Timbres magazine is a French monthly magazine about philately and stamp collecting. It was founded in 2000 by the fusion of three previous publications : Le Monde des philatélistes from Groupe Le Monde, Timbroscopie and Timbroloisirs from the philatelic editor Timbropresse.
In the 2000s, it is one of two major French philatelic magazines with L'Écho de la timbrologie.
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Le Monde newspaper published a weekly philatelic chronicle since 1946. The chronicle, Adalbert Vitalyos, obtained from the paper's founder Hubert Beuve-Méry to publish a philatelic-only magazine, Le Monde des philatélistes whose first edition was sold in October 1951. Vitalyos was the editor-in-chief from 1953 to 1977 while he continued to write his weekly chronicle until 1986.
In 1954, its subtitle became "L'officiel de la philatélie" (the official of philately) after buying three other publications, one of whom possessed this subtitle. In March 2000 and the last issue of Le Monde des philatélistes, it became Timbres magazine's slogan.
Timbroscopie was the emblematic magazine of the editor Timbropresse. Created by Georges Bartoli, it was published from march 1984 and March 2000 with the subtitle "le magazine de la philatélie active" (the magazine of active philately).
Timbropresse's younger magazine was Timbroloisirs whose goal was to enlarge the public of Timbroscopie to philatelic beginners and to give new ideas of collections to confirmed philatelists (by country, topic, etc). From the small-sized Timbroloisirs, Timbres magazine kept cardboard sheets that can be detached and collected about new stamp issues of France, departments of France through stamps, postal history by country,...). These goals were summarized in the subtitle "le magazine des collectionneurs heureux" (the magazine of happy collectors). It was in Timbroloisirs that began a competition of stamps of the world, during which the readers voted for their preferred stamps proposed by postal administrations.
Timbroloisirs was published between Autumn 1989 (issue #0) to March 2000 (#125).
Timbropresse tried a bimonthly magazine for children collectors of any small objects, but Koalec disappeared after one year of existence, in 1999.
In 2000, the unified editor staffs tried to keep what they thought best of the three original magazine : detailed knowledge and minutious research from Le Monde des philatélistes and Timbroscopie while giving some relaxation with topical philately inspired by Timbroloisirs.
In the 2000s, under the direction of editor-in-chief Gauthier Toulemonde,[1] Timbres magazine implicated himself in task outside the range of a simple news giving magazine. In September 2004, it launched a petition to show to the French post that collectors were attached to engraved stamps printed in intaglio versus others printing methods valorizing picture reproduction and computer-aided engraving. That movement became the start of a non-profit organization at the end of 2004, Art du timbre gravé. The magazine published some extra-issue and long articles of engravers' biographies.
While the French magazines have already sold the service to send letters from faraway places to readers, Toulemonde decided in 2005 to prepared the mail, travel with it and filmed the adventurous way to the post offices where he deposed it. He began with uninhabited Clipperton Island during French explorer Jean-Louis Étienne's 2005 expedition, the North Pole and the Maroni River in French Guiana in 2006. In 2007-2008, the magazine participated officially amongst other sponsors to Étienne's Total Pole Airship new expedition over the Arctic.
Consequently, these filmed travels were edited on DVD in Autumn 2006. Quickly, in February 2007, with Place de la toile society, Timbres magazine's redaction opened a website television, TV Timbres, with free broadcast on demand of philatelic documentaries.