Havas arranges

The arranges Havas , created in France at the 19th century, is oldest News agency in the world. It will be divided into two branches in 1940, which will become on the one hand the group of publicity Havas and on the other hand the Agence France-Press.

The “agency of the political sheets”

The Havas agency is founded in 1835 by the former banker Charles-Louis Havas, under the name of “Agency of the political sheets, general correspondence”. The activity of origin of this Parisian small company consists to translate and import the new data by the foreign newspapers, and to compile those given by the French newspapers. Thus is born the trade from “agencier paper”.

Under the Monarchy of July (1830 - 1848), Charles-Louis Havas will develop with heat his activity so as to make itself essential for the whole of the Parisian press. In 1838, the government gives the responsability it to make a “ministerial correspondence to him” to hold informed the government officials, drawing the first steps of the close relationships between the State and the Agency. The network of correspondents abroad extends, the fastest means are employed to transmit information. The Agency of the political sheets is thus at a peak for the use of the Télégraphe, as of 1845.

Information with publicity

In 1852, Charles-Louis Havas yields the place to his two sons, Charles-Guillaume and Gustave. They will develop in 1855 a new employment, more gainful than the Information: the Publicity. To reduce the costs, they will make from the agreements of division of the world with two competitors, former employees of their father: Julius Reuter which settled with London, and Bernhard Wolf which is with Berlin.

In 1879, with the retirement of Auguste Havas, the company loses its family character to become a Public limit company (SA). It is the time when the press experiences a fast development, in particular in France thanks to the law of the July 29th 1881, known as law Hébrard. Average the techniques which make it possible to convey the Information progress too. Havas invests in the Téléphone, the Téléscripteur and the long waves radio. In 1896, the Havas agency settles place of the Stock Exchange, with Paris, in the building occupied today by the Agence France-Press.

In the years 1930, a new technological revolution, the Short waves still improve the communications, so much so that the agreements between news agencies are broken, each one developing its own network. The investments are heavy, and the Gouvernement French finds its interest to finance a part estimated at more than of it 47%, because the network of Havas takes part in the French presence abroad in a tended international context.

When the France is invaded by the Germany in 1940, the agency loses its independence. The branch Publicité remains in the private one, under the name of Havas, and information connects it passes in the bosom of the Régime of Vichy under the name of French Office of information (OFI) .

End of a history

At the time of the Release of Paris, the August 20th 1944, Journaliste S members of the Résistance seize the OFI. They emit the first dispatch of a free agency which will take the name of Agence France-Press (AFP) the September 30th 1944.

On its side, the Havas agency of publicity is nationalized. It will launch out in tourism and will extend its activities to various forms of communication before being privatized in 1987 to take the denomination of Havas S.A.

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