Month: October 2011

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. has announced that, as per Art. 70 para. 5 of CONSOB Regulation n°. 11971/1999 and integrating the documentation already deposited on 16 September 2011, the minutes of the meeting of the board of directors that approved the plant to merge by incorporation into the company the wholly-owned subsidiary AME Editoriale Wellness S.r.l., is now available for inspection at the company’s headquarters, at Borsa Italiana S.p.A. and on the company’s web site www.gruppomondadori.it (in the Governance section).

Panorama Travel, the monthly edited by Giancarlo Pini, will be on newsstands from tomorrow, Friday 21 October, with a completely new look.

Since its launch a point of reference for travel and lifestyle enthusiasts, Panorama Travel is changing its philosophy, approach and editorial line: to spectacular images and the most original destinations, it is now adding a more practical approach, shorter trips and useful and detailed information, making it a magazine not just for dreams, but also to “consume”.

Right from the cover, with a new logo, a more immediate and usable layout, and the claim “Don’t give up your dreams”, the radical transformation of the magazine is evident, an attempt to evoke desires and to render them realisable. Consequently, also the proposals of the new Panorama Travel have changed: itineraries and concrete suggestions with a wide range of prices and “ready to use” ideas for weekends and locations, more space for the more modern types of travel, shopping, cooking and wellbeing.

Moreover Panorama Travel will be “fully tested” and verified by the editorial staff to guarantee the maximum reliability of a magazine that wants to be a trusted product for its readers, an indispensible accompaniment for travellers on all sorts of trips, with descriptions of destinations that are exactly as they are.

For the launch of the new Panorama Travel a communication campaign has been put together (creativity by the agency Hi! Communication), and planned for radio, newspapers and magazines.
The new Panorama Travel will be on newsstands from 21 October with the launch price of €2.50.

From this week R101 will strengthen its schedule with exclusive voices and new programmes.

The first new feature, as Guido Monti, R101’s station manager underlined, is the arrival of Gene Gnocchi on the team: “Every day during the Dini and Lester programme (from 10 am to 12.30 pm), he will be R101’s special correspondent who, travelling around the country, will attempt to resolve, in a comic way, situations and “surreal problems” with his proverbial irreverence. Meanwhile, Saturday mornings will feature Gnocchi a colazione a programme that will wake Italians up with good humour, suggesting unlikely places to visit during the weekend, also because “who starts well …” also applies to the weekend, concluded Monti.

R101 will also give birth to a new artistic duo. Ugo Conti and Gianfranco Monti will be the two new voices of weekend programming. On Saturdays with Giro di Taglia – Da nord a sud e viceversa, a new programme, on the air from 10 am to 12 midday and on Sundays from 10 am to 1pm.
This new duo will bring their creativity and humour to the radio and offer listeners across Italy advice about things to do at the weekend: from food to fairs, restaurants to unmissable markets, exhibitions and sports events. For the first time Ugo Conti will take the reins of a radio programme and, along with Gianfranco Monti, will involve well-known guests, asking for opinions and ideas about food and wine, and getting them to talk about how they spend their weekends.

On Saturday afternoons, Beat Box will be on the air from 3 pm to 7 pm, a new show presented by Tamy T (for the first part) and Federico L’Olandese Volante (for the last two hours), with a 4-hour panorama dedicated to music and the international hit parades. They will explore and look in detail at music news, showbiz stories, new entries and the best of the most recent releases, from the most downloaded to the tracks most played in clubs or broadcast on radio around the world.
And Saturday will also see the unmissable Superclassifica show, presented by Tamara Donà move to the new time of 7 to 9 pm.

But there are big changes on Sundays too: Vladimir Luxuria will start with Ristorante Vladi-Luna; the R101 editorialist will accompany the Sunday lunchtime, from 1 to 2 pm, along with Isabella Eleodori, with a range of news and curiosities.
Luxuria cooks and comments on the news on R101 also during the week, with the traditional slot on the air from Monday to Friday from 12.30 to 1 pm.

From 8 to 10 pm Domenicarica will give listeners an opportunity to enjoy again the most amusing moments of the Carica di 101, the morning show presented by Cristiano Militello, Paolo Cavallone and Sara, which for the occasion will be back on air in the evening to accompany those coming back from the weekend, with the best jokes of the last seven days and the most significant contributions to a programme that has become an unmissable appointment for those who during the week want to wake up with a smile.

Finally, Friday nights, from 3 to 5 am, and on Sundays between midnight and 2 pm, will be coloured with the sound of black music, with a new programme Black Notes: the beginning and the end of the weekend will consequently be accompanies by the warm sounds of the masters who have made the history of this genre, presented by Dr. Felix.

More recognition for the Virtual History Rome app, which during Unite 11, the annual Unity Technologies developers’ conference, won the “Best Non-Game Award”. In 2001, Unity Technologies created an innovative technology platform (Unity3D) for the development of games and interactive 3D environments for the web, iOS, Android, consoles and devices. Every year the community of Unity3D developers – who now number more than 700,000 – comes together for three days of meetings, tutorials and technical sessions. During the event awards are given for products of recognised excellence in the field and in the “non-game” section the prize was awarded to the Mondadori iPad application.

From 31 October Maria Elena Viola will be the new editor of Tu Style.

Maria Elena Viola, 42, was born in Perugia and has a degree in modern literature. She joined Mondadori in October 1999 and was involved in new editorial projects before being appointed, in April 2008, deputy news editor of TU, which became Tu Style in 2009, after a complete overhaul of the formula.
Viola began her career at Universo, where she worked on the children’s title Magazine and the weekly Viversani&Belli. After also working on a number of women’s titles, including Anna and Amica, in 1997 she moved to Gruppo Editoriale Futura where she worked on the monthly Maxim.

The company wishes to thank Marisa Deimichei for the work she has done over the years always with great passion and professionalism.

Press-di, Mondadori Group company that manages newspaper and magazine distribution, has reached an exclusive agreement with Johnsons International News Italia for the import and distribution of foreign newspapers and magazines in Italy.

With this agreement Press-di, Italy’s leading distributor of magazines, will expand its business, entering a new market with great potential.

Johnsons International News Italia, which was founded in 1994, is the leading company in Italy in the export of newspapers and magazines with a client portfolio that includes 250 titles exported through 70 international distributors in more than 50 countries.

The partnership with Press-di was announced during the 56th edition of Distripress, the international congress, currently underway in Barcelona, that brings together operators in the distribution and marketing of newspapers and magazines around the world.

Set up at the beginning of 2007 with the aim of further developing the Mondadori Group’s presence in the print media distribution market, Press-di now has a market share of around 20%.
The company offers to its publishing clients, that includes Disney, Sergio Bonelli Editore and the daily newspapers Il Giornale, Libero and Avvenire, management not only of the newsstand channel, but also the large-scale retail channel and subscriptions.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. has today announced that, with reference to the last seven trading days, on October 4, 2011 the company bought a total of 50,000 its own shares (corresponding to 0.020% of the company’s share capital) on the automated share market at an average price of € 1.51872 per share, for a total of € 75,936.00 in the context of the authorisation of the company’s AGM, held on 21 April 2011 (previously communicated as per Art. 144 bis of Consob regulation 11971/1999), to effect share buy back operations.

Following this operation and taking account of the shares already in the portfolio, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. now directly holds 7,128,609 its own shares. A further 4,517,486 Mondadori shares are hold by the subsidiary Mondadori International S.p.A..
Consequently, as of today the total number of shares held now amounts to 11,646,095 corresponding to 4.72% of the share capital.

***

It should be noted that the Shareholders on 21 April 2011 authorised the buy back of a further 16,546,887 company shares, with respect to the shares already held, either directly or indirectly on the date of the authorisation issued by the AGM, bringing the total up to the limit of 10.52% of the present share capital.
The authorisation is valid until the meeting for the approval of the Annual Report for the year to 31 December 2011.

In line with the Shareholders’ authorisation, buy backs are effected on regulated markets as per art. 132 of the legislative decree 58/1998 and art. 144 bis, para. 1, B of Consob regulation 11971/99 according to operating procedures established by the regulations for the organisation and management of the markets themselves, which does not permit the direct combination of offers to buy with predetermined offers to sell.

It should also be noted that, in terms of price and daily volumes, acquisition operations are conducted in line with the norms foreseen by the EU regulation 2273/2003, and that, in terms of daily volumes, the company will not purchase a quantity greater than 25% of the average daily volume of Mondadori shares traded on the regulated market and calculated on the basis of the average daily volume of trading of Mondadori shares in the 20 trading days prior to the dates of purchase.

The next “World Magazine Congress” will be organised in Italy in partnership with Mondadori by FIPP (International Federation of the Periodical Press).
The meeting, which brings magazine publishers from around the world together every two years, will be held in Rome from 23 to 25 September 2013. The announcement was made at the end of two intense days of discussions in New Delhi, the location for this year’s 38th edition of the congress

Maurizio Costa, deputy chairman and chief executive of the Mondadori Group, was given the task by the chairman of the board of FIPP, Chris Llewellyn during the closing ceremony.
Costa had led the Mondadori delegation during the two days of the congress where it had participated in debates and panels on the most relevant issues facing magazine publishers: from the increasing importance of brands and the quality of editorial content, to the challenge of digital and the fast-growing emerging markets.

“We are proud to have the responsibility of hosting such a prestigious conference in Italy, an event that brings together delegations and representatives from the whole of the international publishing industry,” underlined Costa. “The process of transformation that is taking place in the media world is so rapid that being able to host in our country an occasion for discussion and exchange of such relevance is a great privilege. The decision by FIPP to hold its next congress in Italy is also an honour as it is a recognition of Mondadori’s position as one of the world’s leading players in the magazine business,” Costa added. “Until just a few years ago we had only a marginal international role. We now operate in 22 countries and Grazia, our leading brand, has 18 editions around the world, nine of which are weeklies. This rapid and successful development is a confirmation of the validity of a strategy for international growth through partnerships with leading publishers in other countries,” concluded Costa.

With 700 associated companies and branches in 61 countries, FIPP (International Federation of the Periodical Press) today represents more than 5,000 magazines, including leading brands around the world.
The last time that Italy was chosen to host the FIPP World Magazine Congress, which is held every two years, was in 1977. Prior to New Delhi, the last four meetings were held in London, Beijing, New York and Paris.

Grazia France is two years old and celebrating its leading position in the “News Fashion Magazine” category. The upscale women’s weekly, published by Mondadori France, headed by Ernesto Mauri, has been a significant publishing success with excellent results in both circulation and advertising.

The magazine, edited by Yseult Williams, is highly appreciated by its readers thanks to an original and immediately recognisable editorial concept that combines news and celebrities, fashion, beauty and culture. Now a point of reference among haut de gamme women’s titles, Grazia France, which has from the start being an anticipator of trends, is aimed at a target of women between the ages of 25 and 44, who are active, independent, dynamic and who love to be kept up to date with habits and styles.

Circulation and advertising:
Grazia France has reached an average weekly circulation of 182,726 copies (OJD/dsh 2010 – 2011) an increase of +3% compared with 2010.
In the months of July and August alone, Grazia saw an increase in circulation in France, compared with the previous year, of +17.5%, with weekly sales of 210,000 copies. The magazine also achieved record circulation with its September issue “Special Mode”: 230,000 copies sold in France (source: publisher’s data) with a total of 116 advertising pages.
The weekly is in second place in the entire French magazine market for the total number of advertising pages sold: 2,436 pages in a year (October 2010 – September 2011), an increase of +63% (+942 pages).
The client portfolio, which is made up almost exclusively of up-market brands, confirms the upscale positioning of Grazia France, with more than 70% of fashion and beauty brands and around 50% of selected brands.

The Grazia.fr web site:
Grazia.fr has a monthly average of around 400,000 unique users and 4 million page views (source: Nielsen), and, in September, recorded a record number of hits on the site with more than 5 million page views.

Applicazione per iPhone e iPad:
The Grazia France app for the iPhone has been downloaded by 300,000 users and is recording some 2 million page views per month. Meanwhile, yesterday saw the launch of the new “Grazia Spécial Accessoires” app dedicated to fashion accessories for the autumn/winter 2011/2012 season.

First half 2011 results and activities:
In the first half of 2011 Mondadori France generated revenues of €172.4 million, an increase of +2.4% on the same period of 2010. In terms of advertising, the company saw an increase of +4.7% compared with the first half of the previous year, while circulation revenues were up by +2.1%.

“These positive results confirm the value of the strategy based on strengthening our large circulation titles, alongside a policy of continuous improvement in editorial quality and the success of an innovative magazine like Grazia”, declared Ernesto Mauri, chairman of Mondadori France.

Also of note was the growth in circulation of the Group’s women’s monthlies, including Top Santé (+11.2%), Modes & Travaux (+11%) and Biba (+7.4%); a positive performance by the popular science area Science (+1.8%); the strengthening of the leadership in the auto segment (1.6 million copies per month) and brilliant performances by Télé Star (1,046,149 copies) and Closer (431,686 copies).
Finally, it should also be pointed out that the company’s digital activities have also been reinforced thanks to the acquisition, in September 2011, of Autoreflex.com, France’s second biggest portal for online car sales ads (Business to Consumer).

From this month Grazia is also present in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in Macedonia, published under licence by Color Press Group, the leading publisher of trade and consumer magazines in southeastern Europe. The company, which is based in Serbia, has a portfolio of over 84 titles, including international brands such as Hello, Joy, FHM, Economist and Intelligent Life.

The two new monthly editions of Grazia are aimed at readers interested in fashion and style, thanks to an innovative formula and an up-scale offer.

These two new launches, which take to 18 the total number of editions of the magazine published around the world, will reinforce the presence of the “Grazia International Network” in the Balkans, following the successes achieved in Bulgaria, Serbia and Croazia, the latter also published in partnership with Color Press.

“The continuing expansion of the Grazia International Network is, for us, further proof of the uniqueness and the appeal of the editorial concept of our brand which, in just six years, has become an international point of reference, even in a difficult economic context like the current one,” commented Zeno Pellizzari, head of Mondadori’s international activities.

“The collaboration with Mondadori is an excellent example of how an international brand like Grazia can be very successfully launched also in minor markets,” commented Robert Coban, CEO of the Color Press Group. “Just one year after our first agreement we have already published three editions and I am sure that our collaboration will not only continue, but will be reinforced in the coming years,” Coban concluded.