Media: Publishing brands

Donna Moderna, the weekly edited by Patrizia Avoledo and Cipriana Dall’Orto, and Mediafriends, the charity set up by Mediaset, Mondadori and Medusa, have combined their forces in a project aimed at providing support fro children who are the victims of abuse and maltreatment.

The initiative will be launched during the Pitti Bimbo, in Florence from 20 to 22 January 2011, with a photographic installation by Enrico Bossan entitled Bambini rompiscatole. Bambini nelle foto. Foto nelle scatole (Pain in the neck kids. Kids in photos. Photos in boxes), which will be open on 21 and 22 January form 10 am to 5 pm at the Magazzini Teatro della Fortezza da Basso (admission free). The opening is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday 20 January, with an invitation-only event.

This project by Donna Moderna, a women’s weekly that has always been engaged in social issues, and Mediafriends will continue during the whole of 2011 and will also involve readers of the magazine with a fund raising effort organised in a range of initiatives.

The exhibition Bambini rompiscatole. Bambini nelle foto. Foto nelle scatole is a reportage featuring 10 photographs by Enrico Bossan that, from the viewpoint of the young guests, give an account of the atmosphere and life of the family home. Each photograph is mounted inside a large cardboard box that symbolises the box in which the dreams, thoughts and desires of children are contained.

Donna Moderna and Mediafriends invite visitors to open the boxes and, as well as discovering the photos, to read the thoughts that important writers have dedicated to these unfortunate kids. The authors: Giorgio Fontana, Fabio Geda, Pietro Grossi, Paolo Giordano, Carlo Lucarelli, Paola Mastrocola, Marco Missiroli, Michela Murgia, Valeria Parrella and Roberto Saviano as well as Dario Fo, who has donated a watercolour done by him.

During the inauguration event the actress Gaia De Laurenti will read some extracts.

The proceeds of the Donna Moderna and Mediafriends project will be devolved to five communities run by the associations CAF and Focolare Maria Regina Onlus in Teramo. Four separate areas for the collection of funds have been identified: healthcare, hospitality, education, leisure.

The companies at Pitti Bimbo will be asked by Donna Moderna and Mediafriends to support the initiative by buying one of the installations. Visitors to the exhibition can contribute by buying posters of the photos as well as by visiting the web sites www.donnamoderna.com and www.mediafriends.it, where they can support the project by making a donation to CAF (www.cafonlus.org) and Focolare Maria Regina Onlus (www.ibambini.it).

Donna Moderna will be present during the entire period of Pitti Bimbo in the exhibition area with a comfort-corner in the Mondadori Appointment space, which is in the heart of the Fortezza da Basso, in the middle of Piazzale delle Ghiaie.

This evening at 8 pm, at the suggestive location of Palazzo Corsini in Florence, “Next Dimension – Fashion 3District”, the opening event of the 79th edition of Pitti Uomo, organised by Mondadori in collaboration with Pitti Immagine.

On the eve of the men’s fashion fair, the 16th century palace at Lungarno Corsini 10 will be animated by a virtual catwalk video in 3D featuring some of the most important Italian and international brands.

“Next Dimension – Fashion 3District” will be introduced by Angelo Sajeva, chairman and chief executive of Mondadori Pubblicità. Also taking part at the event will be Maurizio Costa, deputy chairman and chief executive of the Mondadori Group, the chairman of Pitti Immagine, Gaetano Marzotto, together with the chief executive Raffaello Napoleone, and the management of the Florence-based organisation.

Also present will be Stefano De Alessandri, general manager of Magazines Italy, of the Mondadori Group, and the editors of some of Mondadori’s leading titles Vera Montanari (Grazia Uomo, Grazia and Flair), Giorgio Mulè (Panorama and Panorama Economy), Emanuele Farneti (First) and Luigi Grella (Men’s Health).

The event will feature some 23 leading companies from the world of men’s fashion, with clothes and accessories from the autumn/winter 2011/2012 collections, selected to represent the future of style and elegance.

Showing on the “Next Dimension – Fashion 3District” virtual catwalk will be: Aquarama, Bagutta, B.D. Baggies, Boglioli, Bramante, Brooksfield, Brosway, Burlington, Carrel, Corneliani, Chronotech, Fred Mello, Ghepard, Giorgio Fedon, H.DUE.O, Herno, Jaggy, Kangra, Keepwild, Lacoste, Mabrun, Myths and Yes-Zee.

The sponsors of the event include Skoda Italia that has renewed its involvement also this year, as well as the new partners, the Presidency of the Campania Region and Cantieri di Baia, in a combination of innovation and style.

“Next Dimension – Fashion 3District”, coordinated by the agency La Buccia and with sets created by Sergio Colantuoni, will continue in all the other rooms of Palazzo Corsini in a suggestive sequence of exhibition spaces – like an authentic city of fashion, the theme of this year’s Pitti Uomo – accompanied by a multi-sensorial walk through ideas and flavours, thanks to the refined banqueting by Visconti.

Following the outstanding success of previous editions of the event at Pitti Uomo and on the back of other special events held in Milan during the “Fashion & Design 2.0” week from 23 to 26 September 2010 and the “Milano Design Weekend” from 14 to 17 October, this is another big Mondadori event, which, thanks to unique scenic effects, depth of field and the greater spatial scale of the 3D images, will ensure that “Next Dimension – Fashion 3Distric” will be one of the stand out appointments of the 79th edition of the Florentine fair. The event also marks the 5th edition of the collaboration between Mondadori and Pitti Immagine.

The evening will also be the occasion for the presentation to the President of the Italian Chamber of Fashion Buyers, Beppe Angiolini, of the “Ten Years Award” marking the tenth anniversary of the association’s activities in the fashion system.

From 11 to 14 January Mondadori will also be present inside the exhibition area of Pitti Uomo No. 79 with its Appointment space, this year with a completely new layout and in a new position for the first time in the centre of the Fortezza da Basso, in Piazzale delle Ghiaie.

Mondadori Appointment is a meeting point, a place for dialogue and exchange between the interests of the fashion world and the innovative proposals of the Mondadori Group, with meetings and appointments with the editors of the magazines and the protagonists of men’s fashion in Italy.

The joy of knowledge,from history and medicine to technology and sport.

From Thursday 16 December 2010, Italia 1 will broadcast in prime time “Focus Uno”, a programme made in conjunction with the popular science monthly Focus, published by Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori and edited by Sandro Boeri, which is aimed at those who want to discover and know more about the world we live in.

Italy’s most widely-read magazine makes its first move into television with a new and revolutionary programme that deals with a huge range of interesting issues, including technology, science, history, sport, nature, health, sex, the animal kingdom and much else. An endless and fascinating overview made with reportage, first-hand accounts, astounding internationally produced documentaries and exclusive documents.

There will also be a large number of features produced in-house dedicated to the most extravagant and amusing curiosities.

Presented by Giulio Golia, “Focus Uno” is a new format that maintains the popular and authoritative style of the magazine Focus, and follows the same editorial line: to inform, discover, ask daring questions, provide comprehensible answers, and broaden knowledge while also being entertaining.

From puncturing myths about sex, to the most bizarre deaths explained from a scientific point of view; from unexamined aspects of human behaviour that we take for granted, to the most innovative and original aspects of the world of insects; from the infinite range of unexplained phenomena, to metropolitan legends about the food that we eat and our daily lives, to unique and extraordinarily spectacular natural events; and from the most innovative and creative proposals from the world of renewable energy, to extraordinary images from the world of animals and their natural habitat.

As well as documentaries on the most surprising and varied subjects – personality disorders, lightning, space as seen from a satellite, hyper-technological cars – and features on the new frontiers in the prevention and most recent developments in medicine and pharmacology.

So, don’t forget to tune in from Thursday 16 December 2010 to Italia 1 in prima time for four episodes of “Focus Uno”.

Focus Uno is a programme by YAM112003, produced in association with the popular science magazine Focus for ITALIA 1. Editorial supervision for features of a medical-scientific nature is provided by Intermedia.

R101 is changing its skin and from today will focus even more on the concept of “Adult Contemporary Radio”, a radio station designed and produced for a target in the 25-54 year-old age range.

New positioning and stationality

The new positioning of R101, run since September by station manager Guido Monti, will initially involve the focusing and implementation of the playlist.

The aim of the new R101 is to create an elaborate and well-balanced mix tailored to this specific target, which came to adulthood with the best music ever and consequently will not settle for anything less, while also wanting to experience and enjoy to the full the life and music of today.

“I think that guaranteeing quality music that is able to deeply touch the emotions is just the first step of a long path in which we aim to involve the audience, by betting on less rationality and a bigger emotional impact,” declared Guido Monti.

“A relationship that encourages the listener’s engagement, leaving space for the imagination and the evocation of “personal worlds”, underlined Monti.

“In competitive context like we are in today,” he continued, “innovation – even if it may seem paradoxical – means returning to a concentration on the element that gave birth to commercial radio: music. Together with the efforts of the whole team, imagination and, above all, passion and enthusiasm, we are moving towards the objective of serving the audience, day by day.

Of course, this is just the first of a series of new things that, from January, will also involve the team of presenters …stay tuned!” concluded Guido Monti.

The new playlist

Alongside a mix of national and international hits from the 80s to the present, R101 will offer its listeners regular doses of the pop and disco music of the 70s, as well as plenty of dance and pop rock.

With regard to the hits of the present, R101 will highlight only quality tracks that are destined to become memorable over the years.

R101’s musical offering will “sound different”, thanks to greater variety in the playlist, which will increasingly give a sense of a more emotional station, playing a bigger range of tracks while also constantly remaining in harmony with the state of mind of the audience.

A new Web Radio dedicated to the ’70s

The new musical direction of R101 continues also online, with the addition of a new web radio dedicated to the Sounds of the ’70s: a world of pop and disco featuring the biggest hits from the period, from Donna Summer to the Bee-Gees, and from Gloria Gaynor to Abba.

The new web channel is part of the growth of the R101 site, which has seen a significant increase in its audience and contacts, reaching in a short time a total of more than 200,000 visitors.

The new Donnamoderna.com community is now bigger and has opened its doors on new horizons: from today it is even easier to share and keep up to date with ad hoc advice about all sorts of things and to create your own blog, publish photographs and videos, chat and take part in forum discussions and write private messages to your contacts.

All this has been made possible thanks to an upgrade in the functionality and a simplification of the interface: with a clean and clear layout that highlights the issues of the day and the topics to be discussed in the forums and in the chatrooms, and the immediate identification of the other members of the community with whom you can make friends and exchange ideas and opinions. Also: users can easily update their profile, inform other members about what they’re doing and any other things of interest.

The community content, which is immediately recognisable on the homepage, ranges from fashion to health; gossip to psychology, and from beauty to the world of mothers. And of course ample space is given to the expert opinions: whether they are wedding planners, psychologists or fashion assistants, always careful not to disappoint the curiosity and expectations of everyone.

Donnamoderna.com met with a group of bloggers who were given a preview of the beta community. Reactions and feedback were positive and constructive: “I think that the new Donnamoderna.com community gives one the freedom to express one’s own personality and style thanks to tools that are simple, clear and easy to use,” said Sara Dania, the blogging mother from www.smamma.net. Emma Tracanella, the blogger of 365.caramellamenta.net, claimed that: “The new community is intuitive, easy and gave me all the news and allowed me to satisfy my curiosity about a range of things.”

The high level of appreciation among users of the site can also be seen from audience figures that continue to confirm Donnamoderna.com as the leader among Italian sites for women with a monthly average of 3,100,000 unique users and 40 million page views (source: Nielsen Site Census, October 2010).

There has also been a positive response from the world of social media with more than 92,000 fans on Facebook and more than 10,000 followers on Twitter.

For the first time the Gialappa’s Band will comment live also on R101 everything going on inside the Big Brother 11 house, presented by Alessia Marcuzzi.

Every Monday from 9 pm until April 2011 the members of the legendary trio (otherwise known as Giorgio Gherarducci, Marco Santin and Carlo Taranto) will provide an exclusive radio report on R101 and at the same time on Mediaset Premium Extra 1 of everything that happens during the live coverage of the reality show, with comments and asides on the most amusing contestants.

The live format for the Gialappa’s Band has been used in the past for matches involving the Italian national team and for the Sanremo Festival, though never for a reality show lasting around 4 hours.

After just three episodes of Big Brother 11, a sort of Gialappa-mania has already exploded online. The audience will be able to follow the trio on different ways. On Mediaset Premium Extra 1, which also exploits supplementary TV cameras, on the radio on R101, or by tuning in to Canale 5, turning down the volume of the TV and turning up that of the radio with the comments of the Gialappa’s Band.

Guida Cucina, the new Mondadori monthly edited by Laura Maragliano, will hit the newsstands tomorrow, Thursday 28 October, with a host of new ideas for people who love to cook.

This new launch expands Mondadori’s already extensive range of titles in the cookery segment, adding a practical guide designed for readers looking for straightforward and traditional advice and recipes, for everyday lunches and dinners.

For every day of the month, Guida Cucina suggests two easy to prepare menus, with advice about combinations of dishes, accompanied by highly detailed recipes and instructions.

The different sections of the magazine are organised in an original way and published in a small and manageable format (13.9×18.5 cm), at 70 cents. Lunario: provides a mix of news to satisfy readers’ curiosity, such as the Saints days of the month, proverbs, grandmothers’ tips and indications about what to do in the garden and vegetable patch; È tempo di: suggestions based on seasonal produce and their preparation in the kitchen; I giorni: recipes, accompanied by photographs, for everyday lunches and dinners; Le filmate: step-by-step dishes explained with the help of images. And of course l’angolo dei dolci (the desserts corner) and cut-out-and-keep Schede (recipe cards).

The launch of the monthly will be supported by an advertising campaign that will run on the Mediaset TV channels, magazines of the Mondadori Group and with point-of-sale posters.

Donna Moderna and the Fondazione Vodafone Italia have launched a new initiative called the “Women & Work Project”, a competition for women which aims to encourage the best social enterprise ideas for women.

There are three areas:

Solidarity. Lending a hand

Entrepreneurial ideas to encourage the employment of women who have suffered violence or who live in disadvantaged socio-economic conditions. Open to women of all ages.

The Web. Let’s get online

Projects linked to the world of the internet or telecommunications and aimed at encouraging the employment of women. Open to women of up to 30 years of age, final-year students or recent graduates.

Home & Work. Getting better organised

Projects to encourage more effective management and conciliate domestic and professional demands in the daily lives of women. Open to women of all ages.

The best projects in each of the three categories will received a prize of €100,000.

How to take part

Application forms can be submitted between 15 October 2010 and midnight on 15 January 2011. In order to request finance you should download the competition notice from the web site www.progettodonnelavoro.it, along with the loan request and business plan forms, register your personal details and submit the completed documents online. A printed copy, along with the attachments, should also be sent to: Fondazione Vodafone Italia, Piazza SS. Apostoli, 81 00187 Rome.

Applications may be made by any women, permanently resident in Italy, who intend to create a business activity with charitable or socially useful aims.

Stefano De Alessandri has been appointed the new general manager of Magazines Italy of the Mondadori Group.

De Alessandri, 50, was born in Milan and has a degree in economics and business administration from Milan’s Bocconi University. He has an extensive and wide-ranging knowledge of the Italian magazine market and has, over the years, also built up considerable managerial experience with important positions at large International publishers.

De Alessandri began his professional life at RCS in 1989, where he held a series of jobs with growing responsibility until 1999, when he moved to Condé Nast as deputy general manager and director.

In 2003 De Alessandri was appointed managing director and general manager of Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori, where he remained until 2005, when he was appointed chief executive and general manager of Hachette Rusconi, the Italian arm of the Lagardére Active group, where he remained until now.

The Mondadori Group wishes to thank Gianni Vallardi for his valuable contribution, made with competence, passion and professionalism during the whole of his time with the company.

Grazia readers now have a an extra way to get access to and read – at any time of the day, also when travelling or abroad – their favourite magazine.

First among women’s fashion weeklies, Grazia has launched its app for the iPad and with iGrazia it is now possible to flick through a digital version of the magazine every week and discover – in addition to everything that is in the print version – a range of additional features specially created for enthusiasts of the new device, including a video-editorial by the editor Vera Montanari, interviews and “chats” with the magazine’s staff.

And to coincide with the Milan Fashion Week there will also be a photo gallery and backstage coverage, which thanks to the quality of the images, will provide a taster of the collections on the catwalks for the 2011 Spring/Summer season.

And for those who want to re-read or get more background from already published interviews, with iGrazia you can access all the content of the last ten issues of the magazine.