''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily
general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as
GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by
Eugenio Scalfari,
Carlo Caracciolo ''Don'' Carlo Caracciolo, 9th Prince of Castagneto, 4th Duke of Melito (Florence, 23 October 1925 – Rome, 15 December 2018) was an Italian publisher. He created Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso, one of Italy's leading publishing groups. He was known a ...
and
Arnoldo Mondadori Editore. Born as a
leftist newspaper,
it has since moderated to a milder
centre-left political stance, and moved further to the centre after the appointment of
Maurizio Molinari as editor.
History
Foundation
''la Repubblica'' was founded by
Eugenio Scalfari,
previously director of the weekly magazine ''
L'Espresso''.
The publisher
Carlo Caracciolo ''Don'' Carlo Caracciolo, 9th Prince of Castagneto, 4th Duke of Melito (Florence, 23 October 1925 – Rome, 15 December 2018) was an Italian publisher. He created Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso, one of Italy's leading publishing groups. He was known a ...
and
Mondadori
Arnoldo Mondadori Editore () is the biggest publishing company in Italy.
History
The company was founded in 1907 in Ostiglia by 18-year-old Arnoldo Mondadori who began his publishing career with the publication of the magazine ''Luce!''. In 1 ...
had invested 2.3 billion
lire (half each) and a break-even point was calculated at 150,000 copies. Scalfari invited a few trusted colleagues: Gianni Rocca, then
Giorgio Bocca
Giorgio Valentino Bocca (28 August 1920 – 25 December 2011) was an Italian essayist and journalist, also known for his participation in the World War II partisan movement.
Biography
Bocca was born in Cuneo, Piedmont, the son of teachers, an ...
,
Sandro Viola,
Mario Pirani,
Miriam Mafai,
Barbara Spinelli,
Natalia Aspesi and
Giuseppe Turani. The cartoons were the prerogative of
Giorgio Forattini until 1999.
Early years
The newspaper first went on sale on 14 January 1976. It was presented as the first Italian
tabloid with some sections such as sports and business intentionally left out. When it was founded, it was intended to be a "second newspaper", with only major news at the national level, to an audience that has already read a local newspaper. It was composed of 20 pages and was published from Tuesday to Sunday. The paper defined itself as a "giornale-partito" (meaning "newspaper-party") in its initial stage.
During the first two years, it built up a core-audience identified as members of the
centre-left and the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy.
The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...
(PCI). In 1977, Scalfari decided to cater to the university student movement, so ''la Repubblica'' began its expansion. The strength of the newspaper lay particularly in the editorial comments section, which was always incisive and thought-provoking. In the meantime,
Giampaolo Pansa from ''
Corriere della Sera'' became Deputy Director, alongside Rocca and Pirani.
In early 1978, average sales amounted to 114,000 copies. During the 55 days of the
Moro kidnapping, ''la Repubblica'' backed the policy of hardline non-negotiation while reporting on the pro-negotiation approach led by
Bettino Craxi of the
Italian Socialist Party (or PSI). The paper's stance proved popular and, by the end of the year, daily sales reached 140,000 copies. In 1979, with an average print run of 180,000 copies, it achieved a break-even point. The size of the newspaper increased with page count growing from 20 to 24. The newspaper decided to cover sports for the first time and veteran reporter
Gianni Brera was added. From 1979 to 1994, Professor Glauco Benigni was the International Media Editor further reaffirming the expansion and popularity of La Repubblica overseas, covering international Film Festivals and major events like U.S. Mission rocket launches.
In 1981, the ''Corriere della Sera'' was hit by a scandal when chief editor
Franco Di Bella was outed as a member of the secret masonic lodge
Propaganda Due, or P2. This allowed ''La Repubblica'' to win extra readers and recruit a number of prestigious commentators such as
Enzo Biagi
Enzo Biagi (; 9 August 1920 – 6 November 2007) was an Italian journalist, writer and former partisan.
Life and career
Biagi was born in Lizzano in Belvedere, and began his career as a journalist in Bologna. In 1952, he worked on the screenpla ...
and
Alberto Ronchey from ''Corriere''. Aiming to gain top circulation in Italy, chief editor Scalfari launched new reader-friendly initiatives. There were now 40 pages, including news sections, entertainment and sport. The newspaper was pitched as an "omnibus newspaper" (a paper catering to all types of readers).
Politically, while the paper kept backing the
progressive left, its approach to governmental parties changed: its traditional opposition to Bettino Craxi's line was coupled with overtures to
Ciriaco De Mita, one of the leading figures of the left wing of the
Christian Democrats This seemed to pay off as in 1985 ''la Repubblica'' sold an average of 372,940 copies, about 150,000 more than in 1981.
1986 marked the newspaper's tenth birthday. A special issue was released in celebration, ''Ten years 1976/1985'' consisting of 10 files in coated paper, one per each year, with the re-issuing of many original articles. The launch was backed by a successful advertising campaign featuring a young university student seen purchasing ''la Repubblica''. Ten years later, the same student is pictured as an adult. He's holding the same newspaper, but in the meantime he's worked his way up to an important managerial position in a large company. The same year saw the launch of weekly financial supplement, ''
Affari & finanza'', edited by
Giuseppe Turani. ''la Repubblica'' continued the game of catch up with ''Corriere della Sera'' and on (December 1986,) they actually managed to overtake their rivals.
In 1987, ''la Repubblica'' launched a prize competition called ''Portfolio'', a type of stock market-based lottery. Readers were encouraged to buy the newspaper daily in order to check share value. The prize turned out to cost more than the supplements earned, the latter increasing sales for one or two days a week only. ''la Repubblica'' expanded by almost 200,000 copies within three months, stretching to a total daily average of nearly 700,000
At that point, "''la Repubblica'' became the best-selling Italian newspaper.
The 1988 circulation of the paper was 730,000 copies, making it the most read newspaper in Italy.
At the end of the 1980s the paper reached a circulation of 800,000 copies.
[
The ''Corriere della Sera'' hit back with a free Saturday magazine and ''la Repubblica'' reciprocated with their own magazine, '' Venerdì'',][ launched on 16 October 1987, the same day as ''Affari & Finanza''. The via Solferino publishing group did not reclaim the top spot for two years.
]
"Segrate War" (Guerra di Segrate)
At the end of the 1980s, believing that a stronger financial support was needed for the growth of the group, Carlo Caracciolo ''Don'' Carlo Caracciolo, 9th Prince of Castagneto, 4th Duke of Melito (Florence, 23 October 1925 – Rome, 15 December 2018) was an Italian publisher. He created Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso, one of Italy's leading publishing groups. He was known a ...
and Eugenio Scalfari (main shareholders of the Espresso group) sold all their shares to Carlo De Benedetti.
Already a major shareholder of Mondadori
Arnoldo Mondadori Editore () is the biggest publishing company in Italy.
History
The company was founded in 1907 in Ostiglia by 18-year-old Arnoldo Mondadori who began his publishing career with the publication of the magazine ''Luce!''. In 1 ...
, Benedetti took the Espresso group together with the Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
publisher, with the goal of becoming the main shareholder, buying the stock of Arnoldo Mondadori's heirs. Silvio Berlusconi prevented it, starting the so called "Segrate War" (from the town of Segrate near Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
where the Mondadori main office is located). In 1991, after more than two years of legal and financial battles, the struggle was ended by the entrepreneur Giuseppe Ciarrapico on behalf of the prime minister of the time, Giulio Andreotti, who persuaded De Benedetti and Berlusconi to split the "Grande Mondadori". De Benedetti received ''la Repubblica'', '' L'Espresso'' and some local newspapers; Berlusconi received Mondadori minus the newspapers. The controversial operation was the main point of a lawsuit in which Berlusconi was charged with corruption of legal proceedings. This lawsuit became famous as the " Lodo Mondadori" (the Mondadori Decision). A verdict on 3 October 2009 by the Causa Civile ( Civil Court of Milan) pronounced that Berlusconi's Fininvest had to compensate the Carlo de Benedetti's CIR €750 million for financial losses due to "perdita di chance" (lost opportunities) from the Lodo Mondadori decision.
In the following years, new publishing projects were added. ''La Repubblica'', which up to then was not published on Monday, bought ''Lunedì di Repubblica'' for 50 million lire. This was a satirical magazine, and first "real fake" newspaper, published by Vincenzo Sparagna, author of ''Frigidaire
Frigidaire Appliance Company is the American consumer and commercial home appliances brand subsidiary of multinational company Electrolux.
Frigidaire was founded as the Guardian Frigerator Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and developed the first s ...
''. The launch occurred on 10 January 1994: in this period the newspaper has an average circulation of 660,000 copies. 1995, besides being the year of the introduction of the supplements ''Musica! Rock & altro'' and ''Salute'', was the year of a graphical change as colour was introduced on the first page and in advertisements.
In May 1996, after twenty years Eugenio Scalfari resigned as Editor in Chief, but remained an important contributor to the newspaper. He was succeeded by Ezio Mauro
''Ezio Mauro'' (born 24 October 1948) is an Italian journalist. He was editor-in-chief of the newspaper la Repubblica from 1996 to 2016.
Biography
Mauro was born in Dronero, Italy. He started his career as journalist writing for the local new ...
. The same year, the weekly women's supplement "D" (Donne) was launched.
''la Repubblica'' after Scalfari
1996–1999
On 5 April 1996 the paper launched its website as a collaborative effort with Digital and Interbusiness (a unit of Telecom Italia), as an on-line trial version of the newspaper, created for the election of 21 April.
In August 1996, Mauro began a project ''Repubblica – lavori in corso'' (Repubblica – work in progress), with the objective of testing an on-line edition. The project was coordinated by Vittorio Zambardino, Gualtiero Pierce and Ernesto Assante, with technical direction by Alessandro Canepa.
On 14 January 1997 the online version of the newspaper Repubblica.it was launched. It became the main Italian information website with over 10.6 million users in October 2007. In 2010 it was the tenth most visited website in the country being ahead of Google, Yahoo!, Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
, YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
and MSN.
2000–2007
In 2004, through a gradual process, the newspaper introduced colour in every page. This decision forced the whole Italian newspaper market to adopt similar measures.
On 19 October 2007, the newspaper's graphics and layout were renovated. ''La Repubblica'' split in two newspapers: one dedicated to the news and the other (Called "R2") to analysis of current events.
Political position
The newspaper used to be regarded as on the moderate left wing of the political spectrum, with a very critical line towards the former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, especially criticizing his conflict of interest as both entrepreneur and politician. In August 2009, Berlusconi sued the newspaper after it published ten questions addressed to him (which he refused to answer). It also used to be known for its critical stand vis-à-vis the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, but this position has drastically changed after the onset of the papacy of Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
.
On 20 November 2007, the newspaper revealed wiretapping
Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...
transcripts between certain RAI
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
and Mediaset directors, aimed at modifying some parts of the TV scheduling of 2005 (regarding the death of the Pope and the regional elections of 2005).
Following the purchase of GEDI group by John Elkann, Carlo Verdelli was removed from his post as editor and replaced by Maurizio Molinari. Under his rule, ''la Repubblica'' sharply moved to the right, abandoning its previous centre-left stances. This prompted many important journalists like Gad Lerner, Enrico Deaglio and Pino Corrias to end his cooperation with ''la Republica''. Carlo De Benedetti (former editor of the paper) also protested this decision and in 2020 announced the foundation of a new newspaper called ''Domani''.
Supplements and features
* ''Affari & Finanza'';
* ''Metropoli'';
* ''R7'';
* ''Viaggi'' (online only);
* '' Il Venerdì di Repubblica'';
* ''Robinson'';
* ''D - la Repubblica delle donne'';
* '' L'Espresso'';
* ''Il Lavoro'', formerly a Genoese socialist newspaper, nowadays a feature published only in the local Ligurian edition.
The newspaper has also published ''The New York Times International Weekly
''The New York Times International Edition'' is an English-language daily newspaper distributed internationally by the New York Times Company. It has been published in two separate periods, one from 1943 to 1967 and one from 2013 to the prese ...
'' on Mondays since 2004. This English language supplement features articles selected from ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' and can be downloaded free of charge from ''La Repubblica''s website.
Current editorial staff
Editors
*1976 – 1996: Eugenio Scalfari
*1996 – 2016: Ezio Mauro
''Ezio Mauro'' (born 24 October 1948) is an Italian journalist. He was editor-in-chief of the newspaper la Repubblica from 1996 to 2016.
Biography
Mauro was born in Dronero, Italy. He started his career as journalist writing for the local new ...
*2016 – 2019: Mario Calabresi
*2019 – 2020: Carlo Verdelli
*since 2020: Maurizio Molinari
Journalists
* Natalia Aspesi
* Emanuela Audisio
*Corrado Augias
Corrado Augias (born 26 January 1935) is an Italian journalist, writer and TV host. He was also a member of the European Parliament in 1994–1999 for the Democratic Party of the Left.
Biography
Born in Rome, Augias became popular in Italy ...
* Glauco Benigni
* Edmondo Berselli
*Giorgio Bocca
Giorgio Valentino Bocca (28 August 1920 – 25 December 2011) was an Italian essayist and journalist, also known for his participation in the World War II partisan movement.
Biography
Bocca was born in Cuneo, Piedmont, the son of teachers, an ...
* Tito Boeri
* Attilio Bolzoni
* Carlo Bonini
* Raimondo Bultrini
* Mario Calabresi
* Filippo Ceccarelli
* Pietro Citati
* Pino Corrias
* Gianni Clerici
* Leonardo Coen
* Franco Cordero
* Maurizio Crosetti
* Giuseppe D'Avanzo
* Concita De Gregorio
* Ilvo Diamanti
* Khaled Fouad Allam
* Massimo Giannini
* Renzo Guolo
* Alessandra Longo
* Gad Lerner
* Miriam Mafai
* Curzio Maltese
* Daniele Mastrogiacomo
* Francesco Merlo
* Sebastiano Messina
* Gianni Mura
* Joaquín Navarro-Valls
* Marino Niola
* Piero Ottone
* Alessandro Penati
*Mario Perniola
Mario Perniola (20 May 1941 – 9 January 2018) was an Italian philosopher, professor of aesthetics and author. Many of his works have been published in English.
Biography
Mario Perniola was born in Asti, Piedmont. He studied philosophy under Luig ...
*Carlo Petrini
Carlo Petrini (born 22 June 1949), born in the commune of Bra, province of Cuneo, Italy, is the founder of the International Slow Food Movement. He first came to prominence in the 1980s for taking part in a campaign against the fast food chain ...
* Mario Pirani
* Franco Quadri
* Adriano Prosperi
* Federico Rampini
* Guido Rampoldi
* Massimo Riva
* Stefano Rodotà
* Gabriele Romagnoli
* Paolo Rumiz
* Roberto Saviano
* Eugenio Scalfari
* Aldo Schiavone
* Michele Serra
* Adriano Sofri
*Luigi Spaventa
Luigi Spaventa (5 March 1934–6 January 2013) was an Italian academic. He served as a cabinet minister at different Italian governments. He was a member of the Italian Parliament from 1976 to 1983.
Early life and education
Spaventa was born in ...
* Alberto Statera
* Marco Travaglio
* Giuseppe Turani
*Nadia Urbinati Nadia Urbinati is an Italian political theorist, the Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Professor of Political Theory at Columbia University.
Personal life
In 1989, she received her Ph.D. at European University Institute in Florence, Italy. She is also a natural ...
* Giovanni Valentini
* Bernardo Valli
* Sandro Viola
* Vittorio Zucconi
Previous editorial staff
* Alberto Arbasino
* Gianni Brera
* Mario Calabresi
* Furio Colombo
* Concita De Gregorio
* Giorgio Dell'Arti
* Paolo Filo della Torre
* Mino Fuccillo
* Enzo Golino
* Paolo Guzzanti
* Giampaolo Pansa
* Gianni Rocca
* Enzo Siciliano
* Tiziano Terzani
Cartoonists
* Francesco Tullio Altan
* Massimo Bucchi
* Ellekappa
* Giorgio Forattini (until 1999)
Circulation
See also
* Repubblica Radio TV
Repubblica TV, formerly Repubblica Radio TV, was an Italian all-news television channel, related to the Italian newspaper ''la Repubblica'' and owned by ''Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso''.
Born on April 10, 2006, during the Italian general electio ...
* Media of Italy
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Repubblica, La
1976 establishments in Italy
Daily newspapers published in Italy
GEDI Gruppo Editoriale
Italian-language newspapers
Italian news websites
Newspapers published in Rome
Publications established in 1976
Socialist newspapers