LVMH’s Arnault Rivals Bezos and Musk in Wealth—and in Media Influence

The billionaire, one of the world’s richest people, already controls France’s leading financial title, a daily newspaper and a classical radio station, among a host of other media investments. His latest target is Paris Match, a French magazine best known for spreads of politicians and celebrities.

LVMH recently entered exclusive talks to buy the title for about 100 million euros, or roughly $109 million, according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that could be completed in the coming months.

An LVMH spokesman confirmed the negotiations with Lagardère, the magazine’s parent company, but declined to comment further. Lagardère first disclosed the talks late last month.

Arnault’s expanding media holdings place him among a cadre of billionaires who have scooped up prestigious titles in recent years. Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com founder who vies with Arnault and Elon Musk to top the list of the world’s richest person, bought the Washington Post in 2013. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff bought Time magazine. And Musk, who bought Twitter and turned it into X, has said he wants the social-media platform to supplant traditional media as a means of communication.

While none of those entities are big moneymakers, influence has often been more important than profits in the media business.

Magazines and newspapers are also often trophy assets that give their owners “a way to feel the vibrations of society," said Alain Minc, who has advised French executives and politicians.

The bid for Paris Match, if successful, would end Arnault’s yearslong pursuit of the magazine that chronicles the crème de la crème of French society.

Founded in March 1949, the same month that Arnault was born, Paris Match covers major national and international news alongside its celebrity features. While its print circulation has declined in the past couple of decades—its paid distribution now stands at almost 450,000—the weekly publication is still seen as a leading outlet for photojournalism and is often referred to as the photo album of the French.

Being featured in the magazine’s pages has long been considered a rite of passage for France’s aspiring prime ministers and presidents. Last month it ran an interview with the country’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, stoking expectations that he plans to mount a campaign to succeed Emmanuel Macron when the president’s term ends in 2027. Photographed on the phone in his office, his son on his lap, Darmanin, 41, told Paris Match that “his family allows him to put political difficulties into perspective."

It also documents the lives of the rich and famous. In September 2005, the magazine ran a 22-page feature on the marriage of Arnault’s daughter, Delphine, to a wealthy Italian wine heir. Readers learned that the workers of the Dior atelier spent 700 hours stitching together the John Galliano-designed wedding dress, and a further 600 hours embroidering it. Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld took some of the photos.

“Paris Match is transpartisan, it seeks consensus," said Patrick Eveno, emeritus professor at the Sorbonne who specializes in the history of media. “They seek to tell good stories about politicians, about monarchies, about big stars in cinema and music."

Across Europe, many media outlets are in the hands of powerful families and industrial groups, which often face criticism for using them to promote personal goals or influence politicians.

Arnault, who began buying up media assets in the early 1990s, told a French senate inquiry into media ownership in 2022 that his purchases were “more like philanthropy," since many of the titles would have faced an uncertain future without investment from his luxury empire.

Arnault added that his media assets were marginal for LVMH and that he spent relatively little time on them. They made 400 million euros—about $438 million—in annual sales, he said at the inquiry, before adding “unfortunately, the losses are substantial."

Annual revenue at LVMH, whose brands include Louis Vuitton, Dior and Hennessy, surpassed 86 billion euros last year, more than 90% of which was generated outside of France.

Marketing benefits between LVMH’s brands and its media assets are limited, analysts say. The head of LVMH’s press unit has said he wished the group’s brands would advertise more with its titles and less with the competition.

From time to time, though, Arnault has expressed an interest in expanding his media holdings. For instance, he has said publicly that he considered a deal for the Financial Times in 2015 before the British title was eventually sold to Japanese media group Nikkei.

Arnault’s relationship with the media hasn’t always been comfortable. As an owner, he faced a strike at his financial daily Les Echos last year over the abrupt dismissal of the publication’s editor. The newspaper has been operating without an editor in chief for about a year after staff—who get to vote on the title’s top editor—rejected LVMH’s proposed candidate for the role.

As a public figure, Arnault has also faced some uncomfortable scrutiny at times. In 2012, France’s richest man confirmed that he was seeking Belgian citizenship, a move that came as the French government was pressing ahead with a controversial tax on the country’s wealthiest citizens. In response, left-wing newspaper Libération ran a front-page photo of a smiling Arnault carrying a suitcase, alongside the headline, “Get lost, you rich jerk." Arnault sued the publication, and the case was eventually settled before trial. Arnault later withdrew his bid for Belgian citizenship.

Eveno, the professor at the Sorbonne, said that Arnault was generally hands off with his newspapers, particularly when compared with his fellow billionaire Vincent Bolloré, who currently controls Paris Match.

Bolloré is the largest shareholder of French media group Vivendi, which took control of Lagardère last year. He has a record of shifting his media assets to the right of the political spectrum. At one of Vivendi’s 24-hour news channels, he increased time devoted to debates on topics including immigration and violent crime, and helped propel a nationalist French talk-show host to a presidential run.

Bolloré has said that his group invests in the media to make money and not for political or ideological reasons.

One senior journalist at Paris Match said LVMH would in theory be a better owner for the publication because the luxury company is less political, and the two have a natural affinity through some of the topics covered by the magazine.

Still, the journalist said they hoped LVMH—the world’s largest seller of luxury goods—would retain the magazine’s balance of visually rich features on society and the arts, and in-depth reporting on topics like the war in Ukraine.

Write to Nick Kostov at nick.kostov@dowjones.com