The Press: The LIFE of Paris

In the complex world of French journalism, ownership of newspapers and magazines is often a closely guarded secret and political pasts something many publishers would rather not discuss. No one is more mysterious about his past or surer of his present than aging (69), aloof Jean Prou-vost, whose LIFE-like picture weekly, Paris-Match (circ. 1,160,000), is one of the biggest magazines on the Continent, and who also holds financial control of the conservative, respected Figaro (circ. 499-200), oldest daily in France. Among French newsmen and politicos. Publisher Prouvost has been called everything from the "obscene corrupter of the press" to "the savior of the fourth estate." But on one judgment all agree: Prouvost is the king of French publishing.

Last week, in his shabby headquarters near the Champs-Elysées, Publisher Prouvost was getting ready to reinforce his claim to the throne. He and his staff were reviving Marie-Claire, a woman's monthly something like the Ladies' Home Journal that before the war had more than a mil lion readers.

Invasion. Prouvost made his mark in publishing the easy way. A wealthy wool producer, he bought a small daily in 1924, later bought another, Paris-Soir. By setting his editorial sights low, he pushed circulation high, made Paris-Soir the biggest (circ. 2,000,000) newspaper in prewar France. He branched out into magazines, brought out Marie-Claire, and in 1938, on the heels of LIFE's success in the U.S., converted a struggling sports magazine, Match, into a thriving picture weekly. Prouvost went into politics with less success, was Minister of Information in the Reynaud government (1940) and briefly held the same job under Collaborationist Petain. When the Nazis invaded France, they killed his two magazines but turned

Paris-Soir into their chief propaganda organ. Prouvost, who moved to Southern France, was accused of collaborating with the Germans and retaining control of his paper. But after the liberation an investigating court cleared him of the charges and Prouvost started his comeback.

His tainted newspaper never came out again, but Prouvost's protégé fiery, able Editor Pierre Lazareff, filled the void by starting France-Soir and making it France's biggest daily (TIME, June 23 1947). In 1948 Prouvost launched Match again. For two years it lost money, but gradually he picked up circulation and one of the best staffs in Europe. Now Match, has a well-paid, 120-man editorial staff and charges the highest advertising rate in France: $4,000 for a black and whit page, $5,140 for color. In 1951, still searching for a daily for himself, Prouvos bought control (49%) of Le Figaro, let its editors run the paper with a free hand and stays far in the background.

Imagination. To most of his staff Prouvost is a mystery man. He sits in small room with peeling wallpaper at table covered with green baize cloth an gives orders to a small, devoted group of deputies. Matchmen freely admit that they use "American methods" to get stories in a country where most journalist operate with a maximum of tact and minimum of imagination. In Rome, at a elevation of new cardinals, a Match photographer disguised himself as a papal servant, ushered visitors to their seat while he quietly snapped pictures of the ceremony with a camera hidden under his robes.