Evelyne Prouvost, Marie Claire press group founder, passes away

The founder of press group Marie Claire has passed away at the age of 78, as a result of an accident. The announcement was made on Thursday by her son, Arnaud de Contades, the group's general director.

Evelyne Prouvost died on Wednesday morning after falling from a bicycle in Belle-Ile-en-Mer, in the Morbihan region of France, according to French newspaper Le Parisien.

She was the granddaughter of Jean Prouvost, the founder of Marie Claire magazine and Paris Match, and was also the owner of the Figaro, RTL and Télé 7 Jours.

Evelyne Prouvost launched Cosmopolitan magazine in France in 1973. She founded the Marie Claire group in 1976, buying up some of the magazines created by her grandfather. She went on to develop the group, "launching numerous titles in France and internationally, making Marie Claire one of the three top womenswear magazines in the world," the group said.

"A leading figure in the press is now gone. Pioneering, entrepreneurial, audacious, inspiring, captivating, Evelyne Prouvost-Berry was all of these things at once," the association of magazine editors commended her in a press release.

The Marie Claire group publishes 12 magazines (Marie Claire and its offshoots, Avantages, Cosmopolitan, Famili, La Revue du vin de France, Stylist) and is present in 30 countries.