Petit Parisien, Le. Founded in 1876, and managed by the Dupuy family from the 1880s, Le Petit Parisien replaced Le Petit Journal as the top-selling daily in 1901. Generally moderate in tone in its coverage of politics, it concentrated on providing a satisfactory mix of romans-feuilletons, crime and human-interest stories, sports coverage, and distinguished reporting. Albert Londres (1884-1932)—after whom the annual prize for good reporting is named—exposed the conditions of prisons in Cayenne in its columns (1922). Exceeding 2.1 million, Le Petit Parisien's circulation in 1917 was the highest ever attained by a French daily newspaper. It ceased publication in 1944.

[Michael Palmer]

The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.