Atlantico is a French news website. Founded in March 2011 amid much media attention, it quickly attracted notice for scoops

Scoop (term)

Scoop is an informal term used in journalism. The word connotes originality, importance, surprise or excitement, secrecy and exclusivity.Stories likely considered to be scoops are important news, likely to interest or concern many people. A scoop is typically a new story, or a new aspect to an...

 related to scandals involving the Socialist politician and International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

 head, Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn , often referred to in the media, and by himself, as DSK, is a French economist, lawyer, politician, and member of the French Socialist Party...

.

The website is inspired by the American websites The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...

 and The Daily Beast

The Daily Beast

The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine. The Daily Beast was launched on October 6, 2008, and is owned by IAC...

. It characterizes its editorial position as "[classical] liberal

Classical liberalism

Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....

 and independent", while other French media have associated it with the right wing of the French political spectrum, a label rejected by Atlantico.

51% of Atlanticos stock of one million euro is held by its founders, the journalists Jean-Sébastien Ferjou, Pierre Guyot, Loïc Rouvin and Igor Daguier, and the remaining 49% by "Free Minds", a group of investors that includes Arnaud Dassier, a former campaign adviser to French president Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....

. As of 2011, the site does not charge for access and is financed through advertisements. Its staff of about ten journalists also includes Gilles Klein, Anita Hausser, Christian de Villeneuve and Yves Derai, and among its regular contributors are the writers Chantal Delsol, Paul-Marie Coûteaux

Paul-Marie Coûteaux

Paul-Marie Coûteaux is the son of André Couteaux and a French politician, writer, and former Member of the European Parliament for Ile-de-France with the Mouvement pour la France, Member of the Bureau of the Independence and Democracy and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign...

, Gérard de Villiers

Gérard de Villiers

Gérard de Villiers is a French writer, journalist and editor. His SAS series of spy novels have been bestsellers, with his total sales running into more than 150 million. His works have been translated and are especially popular in Germany, Russia, Turkey, and Japan...

, Guy Sorman

Guy Sorman

Guy Sorman is a French professor, columnist, author and public intellectual in economics and philosophy. He has written twenty books that promote the ideals of creativity and modern capitalism. His views are close to classical liberalism...

 and Tristane Banon

Tristane Banon

Tristane Banon is a French journalist and writer. She is the daughter of Anne Mansouret and Gabriel Banon. She is a regular contributor on youth affairs at the French news website Atlantico.-Biography:...

.