Corporate events

With regard to press agency reports and comments on social networks concerning the career of Giulia Ichino, Mondadori underlines that professional qualifications are the only criteria that have ever guided the management of the company’s human resources.

Giulia Ichino, 34, and the mother of one child, has been the head of Italian fiction for Edizioni Mondadori since 2010 and is responsible for all of the series that publish new Italian fiction.

Having first joined Mondadori in 2002 as an editor, Giulia Ichino is now a well respected figure in Italian publishing and has worked with dozens of authors, from Giuseppe Pontiggia to Margaret Mazzantini, Andrea Camilleri, Roberto Saviano, Paolo Giordano, Niccolò Ammaniti, Alessandro Piperno, Carmine Abate, Chiara Gamberale, Daria Bignardi, Mauro Corona, Valerio Massimo Manfredi and many more.

The Mondadori Group is a media partner of the new edition of Social Media Week that, from 18 to 22 February, returns to Milan in conjunction with nine other cities around the world.
The event is dedicated to the analysis of the role of social media in both the public and private aspects of people’s lives.

Mondadori, a leader in magazine and book publishing and with the most extensive network of bookstores in Italy, has always paid attention to the languages and forms of communication of all of its communities of readers, both print and digital. The Group is present online with dozens of brands active on all of the major platforms and follows with interest the creativity and dynamics of the social landscape.
The social profiles of the Group include more than one million fans on Facebook and 700 thousand followers on Twitter. The company’s profile on Linkedin now has more than 9,500 contacts. Meanwhile the company’s brands are also active on other social networks, including YouTube, Pinterest and Tumblr.

On the occasion of Social Media Week, Mondadori’s digital channels will cover the issues emerging from the presentations, discussions and workshops, drawing up an outline of the new scenarios in media and technology.
The Group will also make its own event space InMondadori, at its store in Piazza Duomo in Milan, available, making it one of the official locations of Social Media Week and host to some of the daily events in the programme.

Among the most anticipated events on Tuesday 19 February, from 3pm, a round table discussion “Facciamoci avanti. Le donne, il lavoro e la voglia di riuscire” (Putting ourselves forward. Women, work and the will to succeed), with Laura Donnini, general manager of Edizioni Mondadori. The meeting, organised in collaboration with Valore D, discusses the issues raised by the book by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, Facciamoci avanti (Lean In), which will be published in Italy on 12 March.

Another woman will be the main guest of the evening dedicated to the use of Tumblr in the fashion world: Tamu McPherson, Style Director of Grazia.it, will lead the discussion at the meeting on Wednesday 20 February at 7.30pm with Valentine Uhovski, Tumblr‘s Fashion Evangelist.

A panel devoted to legal issues in social media will provide an opportunity to discuss the forced closure of the site Avaxhome.ws, obtained by the Mondadori Group in the autumn: on Wednesday 20 February at 3pm legal experts will attempt to clarify the not subtle difference between the free movement of editorial content and crimes committed on the net.

Social Media Week will be followed by R101, which will give a voice to many of the most important personalities of the Italian net during the station’s most popular programmes.

An up-to-date calendar of the events of Social Media Week is available at http://socialmediaweek.org/milan/schedule/

From February Annalisa Monfreda will be the new editor of the weekly Donna Moderna. At the same time Monfreda will also take over editorial responsibility for the weekly Confidenze.

Annalisa Monfreda, 34, the mother of 2 children, and a degree in modern literature from the University of Bari, began her career in 1996. After initial professional experience and a Master’s in journalism at the University of Urbino she worked for a number of magazine titles, including Donna Moderna. In 2005 she joined Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori on the staff of Geo and was subsequently appointed editor of Topgirl in 2008 and the following year of Geo. Since September 2010 she has been the editor of Cosmopolitan.

Mondadori wishes to extend its sincerest thanks to Patrizia Avoledo for the professionalism and passion demonstrated over the years she has been with the company: a lengthy period during which Patrizia has contributed, with her team, to making Donna Moderna Italy’s top selling women’s magazine, with over 2.7 million readers (Audipress 2012/II).

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. today announced, as per Art. 2.6.2 of the regulations governing markets organised and managed by Borsa Italiana S.p.A., the corporate events scheduled for 2013:

• Wednesday 20 March 2013: meeting of the Board of Directors for the approval of the Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2012;
• Tuesday 14 May 2013: meeting of the Board of Directors for the approval of the 1st Quarter Report to 31 March 2013;
• Tuesday 30 July 2013: meeting of the Board of Directors for the approval of the Interim Report to 30 June 2013;
• Thursday 14 November 2013: meeting of the Board of Directors for the approval of the 3rd Quarter Report to 30 September 2013.

The Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders for the approval of the Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2012 will be held on Tuesday 23 April 2013, on first calling, or Wednesday 24 April 2013, on an eventual second calling.

Analysts’ presentations of the results for the full year to 31 December 2012, the interim report to 30 June 2013 and the reports on the first and third quarters of 2013 will be held on the dates, as indicated above, of the respective meetings of the Board of Directors.

Any eventual changes will be promptly communicated to the market.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. has announced that, following the receipt of authorization by the Spanish antitrust body, the details were finalised today based on the contract signed with Media Finance Holding (Bertelsmann Group) on 5 November. The said contract, which has already been communicated to the market, concerns the sale of 50% of the share capital of the Spanish registered company Random House Mondadori S.A..

The value of the transaction has been defined at a total of €54.5 million, including cash, which will have a positive impact on the consolidated income statement estimated at around €2.8 million.

From 6 December Silvia Grilli will be the new editor of Grazia.

Grilli, who has a degree in modern languages from the Cà Foscari University in Venice, began her professional career at La Notte, L’Indipendente and il Giornale, before being appointed news editor of Anna in 1998 and managing editor of Cosmopolitan in 2000. She has also been a contributor to Il Foglio, Epoca and a number of foreign titles, including The Guardian, The New York Observer and The New York Sun. In 2001 she was a special correspondent for Panorama and co-editor of Grazia in 2005, becoming editor in chief the following year. At the beginning of 2007 she moved to the United States as “editor at large” for all of the Mondadori titles. In November of the same year she was appointed deputy editor of Panorama.

Mondadori wishes to thank Vera Montanari for the constant commitment and passion shown in her time with the company; thanks to her professionalism and experience Grazia has both strengthened its position as a women’s fashion and news magazine of excellence and note and become a point of reference for elegance and style, not only in Italy, but also internationally, where the brand is now present with a network of 21 editions.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. has announced – with immediate effect and reporting to the deputy chairman and chief executive Maurizio Costa – the following changes in the organizational structure and responsibilities:

– the newly created Magazine Area will be headed by Ernesto Mauri; which will oversee the Magazines (Italy) Department, to be managed by Carlo Mandelli, and Mondadori France, which will remain the responsibility of Ernesto Mauri the current chairman and general manager. The creation of a Magazine area for the control of the domestic and French markets is based on the need for a greater focus on quality and product development, as well as structural and process efficiencies.
The changes facing magazines in this period demand extensive know-how in this area and an ability to identify new ways of integrating print and digital.
The decision to give to Ernesto Mauri this great responsibility is in line with his long experience with Mondadori and in the consumer magazine sector in Italy and France, and demonstrated by the recent excellent results achieved in the management of Mondadori France;

– Mondadori International Business, the company newly established as part of the corporate rationalization project previously announced to the market following the approval of the interim report for the period to 30 June 2012, will be headed by Stefano De Alessandri who will become the chairman and managing director. At the same time Zeno Pellizzari will be appointed general manager of the company. Mondadori’s foreign expansion in the magazine sector, through both joint ventures and licensing agreements in 25 countries, must now proceed with a plan for further growth also through new international alliances.

– Monradio, the company that manages the radio broadcasting activities of R101, will be also headed by Stefano De Alessandri, who has been appointed managing director.
Mondadori will intensify its commitment in the radio market which, despite the downturn in advertising investments, remains among the sectors with most potential.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. today announced that it has signed a preliminary agreement for the sale to Media Finance Holding (Bertelsmann Group) of its entire stake, equal to 50% of the share capital, of the Spanish company Random House Mondadori S.A..

Established in 2001 as a joint venture with the Bertelsmann Group, Random House Mondadori operates in the trade books market in Spain and in the main Latin American countries, in particular Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay and Chile.
In the year ended 31 December 2011, Random House Mondadori generated consolidated revenues of €110.3 million (€55.9 million to 30 June 2012).

The transaction value, comprising the purchase price and cash, has been determined at €54.5 million, with a positive impact on the consolidated income statement, in terms of a capital gain, estimated at €2.8 million.

The agreement will allow the Mondadori Group to further consolidate and focus investment and resources on its priority objectives as indicated during the process for the approval of the company’s interim financial statements.
With regard to books, this operation is part of the already outlined strategy focused on the acceleration of growth in both the trade and education sectors with an integrated model for print paper and digital, which includes the recent introduction in the Italian market of the Kobo eReaders and the forthcoming launch of a self-publishing platform.
Mondadori is also developing a unified distribution model under a single brand, inMondadori, which combines offline and online bookstores, e-commerce and physical retail, in a multiplatform system for the management of all the different sales channels.

Completion of the operation and the execution of the preliminary contract are subject to approval by the Spanish antitrust authorities, which is expected by the end of the year.

With regard to rumours that appeared in the press today, concerning the supposed contribution of advertising sales activities to Publitalia ’80, Mondadori wishes to underline that such a hypothesis is entirely without foundation.

Marina Bigi will be the new editor of Tu Style from 2 November.

Marina Bigi, 54, is from Milan, and after completing her studies at the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Milan, she joined Rizzoli as a copywriter. She began her journalistic career in 1985 on the staff of Anna, before moving in 1989 to the weekly Bella. After a number of years at the monthly Pratica, in 1996 she re-joined the staff of Bella as deputy editor. In 1998 she was appointed editor of the monthly Vera and subsequently, in 2003, of Vogue Gioiello and Vogue Pelle. In 2008 she moved to Mondadori as a consultant and head of fashion and beauty for Tu Style and Chi, before being appointed, in 2011, deputy editor of Tu Style, while maintaining her role on the weekly Chi.

Mondadori wishes to thank Maria Elena Viola for the professionalism and enthusiasm she has demonstrated over the years.