Media baron Rodolphe Saadé buys La Tribune 

Rodolphe Saadé, at the helm of a company which made more money last year than any other corporate in French history, is increasingly becoming a media mogul to add to his transportation background.

CMA CGM, headed by Saadé, announced today it is buying La Tribune, one of France’s top business titles, adding to a stable of outlets contained in the fast-growing CMA CGM Medias division, which includes La Provence and Corse Matin newspapers, a minority stake in TV channel M6, and a holding in online media platform Brut.

“CMA CGM aims to be a decisive player in innovation and transformation in the media sector,” the Marseille-headquartered company, best known for its liner activities, stated in a release today. 

Shipowners owning media titles is nothing new. In Greece, Vangelis Marinakis has become one of the nation’s top media tycoons to go alongside his sprawling shipping and football empires. Likewise, Giannis Alafouzos is equally known in Greece for his media holdings as well as his shipowning interests.

In Norway, the Olsens own media group NHST, publishers of TradeWinds, via their control of the Bonheur Group while in Asia there have been many examples of shipping tycoons controlling media groups such as Robert Kuok’s tenure at the South China Morning Post. Elsewhere, the K K Birla Group, which owns the Hindustan Times newspaper also owns India Steamship Co, which has been running since 1928.