In 2023, the face of LVMH's Bernard Arnault was just one of many – along with those of Axel Dumas (CEO of Hermès) François-Henri Pinault (Kering), Françoise Bettencourt Meyers (L'Oréal), Alain Wertheimer (Chanel) – to illustrate the Challenges magazine's front page for its annual edition devoted to France's biggest fortunes. For the 2024 edition of this annual best-seller, the CEO of the luxury goods group (who is also a minority shareholder in the business magazine) and his children, or his children alone, could have appeared on the cover. Instead, the 29th edition of this ranking, available on French newsstands until the end of summer, features the number "500" in gold on a white background, to represent the top 500 fortunes in France. Is it because Arnault hates this ranking process, which he is said to believe feeds "anti-rich hatred"?
Discussions about this annual special issue began in the spring. "It's always been a sensitive subject to put one or more billionaires on the front page," explained a journalist who, like several of his colleagues at Challenges, spoke on condition of anonymity. "In general, we talk to them about it, there are negotiations, and sometimes things get a bit clashy."
With its focus on legacy and inheritance, the 2024 edition had good reason to feature the Arnault family on the front page. "Some people would have preferred Vincent Bolloré," said editorial director Pierre-Henri de Menthon. "But we'd already chosen him two years ago. It could have been Xavier Niel [founder of Iliad, also a member of Le Monde's supervisory board]. It could have been Nicolas Puech, Hermès' main individual shareholder. For my part, I felt that putting our minority shareholder [Arnault holds 40%] in the spotlight was not a good idea. What would we say if Le Figaro magazine put the Dassault family on its front page?"
On June 5, the man with "the final cut" announced to the editorial team that he had not chosen the "Arnault" front page, as also reported by the StreetPress news site. "He mentioned pressure from Claude Perdriel, the magazine's main shareholder, who had himself been dissuaded by Mr. Arnault," insisted an insider, in other words, "interference in the work of the editorial staff."
"I don't know whether Mr. Arnault expressly asked not to appear on the front page, or whether Mr. Perdriel made this choice out of consideration for his co-shareholder," added Virginie Grolleau, president of Challenges' Society of Journalists (SDJ). In her opinion, the most important thing was that the article devoted to him on the inside pages appeared without censorship or self-censorship.
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