Maroc Soir Group

Maroc Soir Group, now publicly branded primarily through Groupe Le Matin, is one of Morocco’s oldest press groups, headquartered in Casablanca. Its origins lie in the French protectorate-era Mas press group, associated with the French publishers Pierre and Yves Mas and titles including Le Petit Marocain. During the Moroccanisation of 1971, the Moroccan state expropriated the Mas group’s titles and reconstituted the publishing house under palace-aligned control. The group’s flagship French-language daily, Le Matin, replaced Le Petit Marocain and became one of Morocco’s principal pro-palace newspapers. The Arabic-language daily Assahra Al Maghribiya later became the group’s main Arabic title.

Today the group’s active public-facing media operations are centred on Le Matin and Assahra Al Maghribiya, alongside digital, video, services and publishing activities associated with Groupe Le Matin. Le Matin remains the flagship title and one of Morocco’s leading French-language newspapers. Assahra Al Maghribiya remains active online and publishes a daily electronic edition.

Media assets

Print: Le Matin, Assahra Al Maghribiya

Ownership and governance

The group’s ownership has passed through private hands since the early 2000s. In 2001, it was acquired by Moroccan businessman Othman Benjelloun. In March 2004, it was sold to the Saudi-British media businessman Othman Al Omeir, reportedly for around US$16 million. Al Omeir is a former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat and founder of the London-based Arabic news site Elaph.

Media-ownership research identifies Al Omeir as the effective controlling owner of Nouvelle Maroc Soir, with the ownership structure running through companies including World Publishing, World Printing, World Distribution and World Advertising. The structure is opaque and does not provide the level of public disclosure needed to assess the group’s finances and ownership arrangements in full. As of mid-2026, SMM found no public disclosure of a change in ultimate ownership.

Mohammed Haitami is the group’s président-directeur général and director of publication. He took the helm in 2013 and continues to be identified in the group’s legal and public-facing material as representing Maroc Soir. Haitami is a former banker who worked at Attijariwafa Bank, part of the royal holding-linked financial ecosystem. The group publishes no formal editorial statute, and there is no independent oversight mechanism governing its editorial direction.

Source of funding and budget

According to media professionals and analysts consulted by SMM in May 2024 and March 2025, Maroc Soir / Groupe Le Matin derives most of its revenue from advertising and sales, with advertising estimated at roughly two-thirds of income and copy sales accounting for the remainder. The company publishes no annual financial reports and discloses no revenue breakdown by title, which makes it difficult to assess its commercial sustainability independently or to gauge the extent of any informal public or state-linked support.

A recurring feature noted by media-ownership researchers is that a substantial share of Le Matin’s print run has historically been distributed through institutional subscriptions, including to state institutions. This helps explain the gap between overall distribution and lower individual-sales figures, and points to a degree of indirect public support for an otherwise privately owned title. The group’s commercial viability has been questioned, given years of weak sales across the Moroccan print sector.

Editorial independence

Maroc Soir / Groupe Le Matin, and particularly its flagship Le Matin, is widely regarded as loyal to the Moroccan monarchy. Le Matin is routinely described in independent assessments as a royalist, pro-government outlet, devoting substantial editorial space to royal activities and official events and echoing state narratives without critical scrutiny. The group avoids confrontational reporting on sensitive matters such as Western Sahara, the monarchy, security policy or high-level corruption, consistent with its longstanding position as an unofficial print voice of the palace.

This editorial stance is consistent with the group’s history, ownership environment and leadership. No formal editorial statute has been published, and no independent oversight mechanism exists to safeguard editorial autonomy. In practice, the group functions as a de facto communication vehicle for the monarchy and state-aligned interests, despite its private ownership. That combination is the defining characteristic of a captured private outlet.

AI and digital policy

The group maintains digital news, video, podcast and service operations around lematin.ma, assahraa.ma and associated platforms. Its current digital presence includes news, video, e-paper, social distribution, announcements, services, forums and branded content. However, SMM identified no public framework governing the use of AI in editorial production, verification, attribution, recommendation systems, audience analytics, synthetic-media labelling, content disclosure, bias mitigation or human editorial oversight. Its digital presence is oriented toward distribution, audience services and multimedia expansion rather than disclosed editorial-technology governance.

Classification rationale

Maroc Soir / Groupe Le Matin is classified as Captured Private (CaPr), a classification maintained from prior SMM cycles and unchanged for 2026. The group is privately owned, with ultimate control held by Saudi-British businessman Othman Al Omeir through the Nouvelle Maroc Soir structure, so it is not state-owned and does not fall in the State-Controlled category.

At the same time, its editorial output is consistently aligned with the monarchy and the government; it is led by an establishment-aligned executive; it benefits from indirect public support through institutional subscriptions and state-linked advertising relationships; and it operates with no safeguard for editorial independence. This combination of private ownership and thoroughgoing editorial capture by state and palace interests is precisely what the Captured Private category describes. The group therefore remains in the CaPr category.

June 2026