Check out the first episode of our anniversary series: L’Express, a pioneer newspaper. Xavier Yvon and Anne Marion, documentalist at L’Express, take you to meet Christiane Collange, sister of Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber and member of the founding team, Michèle Leloup, former journalist at L’Express and Alain Weill, owner and current director of publication.
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The team: Xavier Yvon (presentation and writing), Mathias Penguilly (writing and editing), Jules Krot (directing) and Marion Galard (work-study).
Music and design: Emmanuel Herschon / Studio Torrent
Image credits: Jérémie Cambour / L’Express
Logo: Anne-Laure Chapelain / Benjamin Chazal
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Anne-Marion : Hi Xavier! welcome back to the L’Express library.
Xavier Yvon : Thank you Anna. I must admit that I find all these archives a bit intimidating. All these numbers for 70 years… Where do we begin to tell the story of L’Express?
Anne-Marion : I think there is one main characteristic, which has been L’Express’ red thread until today, and that is innovation. L’Express has constantly sought to invent, to create, both in substance and in form. For example on the economy: L’Express is the first generalist newspaper to talk about it as much and in a very educational way. I slowly turn the pages, because these issues of the year 1953 are quite damaged. Look at this:
Xavier Yvon : Looks like cartoon boxes. I read: “How gold enters France”, with a man in a hat who smokes a big cigar. Below there are vignettes that explain the maneuvers around the devaluation of the franc.
Anne-Marion : It’s a bit like the ancestor of infographics. You see this innovative force, it is present from the first issues.
Xavier Yvon : And who could talk to me about that?
Anne-Marion : At the beginning there were really very few of them. In the first issue that I already showed you, there wasn’t even a bear, the little insert with the names of the editorial journalists. But look it appears from the 2nd issue. That of May 23, 1953… And there are only three of them! But it lacks a name…
For further
70 years of L’Express
Catherine Nay: “For Françoise Giroud, any woman who arrived at L’Express was a rival”
Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, the founder: “And if we created a newspaper?”