LVMH acquires Challenges, Sciences et Avenir and La Recherche

Culture

Magazines, illustrative Credits: Pixabay

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Luxury giant LVMH announced on Tuesday it has acquired the magazines Challenges, Sciences et Avenir and La Recherche as planned. According to a statement, the group intends to ensure their “longevity”. Businessman Claude Perdriel, who was the majority shareholder until now, had agreed to the sale for a symbolic one euro. He has now retired from the press at the age of 99, after sixty years in the industry.

LVMH, owned by billionaire Bernard Arnault, had already acquired a 40 percent stake in Éditions Croque Futur in 2020. The company publishes the three titles.

“This acquisition will enable Éditions Croque Futur to boost the development and distribution of its three titles, particularly in digital, and thus contribute to their longevity,” LVMH stated. The group also aims to “promote quality information and scientific culture, as well as its popularisation”.

However, in a joint statement, the journalist societies of the three magazines, their union representatives and the social and economic committee (CSE) described the sale as a “leap into the void”. They added that “a real sense of mistrust has developed” towards LVMH.

In November, the editorial teams of Challenges, Sciences et Avenir and La Recherche had asked Bernard Arnault to sign their “charters of independence” in their current form. They claim this request was unsuccessful. On Tuesday, they and the union representatives again demanded “tokens of goodwill”. These included: “credible future prospects; clear commitments on employment; the signing of Challenges' current charter of independence; and similar guarantees for Sciences et Avenir and La Recherche”.

Meanwhile, Maurice Szafran has just been appointed president of Éditions Croque Futur and publication director of the three titles. The advisor to Claude Perdriel stressed that their “common goal would be to begin [their] economic recovery in a press market that is more difficult and complex than ever”.

“With the active support of LVMH, these collective challenges become achievable,” he added in a message to the editorial teams, seen by AFP.

LVMH already owns the Les Échos-Le Parisien group, which includes the eponymous daily newspapers and Radio Classique. This year, the company also acquired the entirety of the liberal daily L'Opinion and the financial news site L'Agefi, in which it already held stakes.

In December, the NGO 'Reporters Without Borders and journalists' unions appealed to the administrative court and the Competition Authority to examine the consequences of the Challenges acquisition.

Between July 2024 and June 2025, the weekly magazine Challenges sold an average of 135,000 copies and the monthly Sciences et Avenir sold 175,000 copies, according to the Alliance for Press and Media Figures (ACPM). La Recherche is a quarterly publication.

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

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