Italy Press Mogul To Launch 'Progressive' Newspaper

Veteran Italian businessman and press magnate Carlo de Benedetti's latest challenge is hardly his least: launching a progressive news website and paper in the middle of an economic crisis.

"Domani" (Tomorrow), a web-based publication with print editions, is to begin publishing in September, giving voice to what De Benedetti called under-served "progressive, liberal and reformist" ideas.

"We will cover politics, economics, the environment, international issues," the former owner of La Repubblica daily told AFP.

"No columns, no gossip, just facts."

One of the most influential figures in Italian capitalism, the 85-year-old businessman and former boss of electronics firm Olivetti stepped down as president of all his companies in 2009.

De Benedetti said he hoped the new initiative would "last beyond my time on this earth". And he defended the idea of launching another newspaper in this politically fractious country -- and during a coronavirus-induced economic crisis.

"It seems to me that after the change of ownership of the Repubblica-Espresso group, Italy found itself without 'a liberal voice', as they say in the United States. Let's say reformist or progressive. I think a broad public needs a newspaper as a point of reference," he said.

Eight years ago, De Benedetti transferred to his three sons his holdings in the GEDI press group, Italy's leading media group and publisher of the dailies La Repubblica and La Stampa, among others.

But last year, in an interview with Il Corriere della Sera, he sharply criticised his sons' management, saying they had "neither the competence nor the passion required to be publishers" and tried unsuccessfully to regain control of GEDI.

Ultimately, the Elkann-Agnelli family, via its holding company Exor, become GEDI's main shareholder by buying the De Benedetti family's 43.78-percent stake.

De Benedetti said he planned to fund the paper with 20 million euros ($22.5 million) of his own money, divided between the publishing company and a foundation to be set up.

"After a first phase, which I will personally finance, I have undertaken to transfer ownership of the newspaper to a foundation, which will guarantee its neutrality with regard to economic interests," he said.

The Guardian in Britain and Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung operate under a similar foundation model, he noted.

Carlo Alberto Carnevale-Maffe, a professor of business strategy and entrepreneurship at Milan's SDA Bocconi School of Management, said De Benedetti faced a "practically impossible challenge."

"Economically the market has never been so bad," he said, adding nonetheless that there might still be room for original journalism, including investigative work.

"But it's not easy to make it profitable," the specialist warned.

Domani's newsroom of 17 journalists is to be headed by Stefano Feltri, who supervises ProMarket.org, a free-market online journal sponsored by the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

De Benedetti said the new paper will have a clear stance "against all types of populism and sovereignty, against racism, in favour of the market, freedom and Europe".

"We want to be a paper that looks at news with the eyes of tomorrow and not yesterday," he said, before adding that he would put even more money into the project "before he dies".