About us

Our Organisation

Bayard is an international creative media group, founded in 1873, made up of journalists, editors, and designers of print, digital, and audiovisual content.

We are a limited company with a board of directors and a supervisory board.

Our sole shareholder, the Congregation of the Augustinians of the Assumption, has ensured the company’s freedom, stability, and independence since the 19th century.

Our values

We are committed to the greater good and strive to care for the environment and future generations. We believe in the liberating power of accurate information, imagination, and creativity that nourishes the soul and brightens life.

Our commitments to society
• Helping people understand the world and providing the keys to act
• Fostering the pleasure of reading for a lifetime of learning and creating
• Accompanying children as they grow up and become themselves
• Building connections
• Embarking on an environmental, human, and social journey

We are committed to putting our words into action, ensuring that our production processes reflect our content (see How do we work?)

Just as we are committed to ensuring that our production choices are consistent with our content, we are particularly mindful of our relationships with our employees, suppliers, and partners.

Our social, societal, and environmental responsibility can only be fulfilled through cooperation and dialog with all our stakeholders: readers, employees, contributors, partners, and suppliers. Change is forged by combining each individual’s talents, skills, and contributions with the company’s values.

Our founding shareholder has opted not to receive a dividend and has set a reasonable level of profitability for the company.

The aim is to ensure our independence, reliability, and credibility while enabling us to continue investing. So, every year, each euro we earn is reinvested in new creations.

History

The localisations of our subsidiary companies

How do we work?

A book, a magazine… is created and sold to publishers from different countries. The publishers translate the book into their local language, prepare the digital files and print the book by their own ways.

It is the process where a book is created and sold to publishers from different countries in a JOINT PRODUCTION. The publishers translate the book into their local language sending the digital files (PDF with their language) for printing back to the proprietor who co-ordinates the overall production. To read more details on this way of selling rights, please click on this link.

An audio book, a digital content… is created by the proprietor in French or in any other language but is sold and distributed by a third party in France or in any other country.

Mindful of the world we are building for future generations, Bayard Group has been working to continuously reduce its carbon footprint and improve its impact on forest resources. We have at our disposal tools to select our partners in the entire production chain on environmental, social, and economic criteria, and thus guarantee more ecologically responsible purchasing.

Below are just a few of the many practices we have adopted as part of this commitment:

• Our manufacturing teams look for paper with lower carbon dioxide emissions, as paper manufacturing has a strong impact on the carbon footprint of books.

• Editorial and sales teams keep the environment in mind as they make design choices: adjusting print runs, choosing optimized formats and/or more easily recyclable embellishments.

• The paper on which we print our books and magazines comes from sustainably managed forests or is PEFC- or FSC-labeled.

• For our fabric toy and bath books, we prefer reinforced, recyclable cardboard packaging.The recycling of our packaging material is an important part of the sustainability of the industry. Paper material can be recycled up to five times.

• Whenever possible, we have chosen to replace single-use plastic and packaging with paper or cardboard. However, a few of our books need to be protected with plastic film—the risk being that damaged books will be scrapped and destroyed, which would contribute to greater waste.

• Whenever possible, we do our best to print in France or in Europe to be as close as possible to our retailers and customers and to support local production and employment.

Our commitment is ongoing, and we are making new and better choices each year. Thank you for your support and encouragement.