L'espresso
 l'Espresso, 6 December 2007 |
|
| Editor | Bruno Manfellotto |
|---|---|
| Former editors | Arrigo Benedetti, Eugenio Scalfari, Daniela Hamaui |
| Categories | Newsmagazine |
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Circulation | 391,000 (2005)[1] |
| First issue | 1955 |
| Company | Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso |
| Country |  Italy |
| Based in | Rome, Italy |
| Language | Italian |
| Website | http://www.espressonline.it/ |
l'Espresso is an Italian newsmagazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies, the other being Panorama. Since the latter has been acquired by right-wing tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi, l'Espresso enjoys the reputation of being the main politically independent newsmagazine in Italy. In 2005 it had a circulation of 391,000 copies.[1]
Contents |
[edit] History
One of Italy's foremost newsmagazines, l'Espresso was founded in October 1955 by the N.E.R. (Nuove Edizioni Romane) publishing house of Carlo Caracciolo and the progressive industrialist Adriano Olivetti, manufacturer of Olivetti typewriters. The chief editors were Arrigo Benedetti and Eugenio Scalfari.[2][3][4]
l'Espresso was characterized from the beginning by an aggressive investigative journalism strongly focussed on corruption and clientelism by the Christian Democrat party. In the 1950s it uncovered major scandals in the health and housing industries.[2] This made the main shareholder Olivetti unpopular with the ministries and large companies that were the primary customers of his main business. In 1956, with the magazine losing money, Olivetti made Caracciolo a present of the majority shareholding.[4] Benedetti and Scalfari entered as major shareholders as well.[1]
The experienced Benedetti, who had directed the newsmagazine L'Europeo (1945–54), was the editor-in-chief until 1963, when he handed over to Scalfari. At the time average circulation reached 70,000 copies.[1] In 1968, Scalfari was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies (1968–1972) and handed over as editor to Gianni Corbi.
Originally in large newspaper format the magazine restyled to a small glossy format in 1974. In 1965 it introduced colour printing for photos, text and adverts. The publishing company N.E.R. changed its corporate title to Editoriale L'Espresso in 1975 while circulation at the time exceeded 300,000 copies.[1] In January 1976 the Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso also launched the daily newspaper La Repubblica, with Eugenio Scalfari as editor-in-chief, in a joint venture with Arnoldo Mondadori Editore.[1]
In 1967 it revealed the attempted 1964 coup d'état by General Giovanni Di Lorenzo and in 1976 it conducted a strong campaign against the then Italian President, Giovanni Leone, for his alleged involvement in the Lockheed scandal. During the 1970s and 1980s it strongly supported the campaigns for divorce and abortion.[2]
From the mid-1970s onwards a fierce competition developed with Italy's other major newsmagazine, Panorama, founded in 1962. The rivalry increased dramatically in the early 1990s when Silvio Berlusconi – already controlling Panorama – attempted to absorb l'Espresso as well.[2] The clash between Berlusconi and Carlo De Benedetti over the control of the Mondadori Group resulted in a break-up of assets leading to the creation of the Espresso Group in its current form, with the CIR Group as majority shareholder.[1]
Renowned journalists and writers who worked for the magazine include Giorgio Bocca, Umberto Eco, Giampaolo Pansa, Enzo Biagi, Michele Serra, Marco Travaglio, Roberto Saviano, Naomi Klein and Jeremy Rifkin.
The magazine is presently based in Rome, but its business and finance newsroom is in Milan, Italy, now under Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso property (also owning the major left wing newspaper in Italy, la Repubblica). The current editor is Bruno Manfellotto. l'Espresso has a website with news and blogs. An electronic edition is also available online http://espresso.repubblica.it/.
[edit] Editors
- Arrigo Benedetti (1955–1963)
- Eugenio Scalfari (1963–1968)
- Gianni Corbi (1968–1970)
- Livio Zanetti (1970–1984)
- Giovanni Valentini (1984–1991)
- Claudio Rinaldi (1991–1999)
- Giulio Anselmi (1999–2002)
- Daniela Hamaui (2002–2010)
- Bruno Manfellotto (2010–present)
[edit] Contributors
- Enzo Biagi
- Giorgio Bocca
- Massimo Cacciari
- Umberto Eco
- Carlo Fruttero
- Massimiliano Fuksas
- Fabrizio Gatti
- Tahar Ben Jelloun
- Naomi Klein
- Franco Lucentini
- Alberto Moravia
- Moisés Naím
- Jeremy Rifkin
- Roberto Saviano
- Michele Serra
- Andrzej Stasiuk
- Marco Travaglio
- Gianni Vattimo
- Bruno Zevi
- Daria Galateria
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g History, Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (Retrieved January 30, 2010)
- ^ a b c d Encyclopedia of contemporary Italian culture, CRC Press, 2000, p. 290
- ^ Encyclopedia of Italian literary studies, CRC Press, 2007, p. 980
- ^ a b Carlo Caracciolo: newspaper publisher who set up La Repubblica, The Times, January 8, 2009
[edit] External links
|
||||||||||||||||||||
