L'Espresso
Encyclopedia
l'Espresso is an Italian newsmagazine
Newsmagazine
A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published piece of paper, magazine or a radio or television program, usually weekly, featuring articles or segments on current events...

. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies, the other being Panorama
Panorama (Italian magazine)
Panorama is a right-wing Italian-language news magazine.-Ownership:The magazine is published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the largest Italian publishing house...

. Since the latter has been acquired by right-wing tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...

, l'Espresso enjoys the reputation of being the main politically independent newsmagazine in Italy. In 2005 it had a circulation of 391,000 copies.

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
Carlo Caracciolo
Don Carlo Caracciolo di Castagneto was the 9th Principe di Castagneto, 4th duca di Melito and an Italian publisher. He created Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso, one of Italy's leading publishing groups...

 and the progressive industrialist Adriano Olivetti
Adriano Olivetti
Adriano Olivetti was an Italian entrepreneur, the son of the founder of Olivetti, Camillo Olivetti....

, manufacturer of Olivetti
Olivetti
Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.- Founding :The company was founded as a typewriter manufacturer in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin, by Camillo Olivetti. The firm was mainly developed by his son Adriano Olivetti...

 typewriters. The chief editors were Arrigo Benedetti
Arrigo Benedetti
Arrigo Benedetti , was an Italian journalist and writer. He also was the editor of important news magazines: Oggi , L'Europeo , L'Espresso , and Il Mondo ....

 and Eugenio Scalfari
Eugenio Scalfari
Eugenio Scalfari is an Italian journalist, editor of the news magazine L'espresso , former member of parliament in the Italian Chamber of Deputies , co-founder of the newspaper La Repubblica and its editor from 1976 to 1996.-Biography:A law graduate with a interest in journalism and politics,...

.

l'Espresso was characterized from the beginning by an aggressive investigative journalism
Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. 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. 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. Benedetti and Scalfari entered as major shareholders as well.

The experienced Benedetti, who had directed the newsmagazine L'Europeo
L'Europeo
L'Europeo was a prominent Italian weekly news magazine launched on November 4, 1945, by the founder-editors Gianni Mazzocchi and Arrigo Benedetti. The magazine stopped publication in 1995.-Orientation:...

(1945–54), was the editor-in-chief until 1963, when he handed over to Scalfari. At the time average circulation reached 70,000 copies. In 1968, Scalfari was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...

 (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. In January 1976 the Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso
Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso
Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso S.p.A. is an Italian Media conglomerate, founded in 1955 and based in Rome, Italy and listed on the Italian Stock Exchange.- Shareholding :* CIR Group - 50,852%* Carlo Caracciolo - 10,008%...

also launched the daily newspaper La Repubblica
La Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...

, with Eugenio Scalfari as editor-in-chief, in a joint venture with Arnoldo Mondadori Editore
Arnoldo Mondadori Editore
Arnoldo Mondadori Editore is the biggest publishing company in Italy.-History:Founded by the 18-year-old Arnoldo Mondadori in 1907 to publish the magazine titled Luce!, it soon became an important publisher. Its headquarters are in Milan....

.

In 1967 it revealed the attempted 1964 coup d'état by General Giovanni Di Lorenzo
Piano Solo
Piano Solo was an envisaged plot for an Italian coup in 1964, planned by then director of the military police, Giovanni De Lorenzo.The coup plans were investigated in 1967, when the journalist Eugenio Scalfari and Lino Jannuzzi uncovered the attempt in the Italian news magazine L'Espresso in May 1967...

 and in 1976 it conducted a strong campaign against the then Italian President, Giovanni Leone
Giovanni Leone
Giovanni Leone was an Italian politician. He was the 38th Prime Minister of Italy from 21 June 1963 to 4 December 1963 and again from 24 June 1968 to 12 December 1968. He also served as the sixth President of the Republic from 1971 to 1978.-Biography:...

, for his alleged involvement in the Lockheed scandal. During the 1970s and 1980s it strongly supported the campaigns for divorce and abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

.

From the mid-1970s onwards a fierce competition developed with Italy's other major newsmagazine, Panorama
Panorama (Italian magazine)
Panorama is a right-wing Italian-language news magazine.-Ownership:The magazine is published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the largest Italian publishing house...

, founded in 1962. The rivalry increased dramatically in the early 1990s when Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...

 – already controlling Panorama – attempted to absorb l'Espresso as well. The clash between Berlusconi and Carlo De Benedetti
Carlo De Benedetti
Carlo De Benedetti is an Italian industrialist, engineer and publisher. He is both an Italian and naturalized Swiss citizen....

 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
CIR Group
CIR Group is the industrial holding company of the De Benedetti Group, controlled by COFIDE — Gruppo De Benedetti, the financial holding company of the De Benedetti family....

 as majority shareholder.

Renowned journalists and writers who worked for the magazine include Giorgio Bocca
Giorgio Bocca
Giorgio Valentino Bocca is an Italian essayist and journalist, also known for his participation in the World War II partisan movement.- Biography :...

, Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...

, Giampaolo Pansa, Enzo Biagi
Enzo Biagi
Enzo Biagi was an Italian journalist and writer.-Biography:Biagi was born in Lizzano in Belvedere, and began his career as a journalist in Bologna. Active in journalism for six decades and author of some eighty books, Biagi won numerous awards, among which the 1979 Saint Vincent prize and the...

, Michele Serra
Michele Serra
Michele Serra is an Italian writer, journalist and satirist.-Biography:Serra was born in Rome, but moved to Milan in 1959. In 1975 he began to work for L'Unità, then the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party , of which he had become a member one year before...

, Marco Travaglio
Marco Travaglio
Marco Travaglio is an Italian investigative journalist, writer and commentator.-Biography:Travaglio was born in Turin. He started his career writing for Catholic publications such as Il nostro tempo , then worked for the renowned journalist Indro Montanelli for newspapers such as Il Giornale and...

, Roberto Saviano
Roberto Saviano
Roberto Saviano is an Italian writer and journalist.In his writings, articles, television programs, and books he employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra , exposing its territory and business connections.Since 2006, following the publication of his bestselling...

, Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...

 and Jeremy Rifkin
Jeremy Rifkin
Jeremy Rifkin is an American economist, writer, public speaker, political advisor and activist. He is the founder and president of the Foundation On Economic Trends...

.

The magazine is presently based in Rome, but its business and finance newsroom is in Milan, Italy, now under Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso
Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso
Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso S.p.A. is an Italian Media conglomerate, founded in 1955 and based in Rome, Italy and listed on the Italian Stock Exchange.- Shareholding :* CIR Group - 50,852%* Carlo Caracciolo - 10,008%...

 property (also owning the major left wing newspaper in Italy, la Repubblica
La Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...

). 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/.

Editors

  • Arrigo Benedetti
    Arrigo Benedetti
    Arrigo Benedetti , was an Italian journalist and writer. He also was the editor of important news magazines: Oggi , L'Europeo , L'Espresso , and Il Mondo ....

     (1955–1963)
  • Eugenio Scalfari
    Eugenio Scalfari
    Eugenio Scalfari is an Italian journalist, editor of the news magazine L'espresso , former member of parliament in the Italian Chamber of Deputies , co-founder of the newspaper La Repubblica and its editor from 1976 to 1996.-Biography:A law graduate with a interest in journalism and politics,...

     (1963–1968)
  • Gianni Corbi (1968–1970)
  • Livio Zanetti (1970–1984)
  • Giovanni Valentini (1984–1991)
  • Claudio Rinaldi (1991–1999)
  • Giulio Anselmi (1999–2002)
  • Daniela Hamaui
    Daniela Hamaui
    Daniela Hamaui is an Italian journalist and the editor of the Rome based magazine L'Espresso from 2002-2010.Hamaui was born in Cairo, Egypt...

     (2002–2010)
  • Bruno Manfellotto (2010–present)

Contributors

  • Enzo Biagi
    Enzo Biagi
    Enzo Biagi was an Italian journalist and writer.-Biography:Biagi was born in Lizzano in Belvedere, and began his career as a journalist in Bologna. Active in journalism for six decades and author of some eighty books, Biagi won numerous awards, among which the 1979 Saint Vincent prize and the...

  • Giorgio Bocca
    Giorgio Bocca
    Giorgio Valentino Bocca is an Italian essayist and journalist, also known for his participation in the World War II partisan movement.- Biography :...

  • Massimo Cacciari
    Massimo Cacciari
    Massimo Cacciari is an Italian philosopher and politician.Born in Venice, Massimo Cacciari graduated in philosophy from the University of Padua , where he also received his doctorate, writing a thesis on Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Judgment." In 1985, he became professor of Aesthetics at the...

  • Umberto Eco
    Umberto Eco
    Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...

  • Carlo Fruttero
    Carlo Fruttero
    Carlo Fruttero is an Italian writer, journalist, translator and editor of anthologies. He is mostly known for his joint work with Franco Lucentini, especially as authors of crime novels...

  • Massimiliano Fuksas
    Massimiliano Fuksas
    Massimiliano Fuksas is an Italian architect, born in Rome in 1944 to an Jewish Lithuanian father and Italian Catholic mother. He received his degree in architecture from the La Sapienza University in 1969 in Rome, where he opened his first office. Subsequent offices were opened in Paris and Vienna...

  • Fabrizio Gatti
    Fabrizio Gatti
    Fabrizio Gatti is an Italian journalist. He started his career in 1991, writing mostly about illegal immigration, first on Corriere della Sera and, from 2004, on l'Espresso. Gatti was born in Como....

  • Tahar Ben Jelloun
    Tahar Ben Jelloun
    Tahar Ben Jelloun is a Moroccan poet and writer. The entirety of his work is written in French, although his first language is Arabic.-Life:...

  • Naomi Klein
    Naomi Klein
    Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...

  • Franco Lucentini
    Franco Lucentini
    Franco Lucentini was an Italian writer, journalist, translator and editor of anthologies. His novel The Sunday Woman, which was also made into a film, 1976, with Marcello Mastroianni and Jacqueline Bisset.- Biography :...

  • Alberto Moravia
    Alberto Moravia
    Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism....

  • Moisés Naím
    Moisés Naím
    -External links:****...

  • Jeremy Rifkin
    Jeremy Rifkin
    Jeremy Rifkin is an American economist, writer, public speaker, political advisor and activist. He is the founder and president of the Foundation On Economic Trends...

  • Roberto Saviano
    Roberto Saviano
    Roberto Saviano is an Italian writer and journalist.In his writings, articles, television programs, and books he employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra , exposing its territory and business connections.Since 2006, following the publication of his bestselling...

  • Michele Serra
    Michele Serra
    Michele Serra is an Italian writer, journalist and satirist.-Biography:Serra was born in Rome, but moved to Milan in 1959. In 1975 he began to work for L'Unità, then the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party , of which he had become a member one year before...

  • Andrzej Stasiuk
    Andrzej Stasiuk
    Andrzej Stasiuk is one of the most successful and internationally acclaimed contemporary Polish writers, journalists and literary critics...

  • Marco Travaglio
    Marco Travaglio
    Marco Travaglio is an Italian investigative journalist, writer and commentator.-Biography:Travaglio was born in Turin. He started his career writing for Catholic publications such as Il nostro tempo , then worked for the renowned journalist Indro Montanelli for newspapers such as Il Giornale and...

  • Gianni Vattimo
    Gianni Vattimo
    Gianteresio Vattimo, also known as Gianni Vattimo is an internationally recognized Italian author, philosopher, and politician. Many of his works have been translated into English.-Biography:...

  • Bruno Zevi
    Bruno Zevi
    Bruno Zevi was an Italian architect, historian, professor, curator, author and editor. Zevi was a vocal critic of 'classicising' modern architecture and postmodernism.-University years:...

  • Daria Galateria
    Daria Galateria
    -Biography:Daria Galateria was born in Rome, Italy, in 1950. She graduated in Literature at the Sapienza University of Rome with a thesis on monologue in Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Valéry....


External links

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