Le Matin (France)

The journal was particularly notable during the Dreyfus affair, as early as 1896 questioning the withheld evidence against the officer accused of treason and publishing in July, 1899 the confessions of commandant Esterhazy.

Borne along by effective advertising, by the catchy tone of its articles and its brave reporting, Le Matin continued to increase its circulation, from 100,000 copies in 1900 to around 700,000 in 1910 and more than a million around 1914.

[4] Le Matin was thus one of the four biggest daily French newspapers in the period before World War I, employing 150 journalists such as Gaston Leroux, Michel Zevaco and Albert Londres, along with 500 technicians and other workers.

In 1918, it made the first recorded use of jazband (French for a jazz band), and was subsequently cited in both Über englisches Sprachgut im Französischen and Grand Larousse Dictionnaire de la Langue Française although they mis-typed the date as 1908.

It approved of collaborationist policies in June 1940 and adopted a pro-Nazi line before disappearing on 17 August 1944, a few days after the death of Maurice Bunau-Varilla.