Jacques Francœur

Jacques Francœur (1925 – July 24, 2005) was a French-Canadian businessman and journalist.

Biography He had a long career in publishing, which began at the age of 16 at the daily newspaper La Patrie. He later worked for the Montreal Daily Star and The Gazette. A few years later, he purchased Le Guide du Nord, which marked the beginning of one of the most important media companies in French Canada.

He founded the Dimanche-Matin newspaper. Following that, he partnered with businessman Paul Desmarais for a number of years to establish the Trans-Canada newspaper group. Toward the end of the 1960s, he acquired the weekly newspapers Le Petit Journal, Photo-Journal, and La Patrie, which he closed in 1978. In 1973, he founded Unimédia, which would become a publishing conglomerate with a workforce of 2,000 employees and four printing plants. It featured a weekly and two dailies: Le Droit in Ottawa, Le Soleil in Québec City and Le Quotidien in Chicoutimi.

After selling Unimédia to Conrad Black in 1987, he launched one of the most prominent private foundations in Québec, Fondation Jacques Francoeur. This foundation is devoted to funding charities that provide relief for the needy, as well as organizations that promote education.