Groupe Les Echos

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Groupe Les Echos

46, rue la Boetie
75381 Paris CEDEX 08
France
(33) 1.49.53.65.65
Fax: (33) 1.45.63.53.33
Web site: http://www.lesechos.fr

Subsidiary of Pearson Group
Incorporated:
1908 as Les Echos de 1Exportation
Employees: 500
Sales: FFr 748 million (US $129 million) (1997)
SICs: 2721 Periodicals; 2731 Book Publishing

A member of British media giant the Pearson Group since 1988, Groupe Les Echos is among Frances leading financial and medical information publishers. The companys flagship daily newspaper, Les Echos, is Frances oldest and most read financial newspaper, with a paid circulation of more than 132,000. The subscription-based, online version of Les Echos offers, in addition to the daily, extensive services, including ongoing financial updates and stock market quotations, access to archives and to market sector and business-specific reports. In addition to the daily newspaper, Les Echos publishes the monthly magazine, Enjeux Les Echos, Frances second largest selling financial and economic magazine. The companys financial branch also publishes various supplements throughout the year, including a yearly report on the 500 leading French corporations.

Les Echos also is a leading publisher of French-language medical information. The companys medical titles include the bimonthly Revue du Prauden, the weekly Revue du Prauden Médedne Genérale, and the bi-weekly Panorama du Médecin, La Revue du Prauden Gynecologic et Obstétrique, and La Revue Française du Dommage Corporel, as well as a yearly series of supplements and research newsletters.

Guided by editors-in-chief Nicolas Beytout and Emile Favard, Les Echos has increased its circulation more than 120 percent since the mid-1980s. The companys financial publications provide more than 60 percent of its revenues, which neared FFr 750 million in 1997.

A Turn-of-the-Century Marketing Tool

Although Les Echos would grow into Frances premier financial and corporate newspaper, its original purpose was to serve as a marketing brochure for the commercial business of founder Robert Schreiber. A son of Prussian immigrants, Schreiber had joined his parents import firm selling products from central Europe. Schreiber took over the family business after the death of his father in 1902. Schreiber next formed a partnership with Albert Aronson, locating the commercial firm, Mai son de Schreiber and Aronson, in Pariss tenth arrondissement. In 1908, Schreiber, seeking a means to publicize the companys merchandise, began producing a four-page monthly newsletter, Les Echos de IExportation, with the subtitle, Bulletin mensuel de la maison Schreiber et Aronson. This newsletter, among the first of its kind in France, was distributed free of charge not only to the companys prospective and actual customers, but also to its competitors. Beyond simply providing descriptions of the companys products, Les Echos provided market, customs, and other shipping information for its primarily import-export sector clients. From the start Schreiber sought advertisers to finance the paper.

The first Les Echos appeared in April 1908, in an edition of 1,000 copies. By the end of its first year Les Echos had attracted some 135 subscribers. Schreiber was eager to develop the newspaper. In 1909 he sold a portion of Les Echos to a Berlin-based equivalent, Confectionaire. The partnership enabled Schreiber to boost Les Echos to 16 pages, printing on higher-quality paper and featuring a color cover. Schreiber also changed the now bi-monthly papers subtitle to Journal dinformation pour le commerce et Iindustrie to reflect its widening scope. The new format proved a quick success. Circulation rose to 5,000 copies, of which some 3,000 were accounted for by subscriptions. The company moved to larger quarters in 1910. The growing success of Les Echos also enabled Schreiber to bring brothers Emile and Georges into the company. In the early years of the new decade the growing advertising revenues also would allow Schreiber to buy back full control of the paper from his German partner. Les Echos had offices in London, New York, and Brussels in 1912.

In 1913 the paper made the transition to a weekly 36-page format. The outbreak of the First World War, however, put the paper and Schreibers commercial firm on hold. Called to service, Schreiber and his brothers would suspend publication for the duration. With the end of the war, Schreiber decided to devote himself fully to his publishing activities, ending his association with Aronson. Reincorporating as Schreiber Fréres, the company was now a partnership between Robert, who contributed 20,000 francs and became the companys director, and brother Emile, who contributed 10,000 francs and was placed in charge as editor-in-chief. Emiles participation in the company eventually would reach parity with his brothers, so that by 1938 the brothers were equal partners.

Between the World Wars, Les Echos would continue to develop, both in focus and in revenues. A new subtitle, La Grande Revue Commerciale Frangaise, was adopted, marking Les Echos position as Frances first economic and financial newspaper; the papers primary focus, however, remained the commercial import-export sector. Circulation rose to 10,000, and the companys increasing advertising revenues enabled it to expand the papers format to 44 pages. With Emile Schreiber as editor-in-chief and later director, Les Echos also became a vocal proponent of American-style free-market capitalism, while supporting such social initiatives as the five-day work week and paid vacations.

The companys growing revenues prompted it to expand its foreign offices, opening in Vienna, Bucharest, Milan, Warsaw, Frankfurt, and other major European cities. During the 1920s Les Echos began making its first diversifications into other publishing areas. In 1925 the company began producing a second industry-specific paper, Les Echos des Industries dArt, and began publishing in other languages, including a quarterly in English, Spanish, and German and yearlies in Japanese and Portuguese.

Succeeding the Family in the 1960s

By 1928 Les Echos had grown to a subscriber base of more than 8,000. The increase in revenues permitted the Schreibers to transform the paper into a daily, maintaining the larger weekly paper while adding a daily four-page supplement. The following decadebeginning with the Depression and culminating in the German occupation of Francewould spell difficulties for Les Echos. Although the company was able to maintain a circulation of 10,000 copies and a subscriber list of more than 7,000, the shattered economy placed pressure on the companys primary revenue generator, advertising sales. By 1931 the Schreibers were forced to put an end to their other publishing activities to concentrate on keeping Les Echos afloat. The company moved to the Champs Élysées, where rents were lower at the time. A new editor-in-chief, Jacques Rozner, was named, and Robert and Emile turned toward boosting advertising and subscription sales.

The occupation of France by Germany in 1940 forced the company once again to close down its newspaper. The Schreibersbeing Jewishsold their company to a non-Jewish friend to preserve Les Echos from German appropriation. The Schreibers joined the maquis, adopting the surname Servan. Emerging from the war years, the brothers would adopt the surname Servan-Schreiber. Les Echos resumed publication in December 1944. Because of the postwar paper shortage, the newspaper was limited initially to a bi-weekly format, but quickly returned to daily publication. Emile once again took charge of the papers editorial content, and Robert headed the companys sales activities.

By the end of the decade, Les Echos, boosted by Frances burgeoning postwar industrial boom, had reached a circulation of some 30,000 copies, including 25,000 subscribers. The company also had become very much a family operation, with as many as 12 members of the Schreiber family holding positions in the company. This intense family involvement, however, would lead to growing tensions in the next decade, particularly as succession issues began to emerge. Into the 1950s, however, the companys profitability permitted the Schreiber family to prosper.

Prosperityand politicswould lead to a schism in the Schreiber family. Jean-Claude Schreiber, eldest son of Robert, joined the companys directorship in 1949, followed soon after by the eldest son of Emile, Jean-Jacques Schreiber. With the elder Schreibers approaching retirement (Robert was in his 70s and Emile was in his mid-60s), the younger generation began to vie for control of the companys direction. Their dispute was exacerbated by the success of a new Les Echos project.

In 1953 Jean-Jacques launched LExpress, at a cost of some 30 million ancient francs (FFr 3 million). Subtitled Les Echos de Samedi (Saturday), the new weekly originally formed part of the regular Les Echos subscription, the rate of which was raised by 1,000 ancient francs (100 modern francs) per year to accommodate the new addition. Although LExpress managed to turn a slight profit by 1955, Les Echos itself began to suffer from the experience; in a single year, the company lost some 4,000 subscribers. The political cost of the new weekly was perhaps higher. Under Jean-Jacques, LExpress was formed in part to support the economic and social policies of French Premier Pierre Mendes France, diametrically opposed to the Gaullist initiatives supported by Les Echos and its subscriber base. The legislative elections of 1956 would lead to a break. In September 1955 Jean-Jacques converted LExpress into a daily newspaper, placing his support firmly behind the re-election of Mendes France to the countrys premiership. In response, Jean-Claude had his name removed from LExpress, but the paper remained under the co-direction of the two branches of the family. After Mendes Frances defeat, LExpress returned to a weekly format. Continued political disputes, centering around the future independence of French colony Algeria, would deteriorate further the relationship between the two sides of the Schreiber family.

Robert Schreiber stepped down from the companys direction in 1958. Under Emile and Jean-Claude, a new dispute emerged. By the late 1950s Les Echos had been stagnating. Its principal readership had been Frances merchant and small business community; yet in the 1950s this class was being replaced by new developing industrial and commercial giants. Jean-Claude sought to rejuvenate Les Echos, reorienting its focus and investing in rebuilding the company, whereas Emile preferred to reduce the companys cost above all. The impasse was broken at last in 1960, with the arrival of Emiles youngest son, Jean-Louis, to the leadership of the papers editorial direction. Under Jean-Louis, Les Echos reoriented its focus, now becoming a full-fledged economic newspaper after the model of the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. The redeveloped Les Echos appeared in October 1960 and quickly achieved success, raising circulation some 15 percent in its first two years. By the early 1960s the companys revenues had grown to some FFr 12 million.

Joining Pearson in the 1990s

The referendum for the independence of Algeria in 1962 would lead to the final collapse of the relationship between the opposing sides of the Schreiber family. With neither side able to buy out the shares of the other, the family proved unable to provide direction to the company. In 1963 Les Echos ended up in commercial court, which placed the company under a provisional directorship. By the end of that month a solution to the familys problems emerged. Pierre Bey tout, a director of the Roussel pharmaceutical concern, and wife Jacqueline, agreed to buy out the Emile Schreiber branchs 50 percent of the company. The price of FFr 3.6 million, however, also included the removal of Jean-Claude Schreiber from the companys direction for a period of 18 months. By the end of that year the Beytouts had succeeded in buying up the 16 percent of Les Echos held by one of Jean-Claudes sisters, Marie-Geneviéve. With majority control, Jacqueline Beytout took over the companys direction, continuing the editorial path begun by Jean-Louis Schreiber. In 1965 the Beytouts gained full control of the company, buying up the remaining shares from Jean-Claude and his sister, Marie-France.

Jacqueline Beytout would lead Les Echos on a long period of growth. From a circulation of 38,000 at the beginning of the 1960s, the paper would reach 61,000 by the start of the 1980s, with paid subscriptions of 50,000. The 1980s, and the appearance of a new culture embracing the stock market, would lead to even stronger growthby the end of the decade Les Echos had passed the 100,000 mark. Advertising not only provided strong revenue growth, but also healthy margins. Beginning in the early 1980s, Beytout began diversifying Les Echos into the medical publishing field. In 1982 the company acquired the monthly Panorama du Médecin, followed by the purchase of publisher Editions Jean-Baptiste Bailliére and its Revue du Praticien. Les Echos also launched a new medical weekly, La Revue du Praticien Médecin Genérale, in 1987. In the 1990s the company continued to develop and acquire medical titles, including Les Archives des Maladies du Coeur et des Vaiseux and 1997s Revue du Praticien Gynécologie et Obstétrique. On the financial side, Les Echos launched a new monthly economic magazine, Dynasteurs, in 1986. That magazine was a success, building a circulation of 80,000 by the early 1990s. In 1992 the monthlys name was changed to Enjeux Les Echos, a move which helped boost circulation to nearly 130,000 by 1997.

By then the Beytout family began confronting its own succession issues. At the same time the market had been changing, as international conglomerates began replacing many former independent publishers. In 1988 Jacqueline Beytout agreed to sell Les Echos to the Pearson Group for FFr 885 million. The acquisition would give Pearson a strong foothold in Frances financial readership, which remained fiercely resistant to non-French publications. The financial clout of the Pearson Group (£2 billion in 1997 sales), meanwhile, assured the future prospects for Les Echos, while associating the daily with the venerable Financial Times.

Under Pearson, Les Echos would continue to build its circulation, passing 120,000 in the early 1990s and, despite the lingering economic crisis in France through the first half of the decade, nearing 140,000 by 1998. Although Jacqueline Beytout left the company in 1989, son Nicolas Beytout remained with the company, becoming editor-in-chief in 1996. Not all of the companys projects proved as successful. The monthly Argent magazine, launched in February 1996, was abandoned only five months later, after building losses of FFr 30 million. The companys medical publishing activities also came under threat, after an agreement was reached between the French government and pharmaceuticals companies calling for a reduction in the latters advertising and promotion budgets.

More promising would be the Les Echos entry into the Internet, with the launch of an online edition of Les Echos in 1996. With some two million hits per month, the site turned commercial in 1997, offering subscription and per-consultation rates for not only the content of the daily newspaper, but also a wide range of value-added services, including consultation of the papers archives. The French economy slowly emerged from the recession in the mid-1990s, bringing a resurging demand for economic and financial information. Les Echos continued to make strong revenue gains, nearing FFr 750 million for the year 1997.

Further Reading

Eveno, Patrick, 90 bougies pour Les Echos, Performances, March 1998, p. 69.

Les Echos, Historique du Groupe, http://www.lesechos.fr.

Roy, Frederic, Les Echos decide que ses infos valent le méme prix on line que sur papier, CB News, October 27-November 11, 1997, p. 29.

Rusten-Hol, Alain, and Treiner, Sandrine, La Saga des Servan- Schreiber, Paris: Editions Seuil, 1993.

M.L. Cohen