About Les Affaires

Les Affaires

Les Affaires is a French-language business newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1928, it is one of the oldest business publications in Canada, appearing monthly in print with 14 issues per year alongside a full digital operation. Owned by the Contex Group since 2019 and directed by Pierre Marcoux and editor-in-chief Marie-Pier Frappier, Les Affaires serves Quebec's business community with journalism on management, business strategy, and entrepreneurship, complemented by events, a personal finance magazine, and digital platforms — a nearly century-old institution that has continually reinvented itself for each new era of Quebec business.

Overview

Les Affaires is aimed at those who do business in Quebec — or want to. Its journalism covers the province's companies, entrepreneurs, and economic trends through features and analysis on management, business strategy, and entrepreneurship, with an editorial ambition to look beyond the facts in examining issues of topical interest. The intended audience is business people and individuals aged 30 to 55: the managers, owners, investors, and professionals who drive Quebec's French-speaking economy. Available in print and digital editions through its app, with content also published at lesaffaires.com across mobile, tablet, computer, and TV platforms, Les Affaires is a multi-platform business media brand rather than merely a newspaper.

History

Founded in 1928, Les Affaires has chronicled nearly a century of Quebec business history. The paper was born into the final year of the Roaring Twenties and lived through the Great Depression that followed — an inauspicious start that it survived to document the province's transformation. It covered Quebec's industrialization in the post-war decades, the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s that brought the Quebec state into the economy as never before, and the rise of "Quebec Inc." — the network of francophone-owned enterprises, from Bombardier to Cascades to Couche-Tard, that became symbols of the province's economic emancipation. It reported through the sovereignty referendums, the constitutional battles, and the waves of globalization that reshaped Canadian business, and it has documented the digital transformation of the provincial economy in the twenty-first century. Few Canadian business publications can claim such longevity, and fewer still have observed a single provincial economy across so many of its defining chapters.

In 2019, the publication was acquired by the Contex Group, placing it under the leadership of Pierre Marcoux as president of the group. The acquisition positioned Les Affaires within a Quebec media group oriented toward business audiences, and the paper has continued to develop its print, digital, and events operations under the new ownership. Marie-Pier Frappier serves as chief editor, directing the newsroom's coverage of the province's business life.

Content

Les Affaires' content features reporting and analysis on management, business strategy, and entrepreneurship, aimed at helping Quebec business people understand and navigate their economic environment. The paper looks beyond the day's headlines to examine the issues shaping Quebec business — from succession in family enterprises to the financing of startups, from the strategies of the province's corporate champions to the challenges facing small and medium businesses in the regions.

Beyond the newspaper itself, Les Affaires operates a division that organizes major events for the business community — conferences, galas, and networking forums that make the brand a convenor of Quebec's francophone business elite as well as its chronicler. In Quebec's relationship-driven business culture, where deals are made as much at the cocktail reception as in the boardroom, the events business is a natural extension of the journalism: the same audience that reads the paper's analysis of business strategy gathers at its conferences to debate that strategy in person. It also publishes Les Affaires Plus, a personal finance magazine extending the brand into wealth management and individual financial planning — recognizing that its readers' professional lives as managers and entrepreneurs are inseparable from their personal financial decisions. The combination of journalism, events, and specialized magazines gives Les Affaires multiple touchpoints with its audience across their professional and personal lives.

Coverage and Audience

Les Affaires covers Quebec business: the province's companies, its entrepreneurs, its economic policies, and its place in the Canadian and global economies. While national business media cover Quebec from Toronto or Ottawa, Les Affaires covers it from Montreal, in French, with the insider's understanding of the province's distinctive business culture — the role of the state, the importance of language, and the networks that bind Quebec Inc. together. "Quebec Inc." is more than a slogan: it describes a real ecosystem of francophone capital, from the Caisse de dépôt's investments to the family-controlled enterprises that dominate sectors from retail to engineering, and Les Affaires has been its paper of record for generations. For readers outside the province, the paper offers a window into an economy that operates by somewhat different rules; for readers inside it, the paper is simply indispensable.

The intended audience — business people and individuals aged 30 to 55 — reflects the paper's positioning as a working tool for active professionals rather than a general-interest publication. Its readers are the decision-makers of Quebec's francophone economy: executives, entrepreneurs, investors, and the professionals who advise them.

Role in Quebec's Media Landscape

Les Affaires occupies a unique position as the French-language business paper of record for Quebec. English-speaking business readers have national options — The Globe and Mail's Report on Business, the Financial Post — but francophone Quebec business people have Les Affaires. In a province where language shapes economic life — where business is conducted in French, where the major institutions operate in French, and where the business elite is overwhelmingly francophone — a dedicated French-language business publication is not a niche product but an essential one. No Toronto-based publication, however well-resourced, can replicate the paper's embeddedness in Quebec's business networks: its reporters know the players, its events gather them, and its journalism reflects an understanding of the province's economic folkways that outsiders rarely achieve. The paper's events division amplifies this role, making Les Affaires a physical gathering place for the business community as well as a publication.

The 2019 acquisition by Contex Group reflected the broader consolidation of Quebec media, as independent titles found homes within larger groups. Under Contex, Les Affaires has maintained its editorial identity while developing the digital and events extensions that sustain modern business media.

Ownership

Les Affaires has been owned by the Contex Group since 2019. The group is led by president Pierre Marcoux, who directs the publication alongside editor-in-chief Marie-Pier Frappier. The ownership places the nearly century-old title within a Quebec-based media group focused on business audiences, providing the resources for its print, digital, events, and magazine operations — and ensuring that one of French Canada's oldest business publications remains rooted in the province whose economy it covers.

Digital Presence

Les Affaires operates a full digital presence anchored by lesaffaires.com, which publishes the newspaper's content plus additional material, designed for compatibility across mobile phones, tablets, computers, and televisions. The publication offers print and digital editions through its app, and maintains a Facebook page, a Twitter account, an Instagram account, and a LinkedIn company page — covering the social platforms where its professional audience is active, from LinkedIn's business networks to Instagram's visual storytelling. The digital operation extends the monthly print rhythm into continuous publishing, keeping the brand present in its readers' lives between issues and reaching younger business readers who may never pick up the print edition.