Lagardère Active announces acquisition of the Psychologies magazine group

Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber and Didier Quillot

announce the sale of the block of shares held by the Servan-Schreiber Family, that is 51% of the Group Psychologies (Finev, Inter psycho, Selma), to the Lagardère Active Group which had held a 49% stake in this Group since June 2004.

Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber, who is 70 years old, wished to lighten the role of newspaper baron that he has assumed for the past 48 years*.

Didier Quillot, for his part, wished to reinforce the presence of the Psychologies Group in the women’s/health/well-being segment where Lagardère Active has a leadership position in France as well as abroad.

Over the last ten years the Psychologies Group has enjoyed remarkable and uninterrupted growth in terms of circulation (372,630 copies, DTP, OJD 2007) and advertising revenues. The first half of 2008 has seen a continuation of these trends, notably in advertising, with Psychologies steadily increasing its market share. Psychologies magazine is, in France, in terms of circulation and ad revenue among the first three upscale monthly women’s magazines.

Over the last four years, Psychologies magazine has been introduced in 8 countries with the support of Lagardère Active, and has become a global brand.

For their part, the psychologies.com site and its affiliated sites have since the start of 2008 been passing the figure of one million unique visitors (Nielsen) and more than 20 million page views, one of the best results among sites spun off from magazines.

Its web-based advertising revenue accounts for 10% of total ad revenue for the Psychologies Group, thus demonstrating how the Lagardère Active Group is deploying its digital transformation model.
Lagardère Active points out that 5 to 10 % of its revenue will be generated by digital initiatives by 2008, one year ahead of schedule.

Psychologies Group’s new CEO will be Arnaud de Saint Simon, who till now was Managing Director and for fifteen years one of the prime movers in the Psychologies magazine saga. He was, among other things, instrumental in the international and digital development of the group over these last few years.

Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber (JLSS) is to become Chairman of the board. He will, moreover, be given the mandate of checking the editorial quality of current and future editions of Psychologies magazine.

Bruno Lesouëf, CEO of the Magazine Publishing Division France for Lagardère Active will be appointed Vice Chairman of the board of the Psychologies Group.

Perla Servan-Schreiber, who will sit on the board of the Psychologies Group, will continue as head of Interpsycho, which sells all the advertising in hard copy and digital format for the group.

New Web-based developments are scheduled in September and international launches of the magazine are set to continue with a new country planned next October.

Arnaud Lagardère will propose, at the next Lagardère SCA General Assembly, that JLSS becomes a member of the Supervisory Board of Lagardère Group.

Arnaud Lagardère emphasized that « Psychologies is one of the French media’s greatest success stories. It was not the result of chance, but of the right combination of energy, vision, and business ethics that Perla and Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber so knowingly shared with others. I am especially pleased that he will continue to share with our Group his boundless curiosity».

Didier Quillot, Chairman and CEO of Lagardère Active said: « We are proud and happy to incorporate the assets of Psychologies into Lagardère Active as both groups are key players in the women’s/wellbeing/health segment where we are already present with Doctissimo and our women’s brands. Lagardère Active now faces the formidable challenge of continuing to develop Psychologies, a brand which has become emblematic in the course of time and to incorporate it into our global multi-media and multi-location strategy ».

Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber said: « After four years of cooperation with the Lagardère Group, strong ties have been forged between our editorial teams. The atmosphere of trust and mutual respect that prevails between us bodes well for the pursuit of the adventure of Psychologies as a multimedia vehicle present in many countries. I will continue to support the efforts and creativity of those who, with us, built the reputation of Psychologies, primarily its heart, Hélène Mathieu’s editorial team ».

* JLSS has, inter alia, revamped in 1961 Les Echos and in 1963, assisted by his brother JJSS, transformed L’Express into a news magazine. In 1967 with Jean Boissonnat he created L’Expansion, then built the Expansion Group, in 1982 he created Radio Classique and in 1998 relaunched Psychologies magazine.
See on Wikipedia : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Louis_Servan-Schreiber