L'Équipe
The French daily devoted to sport, born from the ashes of L'Auto.
L'Équipe is a French national daily sports newspaper, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. It is known for its coverage of football, rugby, motorsport, and cycling. The paper grew out of an earlier publication, L'Auto, which created the Tour de France in 1903 to boost its circulation. The race leader's yellow jersey, introduced in 1919, was a nod to the yellow paper L'Auto was printed on.
L'Auto itself was born from opposition to the newspaper Le Vélo, which its conservative, wealthy backers—including automobile manufacturer Comte de Dion and industrialists Adolphe Clément and Édouard Michelin—considered too progressive, particularly over the Dreyfus affair. They launched a rival, L'Auto-Vélo, in 1900, with former racing cyclist Henri Desgrange as editor. A court later ruled the title too similar to Le Vélo, so it became simply L'Auto in 1903. Printed on yellow paper to distinguish itself from Le Vélo's green, the paper initially struggled. A crisis meeting led to a young writer, Géo Lefèvre, proposing a multi-stage race around France—the Tour de France. The race was a huge success: circulation jumped from 25,000 before the 1903 Tour to 65,000 after it, and by 1923 it was selling 500,000 copies daily, with a record 854,000 during the 1933 Tour.
Desgrange died in 1940, and ownership passed to a German consortium. The paper printed pro-Nazi commentary during the occupation. After Germany's defeat in 1945, the provisional French government dissolved L'Auto along with other publications that had collaborated. Jacques Goddet, who had succeeded Desgrange as editor, was allowed to publish a successor, L'Équipe, in 1946, on condition it used white paper instead of yellow. It appeared three times a week initially, becoming a daily in 1948. The paper thrived after its rivals L'Élan and Le Sport folded. Its motorsport coverage still hints at its ancestry by using the gothic script of L'Auto at the top of the page. L'Équipe is published in tabloid format.
In 1968, Émilien Amaury bought the paper. Notable writers have included Pierre Chany, Antoine Blondin, and Gabriel Hanot. Hanot, a L'Équipe journalist, conceived the European Champion Clubs' Cup, later the UEFA Champions League; the paper selected the first season's participating clubs based on their prestige and representativeness. After Émilien Amaury's death in 1977, a six-year legal battle over his estate ended with his son Philippe taking the dailies, including L'Équipe, and founding Éditions Philippe Amaury.
Quick Facts
- Format
- Tabloid
- Owners
- Groupe Amaury
- Editor
- François Morinière
- Chief editor
- Fabrice Jouhaud
- Founded
- 1946
- Language
- French
- Headquarters
- Boulogne-Billancourt
Facts from the source article.
Background
L'Auto traces its origins to opposition to Le Vélo, a sports newspaper which began publishing in 1892. Le Vélo took a Dreyfusard position on the Dreyfus affair, leading to acrid disagreement with anti-Dreyfus conservative business owners, including automobile-maker Comte de Dion and industrialists Adolphe Clément and Édouard Michelin. Frustrated at Giffard's politics, they planned a rival paper, L'Auto-Vélo, which began publishing in 1900. The editor was Henri Desgrange.
Three years later, a court decided the title was too close to Le Vélo, so the paper became simply L'Auto. It was printed on yellow paper because Giffard used green tint. Circulation was sluggish until a crisis meeting where Géo Lefèvre suggested a race round France. The Tour de France proved a success; circulation leapt from 25,000 before the 1903 Tour to 65,000 after it.
Desgrange died in 1940 and ownership passed to a consortium of Germans. The paper printed comments favourable to the occupying Nazis. In 1945, the provisional French government forcibly dissolved the paper. Jacques Goddet succeeded Desgrange as editor and nominal organiser of the Tour de France.
Goddet defended his paper's role but was never wholly cleared in the public mind of being close to the Germans or to Philippe Pétain. He could point to clandestine printing of Resistance newspapers and pamphlets in the L'Auto print room and so was allowed to publish a successor paper called L'Équipe. One condition was that L'Équipe was to use white paper rather than yellow. The new paper published three times a week from 28 February 1946.
Since 1948 it has been published daily. In 1968 L'Équipe was bought by Émilien Amaury. The death of Émilien Amaury in 1977 led to a six-year legal battle over inheritance, eventually settled with Philippe Amaury owning the dailies. Philippe then founded Éditions Philippe Amaury (EPA), which included L'Équipe. At Philippe's death in 2006, the group passed to his widow and their children.
More in Peloton & Culture
Elsewhere in Tour de France
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced