Jacques Francoeur

Jacques Gervais Francoeur, CM, journalist, businessman and philanthropist (born 15 May 1925 to Montreal, QC; died 24 July 2005 in Montreal). Francoeur is recognized as a leading figure in Quebec and Canadian media. He is a media magnate and the cofounder of the UniMédia newspaper chain. (See also Newspapers in Canada: 1900–1990s.)

Childhood and Education

Jacques Francoeur is the son of top journalist Louis Francoeur, founding director and editor of conservative newspaper Le Journal de Québec (1930–1934). (See also Newspapers in Canada.) He attended Collège Notre-Dame, Collège Saint-Laurent, Catholic High School and Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University). During his studies, at the age of 16, he took his first steps in journalism at the daily La Patrie.

He honed his journalism skills at the weekly Le Petit Journal, as well as the Ottawa Journal, Montreal Daily Star and The Gazette.

Career

Jacques Francoeur was press secretary to Premier Maurice Duplessis from 1947 to 1950. He then briefly interned at the National Film Board where he later became director of a team of filmmakers.

Imprimerie Montréal-Granby

In 1950 Francoeur was a journalist at the weekly newspaper Le Petit Journal when he went into business and bought Le Guide du Nord, a weekly newspaper in the Montreal-North district. (See also Newspapers in Canada.) After hearing that a Grandy print shop has experiencing financial difficulties, he joined forces with Robert Allard, and in July 1953 they acquired Granby Printing and Publishing, which they named Imprimerie Montréal-Granby. The print shop increased production from 700% to 800% in one week. They updated it to publish the Guide du Nord, Robert Allard’s Guide Mont-Royal, and Le Dimanche-Matin, which they had just created together. The latter came out in 1954, covering arts, news, and sports. At least half of the newspaper was covered in advertising. In 1958, the company’s sales exceeded $20 million. They also bought Imprimerie Saguenay Ltée.

Thirty years later, not being able to compete with La Presse and Le Journal de Montréal who also started publishing a Sunday edition, the last edition of the Dimanche-Matin was published on 17 November 1985.

Later, the Montreal-Granby print shop published both Allo-Police, a weekly crime news magazine, and also the New York tabloid The Star, created by Rupert Murdoch, with 3,500,000 copies printed a week in Granby, earning owners 12 million a year and accounting for more than half the print shop’s sales.

Regular customers also included not only shops and supermarkets such as Sears, The Bay, Simpsons, Horizon, Steinberg, Sports Experts, Jean Coutu pharmacies, Mayrand, Cumberland, Paquet and Laliberté stores, but also malls such as Promenades Saint-Bruno, Galeries d'Anjou and Carrefour Laval.

On 24 January 1954, Francoeur and Allard established the Société générale de publications which continued to acquire newspapers. It operated for ten years, before Francoeur bought Allard’s shares in 1964.

Journaux Trans-Canada

On 10 April 1967, the Groupe Desmarais composed of Paul Desmarais, Gelco and Jacques Francoeur, created the new press group Journaux Trans-Canada Ltée. They controlled Le Dimanche-Matin, La Tribune, Le Nouvelliste, the Granby Leader-Mail, door-to-door newspapers and Les Publications associées. (See also Newspapers in Canada: 1900–1990s.)

In 1968, with among others the main francophone newspaper La Presse from Montreal, the daily Le Nouvelliste and La Voix de l'Est, the associates controlled, together or separately, four of the ten French-language daily newspapers and five of the most important weekly newspapers in Quebec.

On Tuesday, 26 November 1968, the Journaux Trans-Canadian purchased Jacques Brillant’s shares in Communica and were now managers of the following: Le Petit Journal, Dernière Heure, Photo Journal, the Granby station CHEF, the daily La Voix de l'Est and the CJBR-TV television station, as well as the Rimouski station. Their ownership continued until 1975.

The Desmarais group, with its interests in Gelco, Corporation des valeurs Trans-Canada and Journaux Trans-Canada, was at the time the undisputed leader of the press in Quebec.

UniMédia

On 23 August 1973, Jacques Francoeur and accountant Jean-Guy Faucher founded the UniMédia company, a publishing conglomerate with four print shops and 2,000 full-time staff. They also created the Éclair distribution network. Their partnership lasted more than 23 years.

On 20 November 1973, Francoeur ended his association with Paul Desmarais as President and General Manager of Journaux Trans-Canada.

In 1974, UniMédia owned the following newspapers: Le Droit in Ottawa, Le Soleil in Quebec City and Le Quotidien in Chicoutimi. It also owned some thirty weekly newspapers including the following: Le Dimanche-Matin, Dernière Heure, Progrès Dimanche in Chicoutimi, Courrier Laval, Courrier Ahuntsic, Courrier Laurentides, Le Flambeau, Avenir de l'Est, Journal de Rosemont, Progrès de Saint-Léonard, La Parole and Le Voltigeur de Drummondville as well as a new weekly television program entitled TV Plus.

The company also published magazines and paperbacks. It also managed Éditions Novalis des Oblats, which specialized in religious and social publications, as well as distribution companies including Distributions Éclair Ltée, the largest company of its kind in Quebec, and Telésol Inc. UniMédia also has interests in Les Éditions Héritage Inc. and Ademco Location Ltée, a car rental company.

In 1979, Francoeur (UniMédia) purchased Litho Prestige, a print shop in Drummondville. This print shop later became one of the three or four best newspaper print shops in Quebec. In 1982, it was the leader of paperback printing. For example, it could produce 20 000 complete copies per hour. In a single week, it printed one million Harlequin books.

In 1982, UniMédia had sales of $150 million. In addition to managing the company, Francoeur still wrote his column entitled “fourré partout même si ça vous choque” (stuff everywhere, even if it shocks you) in Le Dimanche-Matin, covering news and political events, “just to stay in shape” as he put it.

On the political front, he turned down offers from John Diefenbaker of the Progressive Conservative Party, Daniel Johnson from Union Nationale and Mayor Jean Drapeau from the Parti civique.

Professional Associations

Throughout his career, Jacques Francoeur was involved in several organizations. He was President of the Canadian Newspaper Association, the Association des quotidiens du Québec, the Federal-Provincial-Municipal Inquiry Committee on Emergency Preparedness in Quebec and the Canadian Executive Service Overseas (CESO). He was also a member of the Commission de la sécurité publique de la ville de Montréal, the Commission d’initiative et de développement économiques de Montréal (CIDEM), the Executive Board of the Canadian Press, the Executive Board of the International Press Institute in London, the Club des Entrepreneurs du Conseil du Patronat du Québec and the Conseil consultatif sur l’administration de la justice au Québec.

Philanthropy

In 1987, Jacques Francoeur divested himself of all his shares of UniMédia Inc. to set up an investment company and establish the Fondation Jacques Francoeur, which began operations on 13 January 1988. (See also Canadian Foundations.) Members of his family contributed $10 million for charitable causes. The foundation also established the Les Bourses d’études Jacques Francoeur (Jacques Francoeur Scholarships) to enable recipients to earn a master’s degree in business administration.