I'd just like to go back to these words "journal of record".
They are no small words.
It's quite difficult to convey the sense of security one felt, buying the newspaper at 4pm, when you knew anything you heard on the radio or watched on the tv was of very dubious value : it was a miracle, for a few miserable francs, you had in your hands the work of hundreds of intellectually honest, well connected and competent journalists, who were decrypting for you, every day, in painstaking detail the day's or week's events. They would cover not only France, but Europe, the whole world, not only politics, but any cultural or social aspect. Some of those articles were absolutely stunning in their comprehensiveness, height of view, and clarity. Think André Fontaine, but many others.
Many people just couldn't throw the paper away. I have seen rooms stacked full of old issues, which were kept there, just in case.
So, because I am basically a faithful person, and notwithstanding Alain Minc, I still subscribe to the electronic version. I just don't want to see Le Monde disappear.
As a side note The Resistance Newspaper was of course Camus' [Combat]
I have read (can't recall where) that, during the Plenel period, the international section managed to hold its own and not be dictated to. (Internal French matters were no doubt of greater importance to the triumvirate anyway). Unfortunately, it doesn't really show all that much any more. Not as it used to.
BTW, there were many newspapers from the Résistance which continued after the end of the war: Combat, led by Henri Frenay, Bertie Albrecht and Claude Bourdet, Libération (the first one), led by Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie and Raymond Aubrac; Le Franc-Tireur, led by Jean-Pierre Lévy: Défense de la France, led by Philippe Viannay, which became France-Soir; Témoignage Chrétien, led by the jesuit Pierre Chaillet; La Vie Ouvrière, the CGT magazine, led by Benoît Frachon; and L'Humanité...
There were also dozens of smaller publications, either professional ones or local one like La Liberté in the Lyon area... "Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
