L'Essor was first published in 1949, and from 1953 was the official publication of the Union Soudanaise-Rassemblement Démocratique Africain, the leading anti-colonial political party of what was then French Soudan.
[2] Even after the fall of the Socialist government in 1968, the paper continued to carry articles from the Soviet and Chinese wire services, giving it an anti-Western slant.
[1] Following the 1991 return to democracy, L'Essor was again transferred, this time to a new government owned printing and distribution house, the Malian Agency for Press and Publicity.
While managed by the Malian Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, the AMP and L'Essor retain a high degree of independence from the government.
"[4] L'Essor also has economic advantages, in that government ministries and state enterprises use its pages for their advertisements, for legal notices, and purchase newspaper subscriptions.