Minute () was a weekly newspaper, initially right-wing but later far-right, circulated in France from 1962 to 2020. Its editorial position is satirical and conservative. According to figures provided by the paper's management, it had a circulation of 40,000 copies a week in 2006. Its headquarters is in Paris.
History
First decade
In 1962, Minute was created by Jean-François Devay, former director of L'Aurore. In its early years, Minute included a large number of articles devoted to show-biz and humorous cartoons. The paper's politics rapidly hardened, particularly following the end of the Algerian War. It became less and less devoted to show-biz news, and became a political newspaper regarded as right-wing but supporting no particular party.
During its heyday (250,000 copies sold per week 1962–1981) the editorial staff were invited to participate every Sunday in Club de la presse, a television and radio show about politics. The tone was very critical of Charles de Gaulle, and the paper had many readers among those disaffected with the Algerian War. Pieces by François Brigneau, who joined the paper in 1963, were noted for their biting anti-Gaullist prose. In 1965 the paper contributed to breaking news of the Ben Barka affair.
The list of shareholder-benefactors of the paper included such names as Fernand Raynaud, Françoise Sagan, Juliette Gréco (a leftist and a supporter of François Mitterrand, only during the paper's initial show-biz focus), Eddie Barclay and Marcel Dassault.
Devay died of cancer in 1971. He was replaced as head of publishing by Jean Boizeau. François Brigneau took on the chief editorship for a time but the extreme political tone with which he infused the paper led to his replacement, and he returned to his position of star editor. During the 1970s the paper adopted an far-right editorial line.
Until 1975 Minute was subject to bomb attacks for three times.
Move to the far-right
In the second half of the 1970s, Minute adopted a hard-right line marked by its support for the National Front, to whom the newspaper's journalists devoted many articles. Ultimately the party head-hunted Minute'''s information officer.
At the very beginning of the 1980s, sales of the paper, affected by the support shown to Jean-Marie Le Pen and the loss of investigative reporter such as Jean Montaldo (resigned in 1972), started to decline. Nevertheless Minute retained political influence, and was particularly anti-communist. For example, it helped to publicise the accusations by the daily l'Express against Georges Marchais (the communist leader who, unknown to most French people at the time, had volunteered to work in the Messerschmitt aircraft factory in Germany during the Second World War), and similar charges against Georges Guingouin, former leader of the wartime Maquis du Limousin.
Serge de Beketch, formerly head of information, became chief editor of Minute in 1979. He left the paper in 1986 when Jean-Marie Le Pen chose him to manage National-Hebdo. Among other famous Minute journalists was Patrick Buisson, historian of the Organisation armée secrète and, 30 years later, adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy. Twice, in August 1982 and in April 1985, Minute offices were attacked. An anarcho-communist group called Action Directe claimed responsibility.
In 1987-88 the editorial staff split and formed the rival publications Minute and Le Chardon. Le Chardon would only last a few months before the editorial team reformed under the name Minute-Le Chardon.
In 1990, Serge Martinez, a National Front deputy at the time who later became second-in-command and financier of Bruno Mégret, bought Minute. He transformed the paper into a more news-focussed format and the title became La France, with Minute only appearing as a subtitle or surtitle depending on the issue. He sold the paper three years later as the new formula did not succeed in increasing sales.
That same year (1993), Gérald Penciolelli bought Minute with the intention of turning it back into its original form and abandoning the news focus. Its overall layout was also changed to one that greatly resembled the appearance of Le Canard enchaîné ("The Chained Duck"); it accompanied this change with the slogan "Not all ducks are on the left".