Alfonso Signorini

Starting today, Alfonso Signorini, one of the most popular personalities in show business and TV, embarks on a new venture with the Mondadori Group to develop a talent agency dedicated to entertainment. A project where Signorini will capitalize fully on the wealth of know-how and unique skills built throughout his career.
Signorini will maintain an ongoing commitment to Chi, becoming its Managing Editor from the next issue.

“I embark on this new professional endeavour with great enthusiasm and motivation. I thank the Mondadori Group for this opportunity and for the trust it has always shown in me. To Chi, now part of my DNA and something that is deeply ingrained in me, I will continue to dedicate my fullest energies. The partnership with Massimo Borgnis, more than a decade of fruitful collaboration, will allow the magazine to continue on its path of evolution and success”, said Alfonso Signorini.

“We are proud to entrust Alfonso Signorini, a landmark in Italian entertainment, with a challenge that will see him involved in the creation and development of a Group talent agency, where he will be able to put his vast knowledge of the world of entertainment to good use, tackling a managerial role”, said Carlo Mandelli, Managing director of Mondadori Media.

Signorini, 58, from Milan, a graduate in medieval philology from the Catholic University of Milan, began his professional activity as a humanities teacher. Boasting long-standing experience in the world of journalism, Signorini is today a TV host, author and writer: a strong aficionado of classical music and opera director, he has published numerous books with Mondadori dedicated to the lives of great composers and personalities from the world of music, entertainment and fashion.

Massimo Borgnis will concurrently take on the position of Editor-in-Chief of Chi.
Borgnis, 62, born in Milan, after studying at the International School of Milan, began his career in journalism as a sports reporter specializing in American football and US sports. In 1988, he joined the editorial staff of Gente, working there for 19 years, and covering increasing responsibilities until becoming central chief editor; a role he also held from 2007 at the weekly Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni, before being appointed deputy executive editor-in-chief of Chi in 2009.

Over the past year, Chi has recorded excellent results: the good newsstand performance combines with the steady growth in audience on social media, where Italy’s most widely read people magazine with 1.3 million monthly readers, reaches nearly 1 million total followers on Instagram and Facebook.

Chi, the people magazine edited by Alfonso Signorini, is reinforcing its formula and, on newsstands from tomorrow, will appear to readers with a new look with the most beautiful love stories, exclusive scoops, leading personalities, news investigations and background.

The feelings and emotions that everyone can identify with will be even more at the heart of Chi; a narrative dimension that starts in the magazine and extends across all of its digital platforms. In line with the new formula, from 10 June, the Mondadori Group weekly will launch #storiedamore (love stories): a new editorial project that celebrates love in all its forms, with the exclusive participation of personalities from television and the world of entertainment. Every week, a different story will be covered, not only on the pages of  Chi but also on the brand’s Instagram and Facebook profiles, with interviews with the most popular celebrities and, for the first time, in a podcast series, in which it will be the voices of the protagonists themselves that will talk about previously unpublished aspects of their emotional lives that will engage and move the audience.

“Even more feelings: this is the principal guideline of the new magazine, and what readers of Chi most frequently ask us for. Emotions will run alongside accounts of personalities most in view, with their stories, experience and a rediscovery of the pleasure of more detailed and authentic storytelling,” announced the editor of Chi, Alfonso Signorini.

The first subject of #storiedamore and the cover story of the revamped Chi will be the editor himself, Alfonso Signorini: the first to step up to the plate and reveal an intimate part of his life, in this case his special relationship with and great love for his mother.

Chi also takes a look beyond the jet set and the entertainment world, with much more attention to features and news investigations.

There are also five new thematic supplements that will accompany the publication of upcoming issues, starting this week with the free Chi Weddings Special: a much-anticipated collectors issue now in its fifth edition, with pages dedicated to the weddings of Italian and international celebrities who have pronounced a romantic “I do” in the last year. This will be followed by specials dedicated to Cooking, with recipes from starred-chefs (on newsstands from 17 June), the Animals of the stars and their offspring (on newsstands from 24 June), Travel and holiday destinations with exceptional guides (on newsstands from 1 July),  Beauty with loads of secret tips and suggestions to make the best of yourself (on newsstands from 15 July).

The re-launch of Chi will be supported by a communication campaign planned across various channels: TV and radio commercials, on air from 10 June of Mediaset channels and RadioMediaset stations, press, digital, social media and large-scale retail.

The planned total print run for the next 4 issues of Chi will be 1 million copies.

A further push will be given to the social media strategy of Chi: on Instagram, which has now reached 400,000 followers and is the people publishing brand with the highest level of engagement in Italy (Source: Storyclash). The profile offers real-time accounts of the world of Italian and international celebrities, with a special focus on those most popular with millennials, who make up 70% of the followers (Source: Iconosquare).

“The greatest satisfaction comes from having reached a new audience, completely different from the magazine’s traditional target, of the magazine and to have brought them closer to the Chi brand,” declared Massimo Borgnis, executive deputy editor of Chi.

The double live interview format, #CasaChi, during the months of lockdown, has been a regular daily appointment, with an average audience of over 50,000 users for each live feed (Source: Instagram Insight).

Chi Summer Tour, the now traditional and much anticipated summer even, conceived by Chi, Italy’s most widely-read people’s weekly, edited by Alfonso Signorini, returns again this year to 3 well-know Italian locations.

On the strength of its success in previous years, the Chi Summer Tour is a unique opportunity to get up close to the world of the Mondadori Group magazine, meet the editor, the staff and the celebrities who will be guests at the event, who will talk about themselves in a spontaneous and amusing atmosphere.

The first of the 3 dates is scheduled for 29 June in Cesenatico followed by Cortina d’Ampezzo on 14 July and Rapallo on 28 July.

As always, the most anticipated event will be the talk show moderated by the editor Alfonso Signorini who with his guests will discuss current affairs, gossip and the trends of summer 2019. Simona Ventura with her partner Giovanni Terzi, Paolo Ruffini, Antonella Ferrari and, straight from Uomini e Donne, Andrea Zellletta and Natalia Paragoni will be the big names present in Cesenatico.

Alongside the talk show, Alice Balossi, foodblogger and writer, will run an interactive showcooking event during which she will involve the public, the guests and Alfonso Signorini as she recounts the preparation of dishes using products by Orogel, the sponsor of the project.

Among the new features of this edition of  the Chi Summer Tour  will be the Lucky Card competition, an exciting game which, thanks to the involvement of Grana Padano, another of the project’s partners, will give the possibility for one member in the audience to participate in an exclusive gala dinner together with Alfonso Signorini and his guests (the invitation is valid for two people).

The Chi Summer Tour has been organised also thanks to the contributions of GrissinBon, GIVOVA, Nobis-Filo Diretto Assicurazioni, Forza Spa Concessionaria Ufficiale Maserati and Santero.

With this format, the advertising sales company Mediamond offer companies an all-round communication project that starts from the local territory and then extends to the magazine and the brand’s social channels, with particular attention to the magazine’s Instagram profile – @chimagazineit, which has recently been re-launched with enhanced content.

Follow all of the updates to the Chi Summer Tour with a photogallery, videos, stories and live feeds, on the magazine’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/chimagazine and @chimagazineit,  following the hashtag #chisummertour.

The tour has been organised in partnership with EGE Produzioni, the factory specialised in big events and TV productions.