In 2001 the weekly was the tenth largest news magazine worldwide with a circulation of 630,000 copies.

Paris Match had a circulation of 656,000 copies during the 2007–2008 period. In 2009 the magazine was the best selling photonews magazine in France with a circulation of 611,000 copies. Its circulation was 578,282 copies in 2014.

In popular culture

In Hergé's Tintin adventure The Castafiore Emerald (1963), reporters from the imaginary "Paris-Flash" magazine (a clear spoof on Paris Match, with a similar logo) play a major role in the plot's development. The magazine is satirized as sensationalist and inaccurate.