Month: February 2019

Oxford University Press and Rizzoli Education have signed a new exclusive agreement for the distribution in Italy of books for the teaching of English published by the historic British publisher.

The new five-year contract will allow the two players in the educational publishing sector to renew a strong partnership that has been consolidated over many years.

Together, Oxford University Press and Rizzoli Education have been the protagonists of many successes, thanks to which they continue to look to the future and its challenges with clear objectives, great vitality and a reinforced spirit of collaboration.

Through this partnership Oxford University Press celebrates more than forty years of activity in Italy. The first exclusive distribution agreement dates from 1978 with La Nuova Italia Editrice, the historic publishing house, that today is a Rizzoli Education brand.

Since then Oxford University Press has reached the top of the Italian market, where it is the leader in both primary and secondary schools, with high quality books that are adopted by thousands of English teachers.

A key factor in this success has been the commitment to producing books specifically developed for Italian schools and brought to market thanks to the partnership with Rizzoli Education.

This close partnership has given to schools a number of successful titles. in addition to TreeTops, High Five and Horizons, best sellers with sales of well over two million copies, as well as the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (published in 1948 and now in its ninth edition) used by hundreds of millions of students around the world, and Headway, the international course, also distributed in Italy by Rizzoli Education, which, since its publication in 1986, has been used by millions of students around the world to study English.

Oxford University Press is a department of the prestigious University of Oxford. For more than 500 years it has shared innovative ideas and thought through the publication of books that promote the university’s mission to pursue excellence in knowledge, research and education.  

Rizzoli Education operates in the educational publishing sector at all levels, from primary to secondary schools, with printed and digital products and technology and services for both teachers and students.

Donne come noi (Women Like Us), the Donna Moderna project dedicated to female empowerment, continues to grow and launches a series of new initiatives aimed at taking the message in 2019 to an even larger number of people, not just in theatres but also in companies and universities.

“Donne come noi is no longer just a book, or a show, or a training course, but an authentic movement, which we are re-launching from 7 March. Our ambition is to reach Italian women of all ages, from middle and high schools to universities, and from companies to professionals, businesswomen and housewives, and to encourage them to think big, giving them both inspiration and the tools to reach their goals,” declared the editor of Donna Moderna, Annalisa Monfreda.

It all started from a book written by thee magazine’s editorial team – published by Sperling&Kupfer – that tells the stories of 100 contemporary Italian women who have managed to realise the small miracle of reaching the highest levels in their job, in the arts and sciences.

The book went on to inspire a theatre show – on stage on 7 March at the Teatro Franco Parenti, which produced the show – written by Giulia Minoli and Emanuela Giordano, with the exceptional protagonist: Tosca. On stage with her will be 5 actresses and singers who, with words and music, will tell stories of women who have been able to transform difficulties, obstacles and prejudices into opportunities. From Chiara Montanari, the first woman to lead an expedition to the Antarctic, to Fabiola Gianotti, director of the prestigious Cern Institute in Geneva, and from the athlete Irma Testa, Italy’s first female boxer at the Olympics to Alessandra Laricchia, the first female ranger on the African savannah.

The third step of this project was the creation of a training course organised in different stages across Italy, that provided concrete skills such as team working, time management, how to reconfigure your own career, thinking outside the box and learning how to tell your story.

This year the show will also take in companies, schools and universities, touring Italy as a “educational moment” made up of the Donne come noi theatre show, a short piece featuring three actresses and a cello. Along with the show will be a training course with an inspiring live testimony by one of the protagonists of the book and a two-hour workshop with an acting teacher who, using exercises, techniques and games typical of methods of theatrical improvisation, will help participants to work and reflect on how to prepare to avoid being judgemental, to accept and listen to and enhance oneself and others, how to establish relationships of trust and support, how to challenge oneself, participate and collaborate.

Some of the basic skills required by improvisational theatre include a capacity to be aware of the self and of others, to develop clear and positive communication, to valorise and integrate suggestions and different points of view, to adopt choices instinctively and spontaneously, and to work as a team towards a common objective. All gifts that are both useful and beneficial for individual affirmation and success in the workplace, in studies and also in the personal sphere.
For more information, please go to: www.donnamoderna.com/donne-come-noi.

The Mondadori Group continues to pursue digital innovation. The leading publisher for the passions and interests of Italians currently attracts 26.5 million unique users per month (Source: Audiweb, November 2018) and a competitive positioning that makes it a leaders also in social media, with a total of 26.3 million fans through130 profiles.

Every second 300 new users visit a Mondadori Group site 14 people interact on the brands’ social network pages.

OUR STRONG POINTS

• Video factory: an annual production of 10.000 videos 4 different formats, generating over 200 million views per month.

• People: an internal team of 180 talents, including content editor, videomakers, cooks, product designers and data scientists.

• Innovation is in our DNA: from proprietary semantic search engines to Altervista, Italy’s leading blogging platform prima. Mondadori is also among the first Italian publishers to test and adopt innovating conversational interfaces, such as chatbots, intelligent speakers and connected devices.

CONTINUING TO EVOLVE OUR PRODUCTS

The development of languages and engagement systems for users, from the use of video to the valorisation of new web-based talents such as influencers and YouTubers, to the control of all of the touchpoints: our business models makes it possible to respond to new challenges and development opportunities, while constantly focusing on the real needs of users.

Today, our brands are authentic multimedia systems ranged across print, the web, social media, apps, smart speakers, TV and events.

In 2019 the evolution of our products will affect some of the iconic brands in the high-value vertical markets: food, women, beauty, health and wellbeing, design, male lifestyle.

FOOD

Giallozafferano:

• From April, a new look for the web site and a new Giallozafferano Benessere channel, with over 4,000 recipes, enhanced with information about nutritional values and calories.
• The first vocal site with integrated Google Assistant.
• The first on vocal devices: Google Home, Amazon Alexa’s Echo Show, Samsung’s Bixby.

WOMEN AND BEAUTY

Donna Moderna:

• Donna Moderna Beauty: a new social magazine will be launched after the summer dedicated to the world of beauty and conceived by millennials for millennials, with the special participation of Beauty Influencers.

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Mypersonaltrainer:

• a complete overhaul of the site affecting all of its touchpoints from September.
• A new series of videos involving Fitness Influencers.

MALE LIFESTYLE

Icon:

• A new format for the site from March: ideas, inspirations and and models, with the style and shopping guides that today’s man needs.
• Icon Wheels: the creation of a new channel dedicated to luxury and exclusive car.
• Fashion, beauty, grooming, how-to-spend with videos, tutorials and a selection of the best products.

DESIGN

Icon Design and Interni:

• A restyling of the sites to coincide with Milan’s Design Week 2019.

Focus, the Mondadori Group magazine that is a point of reference in popular science and entertainment, from Thursday 21 February will be available to the public in markedly renewed form and content.

The aim of the monthly, edited by Raffaele Leone, will be to further develop the successful formula that has made it Italy’s most widely read magazine, which boasts a combination of 5.7 million readers and users (based on data from Audipress 2018.2 and Audiweb 2.0 September 2018), as well as 1.7 million fans on social networks.

Starting from the cover, Focus readers will be surprised by the many changes in the layout and content. First of all they will notice the new masthead which, for the first time, features a larger red logo: a decision that will guarantee the brand greater relevance.

Thanks to an elegant look and an identity as leader, the magazine will be even more stimulating, and targeted at readers that are aware, educated, curious and “want to know more”.

The new Focus has a mission to surprise page after page, investigating the science and knowledge that surrounds us, and represented in a captivating, accurate, rigorous, original and unusual way.

The opening pages of the magazine will be devoted to the column Prisma: di tutto un po’ (Prisma: a little of everything), an authentic showcase of high level content, from regular features to new sections, such as “Il caro estinto” (Dearly departed), “Cogli l’etimo” (Catch the meaning) and many others.

The articles will not only deal with science, nature and technology, but will also take a closer look at current affairs, but always with the scientific and analytical approach to the facts that is typical of Focus. Space will also be given to art, with a column edited by Vittorio Sgarbi that, starting from single work, will develop an analysis of an entire artistic period. Background detail will be provided by Focus Dossier, three articles aimed at examining, in an unusual and detailed way, the issue featured on the cover.

Focus finally also re-confirms its primacy in the development of interactive content and experiences thanks to the ongoing reinforcement of Augmented Reality: each month the magazine will have a fixed appointment with readers in page not to be read but to be “listened to”. An innovative function that will further diversify that range of extras usable through the dedicated app, available for free from the AppStore and Google Play: navigable 360° photos, 3D graphics and renderings, timelapse and 4K videos, and much more.

The new magazine will form the nucleus of an articulated multimedia ecosystem across different in able to transform readers and users into authentic “inhabitants” of the Focus world: from the web site to the TV channel, and from social networks to events aimed at consolidating the brand’s presence around the country.

Among the most important of these Focus Live, an engagement with the great issues and personalities of knowledge which, during the first edition, which took place between 8 and 11 November 2018, attracted over 15,000 visitors to the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia in Milan, and that in 2019 will take its exclusive formula to two other cities in Italy, Genoa and Turin.

To mark the launch of the new Focus a special print-run (+20%) of magazine has been planned, along with a communication campaign run by Hunbranded that, through the use of visuals and captivating and amusing  headlines, highlights the brand’s contribution to “getting the world into focus”  in all its vastness and complexity.

The campaign has been planned on print media and the web, radio and TV, trade channels, sales outlets and on social networks, and will support both the March and April issues.

Grazia, the Mondadori Group weekly edited by Silvia Grilli and point of reference for fashion and a voice for news-related issues, presents Future – Made in Grazia, a collectors’ edition entirely dedicated to the future: what fashion, art, design, technology, architecture has in store for us, and the new scenarios that characterise all aspects of our lives.

After having celebrated Italian talent and beauty in the previous collectors’ issue, this new special  edition looks at the future through the words and images of some of the most innovative, experimental and visionary protagonists. A splendid coffee table book, in Italian and English, available from newsstands and selected bookshops from 19 February in Italy, in major European capitals and in New York.

“The world around us has changed very rapidly,” observes Silvia Grilli in her editorial. “We are both players and spectators of the digital revolution that is transforming our lives. Human intelligence is no longer exclusive and is ceding space to artificial intelligence. Female and male are losing their monopoly as non-binary emerges, the third sex option already on enrolment forms in American schools allowing non-binary people who do not identify as female or male, or feel that they are a combination of both.”

But that’s not all. Beauty, also for models, will increasingly be less a question of proportions and much more to do with commitment and activism, as discussed by two protagonist like Ruth Bell and Nicole Atieno. Women will finally have to claim full autonomy, as the great Serbian artist Marina Abramovic says. Meanwhile, the cinema will increasingly engage with civil rights issues, as the Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins suggests. And a new ecological consciousness will develop through brand new projects to protect the environment, as the environmental artist  Anne de Carbuccia  explains in her intense reportage.

Also the spaces and objects of our life will change. As Carlo Ratti, one of the great scholars of innovation as applied to urban spaces explains, the ideal city will be one where allotments and gardens will replace car parks. Design materials will be cultivated as living organisms and no longer as industrial products, as the international designer Patricia Urquiola shows. While art will explore the imaginations of black artists, of all genders, that until now have not received the recognition they deserve, as can be seen from the work of painter Elizabeth Colomba.

But what are we to do with all this future? Will we be able to handle our second identities constructed for the digital communities where we have found an escape from routine? What will happen to our data, our videos, our photos, all of which will remain forever in the endless ocean of the web? Will we be able to control artificial intelligence? And where will the new limits be in a real world that wants to erect walls but on the web knows no frontiers?

These and other questions are addressed by the protagonists of Future – Made in Grazia, with stories, interviews and stunning images able to give us an advance peek at the great revolutions of a future that is very near and affects us all.

Published in Italy since 1938, Grazia is today the only  100% Italian fashion magazine distributed around the world, from France to Great Britain, and from Mexico to China and Australia. It is a brand that has managed to accompany generations of women thanks to a unique formula that combines  fashion, beauty and current affairs. News, investigations and background on issues of the greatest interest, along with exclusive features, a visionary style in the shots of great photographers and interviews with world-famous personalities, thanks to an ongoing dialogue with major players on the international scene and a privileged relationship with celebrities, top models and designers.

Following today’s meeting of the Board of Directors of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., chaired by Marina Berlusconi, the Chief Executive Officer of the Mondadori Group, Ernesto Mauri, signed a put option, whereby Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. has guaranteed itself the right to sell its subsidiary Mondadori France S.A.S. to Reworld Media S.A..

The disposal plan is part of the Mondadori Group’s repositioning strategy to place greater focus on the Books Area, and involves 100% of the stake held by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. in Mondadori France S.a.S. and the relating investments (revenue of € 330 million and EBITDA of € 18.4 million recorded in 2017).

The value for Mondadori France has been set at € 70 million (cash free/debt free), plus an earn-out of € 5 million.

Under the terms for exercising the put option:

• 86% of the value of the investment – € 60 million – will be paid in cash, € 50 million of which at the closing date and € 10 million 24 months from the closing date; the deferred payment is not subject to any condition;
• the remaining 14% of the value of Mondadori France S.A.S., for a nominal value of € 10 million, will be paid through issue of new Reworld Media S.A. shares, to be subscribed by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. at a price equal to 112.5% of the average stock market price over the 20 days before the signing and, in any case, ranging from a floor of € 2.2 to a cap of € 2.9.

Following the subscription, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. would hold from an 8% to a 10% interest in the share capital of Reworld Media S.A..

The transaction envisages a price adjustment mechanism linked to the achievement of pre-established targets relating to 2018 adjusted EBITDA and normalized net working capital at the closing date.

The earn-out to Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. will be subject to the achievement in 2020, by Reworld Media S.A. in the new set-up, of certain financial results.

Under the terms for exercising the put option, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. is also required to provide the buyer with the usual representations and warranties.

If the deal is finalized, the Mondadori Group’s net financial position is expected to improve by approximately € 58 million at the closing date, considering: financial payables to third parties in Mondadori France (approximately € 7 million); fair value adjustment of Reworld Media shares subscribed by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. at closing (approximately € 3 million calculated to date); transaction costs of € 2 million.

In the financial statements for the year ended 31.12.2018, the result from discontinued operations, including impairment, is expected to be basically in line with the amount recorded in the Interim Management Statement at 30.09.2018.

Pursuant to the provisions of law, Mondadori France S.a.S. will start negotiations with its union representatives.

If the put option is exercised, the parties will sign a purchase and sale agreement envisaging completion of the transaction if the following conditions precedent are met:

• authorization issued by the Autorité de la Concurrence;
• approval of a reserved capital increase by the shareholders of Reworld Media;
• disbursement of a bank loan to Reworld Media.

Focus Junior, the Mondadori Group brand that is a point of reference for the world of children and kids, is launching Focus Junior Academy: a project for primary and middle schools featuring free teaching laboratories introducing journalism with the aim of bringing pupils closer to the world of publishing and news.

“Following the launch of Focus Scuola, the new practical review for teachers, we are opening the doors of the editorial department of Focus Junior to children and kids during school hours to offer a fun but realistic experience of what they learn in the classroom,” said the editor of Focus Junior Sarah Pozzoli. 

This initiative will further strengthen the role of the Focus Junior brand in the educational area: from collaboration with institutions and companies to didactic programmes aimed at engaging students and parents, schools and teachers, with a wide range of activities and events that speak to the protagonist of the world of education with an innovative and appealing educational vision.

A press, digital and social campaign has been planned to support the launch of Junior Academy.

From February, in line with the brand’s philosophy of “having fun while discovering the world”, Focus Junior Academy will offer every week the opportunity for a class to visit the editorial department of Focus Junior in the Mondadori Building and to meet the editor and journalists to understand how the team works and its internal organisation. The pupils will get a “hands-on” look at the fundamentals of journalism: how to write an article, the selection of photos and images and how to lay out a magazine, the news will then be published on the web site and on social media.

From 5 W to the importance of sources and the issue of fake news, and from the sharing of a post on social media to the selection of images and headlines, the Focus Junior Academy laboratories will offer students an interactive learning experience that will enable them to try out team-working and experience the key moments in a day in the life of an editorial department.

Aspiring journalist will also have the chance to conduct interviews with “subject experts” (science, history, technology, etc.), who will make themselves available in the editorial department of Focus Junior and to meet personally the students and respond to their questions and satisfy their curiosities.

The participants will also be able to take part in the page layout of their “little magazine”, that will also be published on web site focusjunior.it in the section dedicated to schools and re-launched on the social channels of Focus Junior with the hashtag #JuniorReporter.

At the end of the lab, the pupils will receive a “Junior Reporter” certificate, while their teachers will receive a “Become a journalist” kit to continue the work done during the lab also in the classroom.

To book a Focus Junior Academy teaching laboratory, interested teachers should write to the editorial department at focusjunior@focusjunior.it.

Launched on 3 February with live social coverage of the party organised by Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni and Grazia at the Hotel Royal in Sanremo, which involved the competing artists and many celebrities, the week of the 69^th edition of the Festival ended with great success for Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni.

Thanks to the initiatives and special content dedicated to the event, the Mondadori Group brand confirmed its leadership position in the world of entertainment, with a record of audience and engagement on the site and on social networks. The traditional presence of Sorrisi at Sanremo, which involves the transfer to the Ligurian coastal town of the magazine’s newsroom, this year transformed the area designated as its headquarters into an authentic lounge with an annexed recording studio, reinforcing the digital coverage during the entire Festival: over 500 items on all the platforms, with 140 videos, 35 live social events and 230 live stories on Instagram.

The Sorrisi.com site, in addition to the advance traditional publication of the lyrics of the songs and the official videos of the acts in competition, progressively collected the reactions and comments, as well as the week’s most significant and moving photos and videos. On the debut evening of 5 February at the Ariston theatre alone, Sorrisi.com saw a 125% increase in the number of sessions compared with 2018, whereas, across the whole week the site recorded more than 2 million sessions (Source: Google Analytics), an increase of 136% compared with the previous year.

The numbers were excellent also on social networks which in the period from 4 to 10 February reached 2.8 million people, +59% compared with 2018, with a peak increase in engagement on Instagram, that was up +61% on last year. The live morning breakfasts on Facebook with the editor Aldo Vitali along with artists in competition such as Anna Tatangelo, Irama, Francesco Renga, Achille Lauro and Il Volo, were followed by a total of over one and a half million people. Exclusive content included, the daily video-diaries from the Festival of Il Volo and Federica Carta & Shade.

Over the course of the week all of the artists and guests of the Festival passed by the Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni lounge, giving live interviews on social media, like the exclusives with Eros Ramazzotti and Luis Fonsi, and in some cases enjoying themselves with an Instagram Takeover of the Sorrisi account in order to talk directly with users. And there were also surprises, such as Cristina d’Avena who sang some of the legendary theme tunes to cartoons along with the entire editorial team. Sorrisi also put together a number of immediate reactions and declaration by the artists on their performance: as well as the traditional presentation of the winner Mahmood after the final on Saturday, the extraordinary improvisation made by Loredana Bertè after her performance at the Ariston, which to the editorial team by surprise with an interview that became a live Facebook event which drew some 200,000 views.

From today Andrea Santagata will take on the role of Chief Innovation Officer of the Mondadori Group.

The creation of this new position, reporting directly to the chief executive Ernesto Mauri, is a response to the Group’s determination to continue to invest in the development and formulation of digital and transformation strategies across all of Mondadori’s activities.

Among his responsibilities, Andrea Santagata will also oversee the study and implementation of new business models, in coordination with the heads of the different Areas, with the aim of further enhancing the Group’s assets and brands.

His objectives will also include the promotion of a culture of innovation across the entire company and the introduction of new methods able to facilitate the exchange of know-how.

Born in Pisa, Santagata, 46, graduated cum laude in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pisa. He began his career in the world of the internet and digital at Libero.it. The experience he gained between 2001 and 2007 at Matrix S.p.A., where, from 2004 to 2007, he was the marketing director of Virgilio, led him to set up Splinder, Italy’s first blogging platform, and the start-ups Liquida and Sitonline.

His career continued at Banzai where he moved in 2007 as head of marketing, before becoming, in 2009, chief executive of Banzai Media, bought by the Mondadori Group in 2016.

Santagata will maintain his position as deputy general manager of the Mondadori Group’s Magazines Italy Area, which is led by the general manager Carlo Mandelli.

Andrea Santagata is also a member of the boards of Mediamond and Adkaora.

Since Friday 8 February will be available Chi Weddings Special, a collection number made by Chi, Italy’s most widely read people magazine edited by Alfonso Signorini. This much-anticipated special issue, now in its fourth edition, offers readers a look at the weddings of Italian and international celebrities weddings, as they romantically said “I do” during the last year.

In fact, 2018 was particularly rich in weddings of famous personalities; from the royal wedding of Harry and Meghan to the much-loved Chiara Ferragni and Fedez who celebrated their big day against the spectacular backdrop of the Sicilian town of Noto.

But also Eugenie of York and the wedding of the popular chef Carlo Cracco Rosa, and not forgetting Daniele Bossari, winner of the latest edition of GFVIP, with Filippa Lagerback, the actor Claudio Santamaria with Francesca Barra, Emanuela Folliero, Hugh Grant and many other celebrities including Vincent Cassel who pronounced “I do” with model Tina Kunakey.

Chi Weddings Special presents these and other weddings with splendid photographic coverage: a unique look, full of curiosities and details, that captures the most important moment in the life of couples loved and followed by the public.

The Weddings Special of Chi, which remains much-loved by the public, confirms itself as an indispensable tool for the organisation of weddings, with a wealth of advice on locations, gifts as well as clothes, menus and honeymoon destinations. By flicking through this special issue readers can dream and find inspiration for their own weddings with the atmosphere and details of those celebrated by VIPs.

Chi Weddings Special will be on newsstands from Friday 8 February in a bound edition of 132 pages at the price of €3.50. It will also be available in a digital version with the Chi app, available for iOs and Android.