A success story sweeping through historyCHARLES-LOUIS HAVAS

what do the havas group and AgenceFrance-press (AFp) have in common?

well, both were founded by a French-born man of hungarian descent, charles-Louis havas.

Find out about the adventurous life ofthe father of modern infocommunications andadvertising, worthy of a semi-bureaucratic thriller. you’ll not be disappointed!

1783.was born on 5th of July inCHARLES-LOUIS HAVAS

rouen

Right place at the right time

the events of the 1780s had significant impact on the life of

charles-Louis havas. not just because he was born in 1783 -

although that’s not an aspect to neglect either - but because

on August 26, 1789, the French national Assembly adopted the

Declaration of the rights of Man and of the citizen.

1789”the free communication of ideas and of opinions is one of the most precious

rights of man. Any citizen may therefore speak, write and publish freely, except

what is tantamount to the abuse of this liberty in the cases determined by Law.”

the publication of the declaration was a huge boost to the French press, and close

to 1,500 newspapers were published on the market in barely six months.

not much is known about the early years of havas. his father is said to have worked as a censor for the government, which meant his son had access to all the ministers who frequently shared confidential information with him. over the years, charles-Louis havas increased his social capital while learning a number of languages (which, as we’ll see later, will be important) and was, as a result, charged with being a spy for napoleon Bonaparte. historians also believe that during the napoleonic wars, the young havas once successfully broke through a blockade, earning the reward of becoming co-owner of the gazette de France newspaper for a while, which is where he encountered the world of news.

it is, however, a fact that the defeat at waterloo (June 18, 1815) came as bad news for havas, who lost his stake in the newspaper and went completely broke. he didn’t give up, renting out his knowledge and working as a translator for various newspapers.

napoleon Bonaparte

THE WORLD SPEEDS UP1812-1835 PRINTING MACHINE - LINOTYPE

Koenig’s double cylinder printer Friedrich Koenig Joseph Kliegl’s typographic linotype, 1835.

it is already 1812 when Friedrich Koenig invents the cylinder press that revolutionises paper and book publishing. the situation becomes even more acute with Joseph Kliegl’s invention, the linotype. the machine works using much the same principle as a typewriter: when pressing a given key, the corresponding letter comes out of its case, and is printed onto its place by its own weight. with this development, everything was in place for newspapers and news to be spread all over the cities.

Agence hAVAs, the worLD’s Very First news Agency AnD the preDecessor

oF toDAy’s AFp is estABLisheD.

1835

Many years passed with sedulous work until finally havas opened up his own office in 1832, where he translated articles from foreign papers, selling the translations to bankers, businessmen and politicians. three years later, in 1835, charles-Louis transforms his enterprise and launches the world’s first news agency, Agence havas. this is where people such as paul Julius reuter (founder of the reuters news agency) and Bernard wolff (founder of wolff, the third largest news agency of its time, the forebearer of Deutsche presse Agentur) got their start.

WHEn a caREER LifTS Off...

cHanGinG cOMPETiTiOn

1849 – Bernhard wolff establishes the Berlin-based news agency, wolff.

1851 – paul Julius reuter moves to London and establishes reuter.

fly birdie, fly!in the beginning havas, like everyone else, used carrier pigeons to dispatch news.every day, hundreds of passenger pigeons carried information on London stock exchan-ge prices and news from locations of the war and various conflicts. however, the Agence havas was the first to start using the Morse telegraph; moreover, thanks to social capital, it was the only firm allowed use of the network among civil organisations. the agency held on to this privilege up until 1850.

TELEGRaPH-SYSTEM1837 SAMuEL MORSE

Morse-code Samuel Finley Breese Morse The Morse telegraph

1857

As the agency grew—with correspondents now reporting from crimea, italy, Mexico and the united

states—, so did its expenses. in order to cover increased costs, havas began to deal with advertising

as well. there were other companies offering similar services, but the news mogul bought out these

firms, effectively achieving a monopoly on the advertising market by 1857. he used various models

to sell advertising locations. in one of these models, the news agency offered a given newspaper the

opportunity to pay for some of the news purchased by offering advertising spaces. this allowed

havas to resell these spaces to industrialists and traders looking to advertise.

the Beginning oF ADVertiseMent

French posters from the 1800s.

chArLes-Louis hAVAs Dies; his enterprise,

howeVer, now stAnDs on its own Feet.

1858

As the operating expenses of news agencies rose significantly—the cost of gathering

and forwarding information and news are all very high—, the agencies came to an agreement

to avoid bitter competition. the first such agreement was concluded in 1859 by the havas,

wolff and reuter agencies, with Associated press also joining up in 1872.

1870DiVision oF the worLD MArKet

France and its colonial empire, switzerland, italy, spain, portugal, egypt (together

with reuter) as well as central and south-America fell under havas’ competence.

reuter was assigned great Britain and the British empire, turkey, egypt (together

with havas) as well as the Far east. germany, Austria, holland, the scandinavian

countries, russia and the Balkans fell under the jurisdiction of the german

telegraphic office (wtB), while Ap was left with the united states and canada.

DiViSiOn Of THE WORLD MaRKET

With radio gradually winning more and more ground, the role

of news agencies loses significance as news services become

much faster than ever before. Havas cannot help being affected

in the process and loses market share. Eventually, the state buys

up 47 percent of the now struggling firm.

1930

1940During wwii, gerMAn inVADers chAnge the Agency’s

nAMe toFrench inForMAtion oFFice, with onLy

the ADVertising DepArtMent retAining

the hAVAs nAMe.

the journalists of the resistance took back the agency building

in 1944, restarting news communication under the name Agence

France-press (AFp). not much later, AFp was nationalised.

Agence France-press is considered one of the leading news

agencies to this day, while havas has become one of the biggest

advertising agencies in the world.

LiBERaTiOn anD BREaKinG aPaRT

EVOLUTiOn Of THE HaVaS LOGO

20th century 1970 1980 1990-- -

2002- PRESENT

today, the havas group is present in 75 countries of the world with 15 000 employees. the services it offers include mostly everything, from traditional advertising through direct marketing to media planning and buying.