Distributed to Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon and to Britain by the resistance networks Combat and Témoignage chrétien, Défense de la France became the largest circulation newspaper in the underground press, with 450,000 copies per day by January 1944.

[5] In March 1944, after multiple relocations, it was housed on three levels of an industrial building on rue Jean-Dolent, behind the La Santé Prison, in Paris's XIVth arrondissement.

After the liberation, Paris-Soir, which with 1.7 million copies in 1936 was the leading French daily between the wars, forfeited its printing plant in Lyon due to its ambiguous behavior under occupation.

The twelve cartoons were printed with the addition of another depicting other religious figures sitting on a cloud with the caption reading, "Don't worry Muhammad, we've all been caricatured here".

The decision lead to strike by the staff who were displeased with Brunois' plan to cut costs by firing many, and increase circulation by turning the paper into a tabloid.

[17] The site has been criticised since 2019 for publishing false information and spreading conspiracy theories [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] France-Soir had many contributors, journalists and writers, among them Joseph Kessel, Lucien Bodard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Henri de Turenne, Henri Amouroux, Jean Lacouture, Philippe Labro, Philippe Bouvard, Jacqueline Cartier, Max Gallo, Roger Grenier, Jean Dutourd, Gonzague Saint Bris, Jacques Sternberg and Jean-Pierre Thiollet.