L’Orient-Le Jour
A Lebanese French-language daily newspaper, L’Orient-Le Jour is the only francophone daily newspaper in Lebanon. It was first issued on June 15, 1971, after the two papers L’Orient - founded in 1924 by former MP Gabriel Khabbaz and Minister Georges Naccache - and Le Jour - founded in 1934 by politician and businessman Michel Chiha, merged for economic reasons. In 1976, the Syrian army briefly shut down the newspaper because of its stance against its military intervention in Lebanon. The anti-Syrian regime editorial line was confirmed in 2005 after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and since, the newspaper has been known to support the March 14 Alliance.
The paper covers politics, local and international news, finance, economics, culture, entertainment, and sports. The paper also publishes a monthly L’Orient-Le Jour Junior youth magazine, as well as a cultural supplement, L'Orient Littéraire, which is published on the first Thursday of every month. The latter was founded in 1929 by the poet Georges Schehadé.
Former Minister Michel Eddé is L’Orient-Le Jour’s Chairman of the Board. Emilie Sueur, Ziyad Makhoul and Michel Touma have been Editors-in-Chief since 2015.
Audience Share
3.1%
Ownership Type
Private
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Paid
Media Companies / Groups
Société Générale de Presse et d'Édition SAL
Ownership Structure
The main shareholders are former Minister Michel Eddé and his grandsons (38%), the Choueiri group (22.7%), and the family of Minister of State for Planification Michel Pharaon, who owns 15.49%, directly through Mr. Pharaon (2.6%), his sister Nayla de Freige (1.7%), and companies they also own, i.e. Pharaon Holding SAL (11%) and Libano-Suisse Insurance Consulting (0.2%).
Voting Rights
Missing Data
Individual Owner
Group / Individual Owner
Others
General Information
Founding Year
1971
Founder
Gabriel Khabbaz, a Beirut MP, and Georges Naccache, then Minister of Information and Tourism as well as Lebanon's Ambassador in France, co-founded L'Orient in 1924. Michel Chiha, a Lebanese politician who wrote the Constitution, founded Le Jour in 1934
Ceo
Michel Eddé, former Minister and President of the Maronite Foundation.
Editor-In-Chief
Emilie Sueur, Ziyad Makhoul and Michel Touma since 2015.
Other Important People
Michel Hélou (Executive Director), Michel Eddé's grandson and owns 0.005% of the newspaper's affiliated company.
Contact
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Market Share
Missing Data
Further Information
Meta Data
The official document provided by the Ministry of Justice's Commercial Register mentions that the company's total number of shares is 175,000,000. However, shareholders have personally confirmed this is a mistake and that the exact number is 17,500,000 shares.
Audience share for newspapers is based on IPSOS data (average readership 2016 and 2017).
