Guarantee an inclusive education for everyone: this is the goal Oxfam is setting out to achieve together with Mondadori Store through the new Christmas project “Wrap up a book, gift a future”.

The initiative marks the start of a partnership that will continue over the coming years, with Mondadori Store and Oxfam joining up for the first time on activities intended to help the most vulnerable members of society.

A concrete commitment from Italy’s leading bookstore network to contribute to the education of children and adolescents living in difficult social environments. Oxfam has been engaged in programs to combat education poverty for more than 20 years in Italy and around the world.

This Christmas, Oxfam’s work to help the weaker members of society can be supported with the “Wrap up a book, gift a future” project: until 24 December it will be possible to have Christmas presents wrapped by one of the more than 100 Oxfam volunteers at the 73 Mondadori bookstores taking part in the initiative in the main Italian cities.

With a small donation, a contribution can be made to the Oxfam and Mondadori Store program to guarantee equality and equal opportunities for scholastic success for students in difficulties, so helping children and adolescents currently at risk of exclusion from education in Italy.

Donations to the project may also be made online, through the special Oxfam page on oxfam.it/mondadorif.

Since the pandemic began, Oxfam has intensified its work in favour of thousands of students and teachers, to fight scholastic dispersion and poor education by improving access to socio-educational services for families in financial difficulties. An inclusive intervention – implemented together with junior and senior high schools, local authorities, universities, foundations and organisations in the voluntary sector – which has generated training initiatives and support for teachers and parents; laboratories and remedial courses to help students who have fallen behind in the last very difficult academic year; educational and play activities in parks in Italian suburbs hardest hit by the social unease generated by the pandemic.

“The pandemic has affected everyone, but in different ways. Kids who were already experiencing difficulties have suffered the most, falling behind and lacking the means to react to the severe impact of the emergency. We’re thinking about children who don’t have the tools to follow online lessons, above all about a generation we don’t want to lose and need to put back on an equal footing as soon as possible,” said Roberto Barbieri, general manager of Oxfam Italia. “In Italy, even before the pandemic, 10 million people lacked the resources to resist the emergency. So we need to make every possible effort, starting with schools and students, to prevent kids from leaving school early, which is the first step towards definitive social exclusion. Thanks to the work of the Community Centres we have already reached thousands of people since the pandemic began, but there is still a great deal to do and we have to do it together. With Mondadori Store we shall be even more effective in helping kids not to give up on their future.”

“Every day through our bookstores across the country we work to promote and spread cultural values, which are the bedrock for the growth of the individual and community cohesion,” said Mondadori Retail CEO Carmine Perna. “With the launch of this important cooperation agreement with Oxfam, we shall be at the side of people who risk exclusion, bringing our commitment to support education: thanks to the work of the volunteers and the awareness of our customers, we can certainly make a difference in creating new prospects and a more inclusive future for children and adolescents.”

About Oxfam
Oxfam is a global movement of people who fight inequality to overcome poverty in more than 60 countries. It saves and rebuilds lives in emergencies, promotes sustainable development and works to build a future without inequality where essential rights are guaranteed for everyone, everywhere, and no one is left behind.

About Mondadori Store
Mondadori Store is the largest network of bookstores in Italy: a cultural organisation active across the country through more than 500 stores in large cities and small towns alike, and online through the e-commerce website Mondadoristore.it and the bookclub formula. In addition to books, its core offer, it organises entertainment experiences, events and multi-channel services, reaching more than 20 million customers every year.

Mondadori Store, Italy’s largest network of bookstores, tomorrow opens a new bookstore in the new gallery of the Fiordaliso Shopping Centre in Rozzano, just outside Milan.

With an extensive offer, the new Mondadori Bookstore will be a point of reference for book lovers, thanks to an offer of the best of culture and entertainment curated by Mondadori Store.

Coveringan area of 350 square metres, the store will offer visitors to the shopping mall a catalogue of over 16,000 titles, including fiction, non-fiction, miscellaneous books, classics and comics including the new Just Comics format. An assortment enriched by a section of books and toys aimed at children and teenagers.
Customers will also be able to choose from a selection of the best stationery products, with many gift ideas, gift boxes, gift cards and the proposals of the Mondolibri club.

Readers can also take advantage of all the free multichannel services of Mondadori Store, such as Pick Up Point, which allows you to collect a book purchased on Mondadoristore.it for free from the point of sale, choosing from a catalogue of over 1 million titles; Order and collect, which offers the possibility of ordering books online and then collecting and paying in the store; Home delivery, to receive products ordered in the store directly at home.

With the opening of the new Mondadori Bookstore inside the Fiordaliso shopping mall in Rozzano, continues the development plan of the Mondadori Store chain, which now has over 500 bookstores across Italy.

MONDADORI BOOKSTORE
c/o Centro Commerciale Fiordaliso
(Ingresso 1 lato Humanitas)
Via Eugenio Curiel 25, 20089 Rozzano (MI)
Open: Mon-Sun 9.00-22.00
E-mail: libreria.fiordaliso@mondadori.it
www.mondadoristore.it/negozi
Facebook: facebook.com/mondadorifiordaliso
Instagram: @mondadorifiordaliso

• First of its kind in Italy, single-point-of-access subscription allows Italians to synchronize eBooks and audiobooks bookmarks across Kobo eReader or Kobo App devices
• Kobo Plus, the all-you-can-enjoy subscription service, offers hundreds of thousands of titles from Italian and international authors
• With new Audiobook service offered by Kobo, booklovers can read or be read to on the Kobo App or latest eReader devices with Bluetooth® wireless technology

Global digital eReading leader Rakuten Kobo announced today the Italian launch of Kobo Plus, the all-you-can-read subscription giving booklovers unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of eBook and Kobo Audiobook titles for as little as €9,99 per month, in partnership with Mondadori Store, the largest network of bookshops in Italy.

Since launching their partnership in 2012, Rakuten Kobo and Mondadori Store have worked together to provide Italy’s best digital reading experience. Kobo Plus marks the first service in Italy to provide a combined reading and listening subscription offering at an affordable price and single point of access. Italian booklovers now have the opportunity to read or listen to their favourite stories within a single subscription on their Kobo eReader or through the Kobo App, all without having to worry about losing their place thanks to Kobo’s synchronized reading experience that keeps all eBooks and audiobooks seamlessly synced across all of a reader’s devices.

“Italy was the first country that taught us how to embrace digital reading to make reading lives better during the difficult times of the lockdown, and we have seen significant growth in digital reading as a result. It’s why we are so proud to be launching Kobo Plus here – it is our way of expanding on our commitment to Italy by making a great reading experience even better. The all-you-can-enjoy subscription allows Italian booklovers to explore new titles and genres risk-free, while also introducing them to Kobo Audiobooks and Kobo Originals selected and curated by skilled and committed book experts,” said Michael Tamblyn, CEO, Rakuten Kobo.

Tamblyn continued: “Our mission has always been to make the reading experience better and more accessible to everyone. By working with equally committed partners, like Mondadori Store, we can continue to connect more authors to more Italian readers.”

Kobo Plus is available in three subscription plans: Kobo Plus eBook for €9,99 per month; Kobo Plus Audio for €9,99 per month; or Kobo Plus eBook & Audio for €12,99 per month. All subscribers will receive a free 30-day trial, where booklovers can access the full Kobo Plus catalogue and switch between the three subscription plans to determine which is best for their needs.

“As the largest network of bookshops in Italy, our task is to intercept the new interests of readers, offering them also the possibility to access the most advanced forms of digital reading. We have done this with Kobo since its arrival on the Italian market, through our e-commerce site and our network of bookshops Mondadori Store. Since then, we have witnessed a transformation in the way content is used and in purchasing habits. Today we are delighted to renew this profitable partnership, which over the years has enabled us to reach an increasing number of readers and which today also extends to audiobooks, a segment that is recording very interesting growth rates,” declared Carmine Perna, managing director of Mondadori Retail.

To build the Kobo Plus catalogue, Rakuten Kobo worked with the Italian biggest publishers—including Mondadori Rizzoli, Einaudi, Sperling & Kupfer, Piemme e Mondadori Electa, Garzanti, Longanesi, Feltrinelli, and many others—along with the best Italian independent publishers, like Sur. The catalogue also features Kobo Originals, like Silvia Volpi’s Il silenzio dell’erba, and eBooks published through Kobo Writing Life—stories from Rakuten Kobo’s own publishing platform that allows authors to self-publish—as part of the subscription service.

The new Kobo Plus collection features a breadth of stories including literary classics and popular genre page-turners such as Ilaria Tuti’s Fiori sopra l’inferno; Ken Follett’s Kingsbridge novels, including as Pillars of the Earth; Non è la fine del mondo by Alessia Gazzola; and La guerra dei Courtney by Wilbur Smith, among many more. Other authors featured within the catalogue include Fabio Volo, Cristiana Capotondi, Melania Mazzucco, Gianrico Carofiglio and Alice Basso, while great actors like Anna Bonaiuto and Fabrizio Gifuni bring stories to life as narrators of Kobo Audiobooks.

In addition to hundreds of thousands of eBooks, Kobo Plus also offers a wide selection of Audiobooks, depending on your monthly subscription service. While Kobo Plus eBooks can be enjoyed with any eReader device, Kobo Audiobooks can be listened to on any smartphone or can be paired with the new Libra 2 or Sage eReader devices, which both feature Bluetooth® technology, allowing booklovers to read or listen to their favourite story.

Italian readers will be able to discover the features of the new devices and the Kobo Plus service in participating Mondadori Stores throughout Italy, ambassadors of culture and reading in all its forms.

At the same time, Mondadoristore.it is also expanding its offerings to include a new section dedicated to audiobooks, with over 4,000 Italian titles, from new releases to the great literary classics. At the time of purchase, users will be redirected to the Kobo site and with a few clicks you can start listening to a new story directly on your device (PC, tablet or smartphone), using the dedicated Kobo app.

Readers can also sign up for their subscription and free trial directly through kobo.com, the Kobo Android app or on a Kobo eReader. Kobo Plus launches in Italy November 4, 2021.
To learn more about Kobo Plus in Italy, visit kobo.com/koboplus.

About Rakuten Kobo Inc.
Rakuten Kobo Inc. is the world’s digital bookseller created by and for book lovers. Owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten Group, Inc. and headquartered in Toronto, Rakuten Kobo’s 58 million worldwide users can read any time, anywhere, and on any device. With a mission to make reading lives better for all, Rakuten Kobo connects readers to stories using thoughtful and personalized curation of eBooks and audiobooks, and the best dedicated eReaders and apps for reading. With the singular focus of making reading lives the best they can be, Kobo’s open platform allows people to fit reading into more moments in their busy lives.
To learn more about Rakuten Kobo, visit https://www.kobo.com/ca/it

About Mondadori Store
Mondadori Store is the largest network of bookstores in Italy: a cultural stronghold active throughout the country thanks to more than 500 stores spread from large cities to smaller towns, online with the e-commerce website Mondadoristore.it and the bookclub formula. Mondadoristore.it is at the side of readers and users through a proposal that, in addition to books, the heart of the offer, includes entertainment experiences, events and multi-channel services, reaching over 20 million customers every year.

Thursday 28 October sees the opening in Ravenna of a new Mondadori book shop.

The city’s first Mondadori Bookstore will offer all readers and enthusiasts more than 150 square metres of culture and entertainment in the heart of the historic centre, just a few steps from the tomb of Dante Alighieri.

The new book shop will in fact combine a wide selection of books with a rich programme of events designed to promote and enhance reading, with contributions from local and national authors. A space to enjoy browsing through books and finding new stories, exchanging ideas and opinions with booksellers and other readers.

«The opening of a new bookstore in the historic centre of Ravenna has a special significance» said Riccardo Vitali, the businessman affiliated with the Mondadori Store network. «The city is a point of reference in Romagna for its rich and lively cultural life. We can’t wait to make our contribution with a book shop that is suitable for all and with events dedicated to popular authors in the area».

The Mondadori Bookstore in Via Ricci will stock a catalogue of over 20,000 titles, curated by three expert and enthusiastic booksellers, ready to welcome visitors seven days a week with new suggestions and proposals: from fiction to non-fiction, and miscellaneous books to the classics, with an extensive section dedicated to comics such as manga, superheroes and graphic novels, a genre that is increasingly popular with readers.

There is, of course, also an entire area dedicated to children and teens, with a selected range of educational games e illustrated books to stimulate the creativity and imagination of younger readers.

The offer that is complemented by an assortment of the best stationery products, with lots of gift ideas, gift boxes and gift cards.

All Mondadori Bookstore customers will also be able to take advantage of digital services such as Pick Up Point, which enables you to collect a book purchased on Mondadoristore.it for free from the point of sale, choosing from a catalogue of over 1 million titles; Prenota e ritira (Order and collect), which offer the possibility of ordering online and then collecting and paying in the store; and Invia a casa (Home delivery), to have products ordered from the bookstore delivered to your home.

MONDADORI BOOKSTORE
Via Corrado Ricci 16, 48121, Ravenna
Orari: lun-dom 09.30 – 19.30
E-mail: ravennamondadori@gmail.com – Tel. 0544/ 205686
https://www.mondadoristore.it/negozi
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Mondadori Retail continues the plan to develop its network of bookstores across Italy from north to south, and kicks off a new training project for the network’s booksellers.

After the 10 bookstores inaugurated in the first half of the year, another 10 stores will open to the public by end 2021. The plan brings the offering of the most extensive network of bookstores in Italy even closer to readers, with the directly-managed medium-size stores located in the larger cities, and the franchised ones in the smaller populated areas.

Two new directly-managed Mondadori Bookstores will open over the next few months: the first in Lombardy, inside the Fiordaliso mall in Rozzano (Milan), which will be inaugurated on 11 November 2021, followed by a second opening in Emilia Romagna.

Eight new franchised Mondadori Bookstores and Mondadori Points are expected to open in the final part of the year in Emilia Romagna, Latium, Campania, Apulia, Calabria and Sicily.

Mondadori Retail also enhances the services dedicated to franchisees with the new training program called Percorsi. The new courses are meant to provide the over 500 affiliated booksellers with additional tools and guidance to enhance and increase their daily bookstore activities, through insights into the evolving landscape of the publishing world in recent years and the relationship between booksellers and readers in the digital age.

“We have built a training path to be alongside our affiliates in an even closer way, providing them with an opportunity for in-depth analysis and discussion that will help them nurture their relationship with readers even more. Bookstores are outposts of culture that can add value to the local area and its communities; today, they are turning more and more into vital gathering spots where people converge for the pleasure of discovering new stories. Our new openings bear further proof of their importance for the buoyancy of the sector, which is also driven by the dedication and hard work of booksellers throughout Italy, key figures in the promotion of reading in our Country”, says Carmine Perna, Managing Director of Mondadori Retail.

Percorsi is divided into four sessions covering several topics, from market scenarios to the enhancement of books and their assortment inside the store, from customer relations to exploring the synergies between the physical and digital world, with industry professionals taking the floor.

“The present and future of Bookstores” is the focal theme of the opening session, graced by the address from Prof. Paola Dubini from the Bocconi University. The publishing market in Italy is constantly evolving; the last 18 months, in particular, have marked a true watershed, with a few major aspects coming to the fore. The session will explore the dynamics of the sector, how to promote peculiarity in the local area, the bookseller role and the next steps to be taken.

The Percorsi cycle continues in November with the second session dedicated to “Assortment, catalogue, local area: building value for the customer“. Building an assortment is crucial to meet the needs of readers and to cover the local area: what are the pillars for building the right offer? How to enhance readers and the local area? What role do categories hold and how can choices be guided?

In 2022, Percorsi will continue with two training events that will address how to manage customers and their satisfaction and the new opportunities offered by cross-channel marketing, which will be followed by new training workshops next year.

Mental and physical wellbeing, the promotion of sustainable lifestyles and care for the environment are the focus of a series of special Mondadori Store initiatives that will take place in the bookstores around Italy, on Mondadoristore.it and its social media channels from 1 to 17 October.

For the entire period, Mondadori Store will present a rich programme of events with authors and experts, tutorials and social columns with ideas and advice for their health and that of the environment and launches an exclusive at the bookstores.

Among the personalities who will meet the public live on the Mondadori Store Facebook and Instagram channels: the green influencer Camilla Mendini, alias Carotilla, author of (Im)perfetto sostenibile. Gesti quotidiani per una sostenibilità alla portata di tutti ((In)perfectly sustainable: Daily gestures for sustainability within everyone’s reach), on 6 October at 6.30 pm; Paolo Borzacchiello, expert in linguistic intelligence and author of Basta dirlo. Le parole da scegliere e le parole da evitare per una vita felice (Just say it. The words to choose and the words to avoid for a happy life), on 11 October at 6 pm; the psychologist and travel journalist Giulia Lamarca, author of Prometto che ti darò il mondo (I promise that I will give you the world), on October 12 at 6 pm. The travel TikToker Giovanni Arena will present his new book Benvenuti in economy class (Welcome to economy class) on October 5 at 6 pm, at the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo in Milan.

Also, every day, new ideas for concrete actions with the social snapshots by popular scientist Mariagiovanna Luini, nutritionist Silvia Goggi, economist Luciano Canova, forests and wildlife expert Daniele Zovi and many others. The full programme is available on Mondadoristore.it.

Plus, Mondadori Store is launching a new title in the bookstore: Cucina green. Ricette buone e genuine per una vita in sintonia con l’ambiente (Green kitchen. Good and genuine recipes for a life in harmony with the environment) is a new cooking and wellness manual created with exclusive contributions by Mondadori authors, readers and booksellers, which offers an answer to two issues that are deeply felt and requested in these years. On the one hand, increasing attention to the nutritional value of food, with a preference for the choice of natural and seasonal ingredients, and, on the other hand, greater sensitivity to environmental problems and the waste of both food and resources: 250 pages with recipes for all seasons, with a range of useful tips for tasty zero km dishes, to minimise the impact on the environment. This previously unpublished volume will be on sale from 1 October in Mondadori bookstores and on the website Mondadoristore.it at the special price of €2.90.

At all the points of sale and on Mondadoristore.it, readers can also find all the latest and greenest news: essays, novels and short stories to help the earth, books and fairy tales dedicated to the little guardians of the planet, manuals for all-round well-being, from physical activities to food, gift ideas in recycled paper and much more.

Mondadori Store has also signed up to “Più raccogli, più semini” (“The more you collect, the more you sow”), the project promoted by Payback with Treedom which transforms the promotional points that readers accumulate with their purchases in the bookstore into trees, and thereby contributing to the planting of 3,000 trees.

The new Mondadori Store initiative will be accompanied by a communication campaign developed by the agency Canali&C. with the claim “Leggere ci fa crescere” “Reading makes us grow”, activities in all the stores, national radio and press, the web, social media and DEM.

Thursday 22 July sees the opening, in the heart of the city of Salerno, of a new Mondadori Bookstore, with a special opening event at 6 pm.

The Mondadori Bookstore di Via Porta Elina will be a point of reference for all book lovers, thanks to an extensive offer of books of all kinds and an exciting calendar of events featuring leading figures from the world of the arts and entertainment.

The guests expected at the opening ceremony include Antonia Willburger, the city councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Salerno, and the author Roberto De Luca.

“This project is the result of a desire to expand the presence of bookshops in the area of Salerno and Campania, giving citizens the possibility of finding what they’re looking for, and coming into contact with books and booksellers on a daily basis. In an increasingly digital age, it is really important to rediscover the pleasure of flicking through the pages and choosing what to read with the books in your hand, a stimulus also for exchange with booksellers and other readers. Thanks to the collaboration of Mondadori Store and my desire to launch this business venture, I aim to increasingly reinforce the relationship between the region of Campania and culture. It is an extra challenge for me, but I am confident that the cultural spirit of the city of Salerno will prove to be extremely positive,” announced Antonio Verderame, the businessman affiliated with the Mondadori Store.

The new bookstore, which covers and area of 140 square metres, features an offer of more than 10,000 volumes, curated by the experience of a team of five passionate booksellers who will welcome readers seven days a week with tips and suggestions from among the new releases, bestsellers and niche titles.

From fiction, non-fiction, miscellaneous titles and the classics, right up to cartoons: a significant selection is dedicated to manga, superheroes and graphic novels, and increasingly popular genre with the public.

There is also a dedicated area for children and young adults with the best educational games and illustrated books to stimulate the imagination of younger readers.

Great importance is also given to the local area, including local authors, and histories and guides on the city and the region, available also in English for international visitors and tourists.

And finally, of course, there will also be a range of the latest music releases, stationery products and gift ideas, gift boxes and gift cards.

All of the customers of the Mondadori Bookstore will also be able to make use of digital services, such as Pick Up Point, which enables customers to collect from the store books bought on Mondadoristore.it, selected from a catalogue of over 1 million titles; Prenota e ritira (Order and collect) with which readers can order online and pay and collect in the store; and Invia a casa (Home delivery) to have books ordered in the store delivered straight to your home.

This new opening takes to three the number of Mondadori Store outlets in the city of Salerno, where the bookstore chain is already present with shops in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 56 and Via Posidonia, 95.

MONDADORI BOOKSTORE
Via Porta Elina 3, Salerno
Open: Mon – Sun 08.30 – 21.00
E-mail: mondadorisalernoportanova@gmail.com – 089 9762477
www.mondadoristore.it/negozi

Thursday 22 July sees the opening in Catania of a new Mondadori Bookstore. The opening event, which will take place on Wednesday 21 July at 7 pm, is expected to be attended by Salvo Pogliese, the Mayor of the City of Catania, and Barbara Mirabella, the City Councillor for Culture and Educational Policy of the Municipality of Catania. Also present for the ribbon cutting will be the Sicilian artists Vittorio Ribaudo, a painter of wood and of nature, and street artist Mikhail Albano, who, to mark the opening, will be showing some of their work in the new bookstore.

The Mondadori Bookstore in via D’Annunzio will be a point of reference for all book lovers with an extensive offer of books of all kinds, from bestsellers to niche titles, curated by the experience of a team of six passionate booksellers who will welcome readers seven days a week.

A space for cultural aggregation that will be animated by a calendar of events aimed at engaging the public, including meetings with local and national writers, protagonists from the world of the arts and entertainment.

“We are delighted to be able to launch this new project with a brand like Mondadori Store in the city where we grew up. This is also a young entrepreneurial adventure that began a few years ago when with my brother we made the decision to invest in this area, opening the first bookstore, together with Mondadori Store. Following the successful opening of sales outlets inside the Le Zagare and Katanè shopping malls, we are expanding the cultural offering in the heart of Catania: the new bookstore will be a place to live, meet people and will provide a stimulus for the entire community,” said Stefano Monica, the businessman affiliated with the Mondadori Store chain.

Covering a surface of 360 square metres on two floors, the Mondadori Bookstore will stock more than 50,000 books including fiction, non-fiction, miscellaneous titles and the classics, as well as a wide and curated selection of cartoons, from manga to superheroes and graphic novels. There is also a section dedicated to Sicily and local authors. A specific area is also dedicated to children and young adults, from educational games to illustrated books to stimulate young readers.

Visitors will also find a varied and high-quality assortment of stationery, gift boxes and gift cards. Meanwhile, the second floor of the bookstore has space that will be used to host literary and musical events.

All of the customers of the Mondadori Bookstore will also be able to make use of digital services, such as come Pick Up Point, which enables customers to collect from the store books bought on Mondadoristore.it, selected from a catalogue of over 1 million titles; Prenota e ritira (Order and collect) with which readers can order online and pay and collect in the store; and Invia a casa (Home delivery) to have books ordered in the store delivered straight to your home.

This new opening takes to four the number of Mondadori Store outlets in the city of Catania.

MONDADORI BOOKSTORE
Via Gabriele D’Annunzio 115, 95127, Catania
Open: Mon-Sun 09.00 – 20.30
E-mail: mondadoridannunzio@outlook.it – 095.2202569
www.mondadoristore.it/negozi
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Mondadori Retail, the company that manages Italy’s most extensive chain of bookstores, continues its development strategy with the opening of con 10 new sales outlets across the country.

The new Mondadori Bookstores – both directly managed and franchised – that will open in the coming months will be supported by a plan to strengthen the offer, digitization and the launch of a training programme for booksellers.

“In a year that has been characterised by great dynamism in the book sector, we think that it is a real priority to invest in both the development of physical stores and the enhancement of services,” declared Carmine Perna, chief executive of Mondadori Retail. “Preference will be given to medium-sized shops, managed directly in the larger towns and cities and as franchises in smaller centres, with the aim of responding to the cultural needs of the local communities with an offer the corresponds to the customer. We will also offer specific training to our booksellers and new digital tools to encourage and expand the relationship with readers across the country,” Perna concluded.

A new Mondadori Bookstore has opened in Milan, within Bicocca Village. This directly-managed shop will be a point of reference for book lovers with over 10,000 titles available, from fiction to non-fiction, classics and comics, a sector dedicated to kids and young adults, with films and toys, and s selection of quality stationery, gift boxes and gift cards.

Another new opening took place at the end of May in Pontecagnano (Salerno): where the nee Mondadori Bookstore will enhance the offer of the Centro Maximall with the best of Mondadori’s offer of culture and entertainment.

By the end of July other new Mondadori Bookstores will be opened in Portogruaro (Venice), in the Adriatico2shopping mall and in San Martino Buon Albergo (Verona), inside Le Corti Venete, to be followed in the autumn by another three directly-managed stores in central-north regions.

Also franchised openings will continue: following those in March and April in Cava de Tirreni, L’Aquila, Avella, Naples and Frascati, new affiliated booksellers will open another three Mondadori Bookstores in the centre and south of Italy before the end of the summer.

As well as reinforcing the shops, the Mondadori Retail strategy is focused on enhancing specific market segments, expanding the in-store assortment with the introduction of the Just Comics format: an in-store comics factory, to give more visibility to a publishing area that is meeting with increasing public interest.

Just Comics is already present in Milan with an entire floor dedicated to the segment in the Rizzoli Galleria book shop and the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo, in the Mondadori Bookstores in Arese, Padua, Bologna, and  both the Via Appia and Fiumicino stores in Rome, and with an extensive section in the main shops of the chain, as well as on www.mondadoristore.it. With a selection of over 10,000 comic and illustrated titles, that go from manga to graphic novels and superheroes, it will be a new point of reference of all comics fans and everyone who wants to discover a world full of stories.

Mondadori Retail has also launched an extensive training programme for booksellers, which aims to reinforce the skills of the teams in the directly-managed stores, by enhancing important aspects of the relationship with readers, from when they arrive in the shop until they make a purchase. For the franchise chain, a series of meetings will begin in the autumn aimed at providing booksellers and the entrepreneurs who have decided to affiliate with the chain with the tools and knowledge necessary to develop their skills.

Particular attention is also being given to digital services, which are increasingly central in the relationship with readers and the buying process, which have been designed around the needs of new consumers. The entire Mondadoristore.it catalogue – with over 1 million titles, including books in Italian and in original languages, school textbooks, eBooks, eReaders, films in DVD and Blu-ray, music of every kind, toys, gift ideas and stationery products – is accessible also through free multichannel services, selecting between the Pick Up Point, Prenota e Ritira (Order & Collect) and Invia a casa (Delivery) options.

There is also an expansion of the range of new cashless services, such as Scalapay, available from June, which enables customers of the online channel to pay by instalments, and a  pay by mail solution, which will be up and running by the end of the year, to pay remotely for purchases made in store.

The logistics area – essential to ensure an increasingly efficient service for both customers and booksellers – is also being upgraded, with the optimisation of the entire process – from orders to delivery– with the autumn introduction of dropshipping, an innovative distribution model that makes it possible to reduce delivery times.

Books offer experience, enjoyment, reflection: essential goods that the Mondadori Store bookshops continue to provide to people around the country at more than 550 shops open across the entire county, while also ensuring maximum protection of the heath of customers and staff.

In this period, Italy’s most extensive bookshop network is inviting readers to spend some free time in a bookshop to bring forward the tradition moment of buy books as Christmas gifts with a campaign entitled, “Regala una storia, emoziona chi ami” (“Give the gift of a story, and move someone you love”). An initiative which, in line with the appeal made by AIE – Associazione Italiana Editori (the Italian Publishers’ Association) and ALI – Associazione Librai Italiani (the Italian Association of Booksellers), underlines the importance of avoiding queues and crowds in store and reduce waiting times in the lead up to Christmas, and promoting the book as the perfect Christmas gift.

The entire Mondadoristore.it offer, with over 1 million titles in the catalogue, as well as music, films, toys, stationery and eReaders, is always available through free multichannel services, along with home delivery: Pick Up Point, to comfortably collect in store products bought online; Prenota e ritira, with which you can order online and collect and pay in the store or at one of the 11,00 post offices around the country, and Invia a casa, to have a product ordered in store deliver straight to you home.  Customers can also take advantage of the new Satispay service, which is already active at more than 150 Mondadori Stores, to safely and securely pay using just your smartphone.

Plus, for the sixth year in a row, Cesvi volonteers will be at participating Mondadori Stores in all of the main Italian cities and towns to gift-wrap customers’ purchases. A successful partnership in support of the Cesvi initiative for the prevention and fight against the maltreatment of children in the cities of Bergamo, Bari and Naples. With a small donation, customers can make a contribution to this important project.

Mondadori Store digital events will also continue with leading players from the world of arts and entertainment who will meet the public in exclusive online events: The Zen Circus on 20 November; Fabrizio Moro in 25 November; and Simon & The Stars on 3 December.

The Mondadori Store Christmas communication campaign, developed by the Canali&C. agency, will be on air on radio, in store, with posters and videowall at points of sale, and online with newsletters, on the  Mondadoristore.it website and the networks social media profiles.