Cinema Notebooks
Les Cahiers du Cinéma is a French monthly film criticism magazine, founded in 1951, publishing reviews, filmmaker interviews, and festival coverage. It serves cinephiles, film students, and film industry professionals through print, digital, and 1951-present archive subscriptions, plus hors-séries and books.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1951
- HeadquartersParis, France
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingDigital Commerce or Content
What Cinema Notebooks does
Les Cahiers du Cinéma is a Paris-based French film criticism magazine founded in April 1951 by the company Les Cahiers du Cinéma SARL, legally a Société à Responsabilité Limitée with stated capital of €18,113.82. It publishes a monthly cinema revue (skipping August) featuring critical essays, filmmaker interviews, festival coverage, and a "Cahier critique" section, alongside themed hors-série special issues dedicated to individual filmmakers (Rohmer, Truffaut, Lynch, Demy, Hitchcock, Almodóvar, Eastwood), books through its Librairie imprint, and access to a fully digitized archive spanning 1951 to the present. The core product is editorial; supporting technology is a content-publishing platform with an online archive and a subscriber "Kiosque" for digital reading.
The business model is consumer-publishing recurring revenue: multi-tier monthly subscriptions (€4.90 digital-only to €16.90 revue + hors-série + archive), single-issue sales (€6.90 digital / €7.90 print), hors-série unit sales (€6-13.90), book sales, and advertising handled by external agency MEDIASOBS. Distribution combines a direct e-commerce storefront at cahiersducinema.com, French newsstand distribution through Distribution Media, and global digital access, with institutional subscriber benefits at cinemas, museums, and theaters and cine-club screening events at Cinéma du Panthéon. Customers are individual cinephiles (primary), film students and academics, and film industry professionals — no select enterprise customers or named logos are disclosed. The operation is lean (1-10 employees), under private ownership with no disclosed investors, parent company, or subsidiaries.
Cinema Notebooks firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Cinema Notebooks
- Legal name
- Les Cahiers du Cinéma
- Website
- https://cahiersducinema.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1951
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Les Cahiers du Cinéma is a French monthly film criticism magazine, founded in 1951, publishing reviews, filmmaker interviews, and festival coverage. It serves cinephiles, film students, and film industry professionals through print, digital, and 1951-present archive subscriptions, plus hors-séries and books.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Cinema Notebooks industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Cinema Magazine Publishing
- NAICS
- Periodical Publishers (51312), Book Publishers (513130)
- SIC
- Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721), Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Arts, Culture & Literary Magazines (MPAJAEAN)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Humanities & Arts Scholarly Publishing (EDAGAFAE)
Keywords
Where Cinema Notebooks is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Paris
- HQ country
- France
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices2 records
Markets served
Cinema Notebooks business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Digital Commerce or Content
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Magazine subscriptions: Monthly magazine subscriptions in print and/or digital formats, with automatic renewal options. Subscriptions include various tiers: basic magazine, magazine with hors-série (special issues), and packages with digital archive access dating back to 1951.
- Single issue sales: Direct sales of individual magazine issues and hors-série (special issues) through the website and physical newsstands/kiosks.
- Book sales: Sale of cinema-related books through the Librairie des Cahiers, including filmmaker monographs and critical collections.
- Advertising: Advertising space sold to third parties, handled by MEDIASOBS agency at 44 rue Notre Dame des Victoires, 75002 Paris.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Basic digital-only subscription |
| Subscription | Monthly | Basic print + digital subscription |
| Subscription | Monthly | Full subscription with hors-série + archives |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Single issue paper |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Single issue digital |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Hors-série special issues |
| Subscription | Monthly | Archive access subscription |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Book packs |
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels6 records
Cinema Notebooks product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Les Cahiers du Cinéma publishes a monthly French cinema magazine featuring film criticism, filmmaker interviews, festival coverage, and a 'Cahier critique' section. The product portfolio also includes hors-série special issues dedicated to individual filmmakers, cinema-related books, and tiered subscription services that bundle the monthly revue, special issues, and access to the digital archive dating back to 1951.
Product overview
Les Cahiers du Cinéma is a monthly French cinema magazine published since 1951, offering a unified product portfolio centered on film criticism and analysis. The core offering is the monthly revue, complemented by special themed hors-série issues dedicated to major filmmakers, published books on cinema, and subscription services with various tiers (print, digital, or combined) that include archive access and partner benefits. The magazine also operates a cine-club, publishes a newsletter, and maintains digital archive access for subscribers.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Revue mensuelle des Cahiers du Cinéma Monthly cinema magazine featuring film criticism, articles, interviews with filmmakers, festival coverage, and the 'Cahier critique' section. Published monthly except August, available in print and digital formats, targeting cinema enthusiasts and film critics.
- Hors-série (Special Issues) Special themed issues dedicated to individual filmmakers such as Éric Rohmer, Pedro Almodóvar, Alfred Hitchcock, François Truffaut, David Lynch, Jacques Demy, and Clint Eastwood. Each issue contains archives, new essays, interviews, and filmographies.
- Livres de cinéma (Librairie des Cahiers) Cinema-related books published by Les Cahiers du Cinéma, including 'Le Goût de la Beauté' (Éric Rohmer's critical writings), 'Six Contes Moraux' (screenplays), and 'Contes des 4 Saisons'. Available individually or in discounted packs, sold through the Librairie des Cahiers.
Companies that use Cinema Notebooks
Customer profileSegments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Cinema Notebooks technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Cinema Notebooks partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators3 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Cinema Notebooks competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Sight & Sound: Long-running British film magazine published by the BFI, widely regarded alongside Cahiers as a leading international film criticism journal. Same target audience of cinephiles, critics, and academics; same long-form critical format and similar international prestige positioning.
- Positif: French monthly film magazine founded in 1952, the direct domestic rival to Cahiers. Targets the same cinephile segment in France, covers festival and auteur cinema, and competes for the same subscription and newsstand buyers.
- Film Quarterly: US academic film journal published by Duke University Press. Comparable in critical depth, scholarly audience overlap, and quarterly-issue format; addresses the same film studies and serious criticism readership from a North American academic base.
- Trafic: French quarterly film journal associated with Éditions P.O.L, founded by Serge Daney. Highly comparable to Cahiers in intellectual register, long-form criticism format, and cinephile audience, though published less frequently.
- Screen (Oxford): Leading British academic journal of screen studies published by Oxford University Press. Overlaps with Cahiers' scholarly cinema criticism audience and shares the long-form, theory-driven editorial approach.
- Film Comment: Bimonthly film magazine published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, focused on serious criticism, interviews, and festival coverage. Comparable editorial mission, target audience (cinephiles and industry professionals), and auteur-driven critical sensibility.
Emerging players
- The Film Stage: Digital film criticism and reviews site with festival coverage and long-form interviews. Targets a younger, English-language cinephile audience that overlaps with Cahiers' international subscriber base, representing a structural competitive threat to subscriber recruitment.
- IndieWire: Digital-first film industry and criticism outlet covering festivals, indie releases, and auteur cinema. Competes with Cahiers for the attention of industry professionals and cinephile readers, but operates as a digital-native publication rather than print magazine.
Regional players
- Cineforum: Italian film criticism magazine that has been published since 1962, covering world cinema with a similar cinephile and auteur-oriented editorial line. Comparable in scope and audience but serves the Italian-language market and does not directly compete in France.
Broad incumbents
- Empire: Major mainstream film magazine from the Bauer Media group. Adjacent rather than direct competition — Empire targets mass-market film fans versus Cahiers' niche cinephile base, but both sell advertising-supported film coverage and compete for overall share of attention in film media.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Cinema Notebooks social profiles
Digital presenceCinema Notebooks financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Cinema Notebooks leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles8 records
Cinema Notebooks funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Cinema Notebooks M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Cinema Notebooks
What does Cinema Notebooks do?
Les Cahiers du Cinéma publishes a monthly French cinema magazine featuring film criticism, filmmaker interviews, festival coverage, and a 'Cahier critique' section. The product portfolio also includes hors-série special issues dedicated to individual filmmakers, cinema-related books, and tiered subscription services that bundle the monthly revue, special issues, and access to the digital archive dating back to 1951.
Is Cinema Notebooks a public or private company?
Cinema Notebooks is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Cinema Notebooks founded?
Cinema Notebooks was founded in 1951. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Cinema Notebooks based?
Cinema Notebooks is headquartered in Paris, France, in the Europe region.
How does Cinema Notebooks make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Magazine subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are single issue sales, book sales and advertising.
Who are Cinema Notebooks's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Sight & Sound, Positif, Film Quarterly, Trafic, Screen (Oxford) and Film Comment. Emerging players are The Film Stage and IndieWire. Cineforum is listed as a regional player. Empire is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Cinema Notebooks have an API?
No public API is recorded for Cinema Notebooks.
What industry is Cinema Notebooks in?
Cinema Notebooks's product category is Cinema Magazine Publishing. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAJAEAN, Arts, Culture & Literary Magazines, with a secondary code of EDAGAFAE, Humanities & Arts Scholarly Publishing. Its NAICS code is 51312 and its SIC code is 2721.