Month: September 2009

Mondadori is launching a new international edition of Grazia: from tomorrow the Italian women’s fashion title will also be published in Thailand.

The new magazine is the result of a licensing agreement with Inspire Entertainment Company Limited, which is already the local Thai publisher of the interiors monthly Casaviva.

This international partnership further reinforces Mondadori’s presence in the Far East, an area with the highest rate of growth in the magazine business.

Edited by Sudarampai Chiang, Grazia Thailand will every month offer its readers the new trends from the world of fashion, beauty and lifestyle – paying particular attention to the excellence of Made in Italy and to a ‘local flavour’ – as well as all the latest news about celebrities.

Inspire Entertainment Company Limited, one of Thailand’s leading publishers, has a portfolio featuring numerous international titles, in the male lifestyle segment, FHM, Car, Zoo, Stuff, and for women Women&Home, Ray and Cawaii!. The company is part of the media group Siam Sport, the country’s third biggest group with a portfolio of more than 40 titles.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. and Gruner+Jahr AG, the joint owners of Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori S.p.A., have appointed Giacomo Moletto, currently the head of digital activities at the Mondadori Group’s Magazine Division, as chief executive and general manager of Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori S.p.A with a three-year contract.

Moletto will succeed Rolf Henz on Thursday 1 October, aAfter the relevant corporate boards have discussed and approved the proposal.

On the same day Heinz will be appointed as chief executive of Prisma Presse, the French arm of Gruner+Jahr.

Giacomo Moletto, 40, was born in Milan and has a degree in business administration from Milan’s Bocconi University. He began his professional life at the The Walt Disney Company Italia.

From 1998 to 2000 Moletto worked for the Mondadori Magazine Division as marketing manager in the news area, before moving to Bain & Company where he remained until 2001, when he returned to Mondadori, first as the publisher of news titles, and then as the director of the business unit for male-oriented titles and, subsequently, the business unit for women’s titles.

At the end of 2006 Moletto moved to Mondadori France as managing director of operations. Since December 2008 he has been director of digital activities for the Magazine Division in Italy and in France.

The Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori joint venture, which was established in 1990, publishes Focus, Italy’s biggest selling monthly, and its brand extensions Focus Storia, Focus Extra, Focus Junior, Focus Domande e Risposte, Focus Brain Trainer and Focus Pico. The company’s portfolio is completed with the monthlies Jack and Topgirl, the Italian edition of the international title Geo and the portal for families Nostrofiglio.it.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. has announced that, as per Art. 70 para 5 of the Consob regulation n. 11971/1999, information is available at the company’s headquarters, Borsa Italiana S.p.A. and on the web site www.gruppomondadori.it, outlining the plan to merge, by incorporation into Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., the wholly-owned subsidiary Fied S.p.A. together with other documentation foreseen by Art. 2501 septies n. 3) of the civil code.

In fact the activities of Fied S.p.A. are exclusively limited to the management of a 7.99% stake in Società Europea di Edizioni S.p.A., the publisher of the daily newspaper ‘il Giornale’, of which Mondadori has an overall stake, held either directly and indirectly, of 39.27% of the share capital (including the Fied stake).

Consequently, the aim of the operation is the organisational and administrative rationalisation and the simplification of the corporate structure through the elimination of the company to be incorporated, with a consequent reduction in administrative costs.

As per Art. 2505 para. 2 of the civil code, resolutions concerning the merger by the incorporating company Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. will be adopted, within the terms established by law, by the board of directors.