This year the GEO Mondadori campaign is supporting the collection of funds for FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano (the Italian Environmental Fund) – for the project “La Terra di Francesco” which aims to recover and open to the public the wood of Saint Francis of Assisi..
Also, from 15 June to 15 August, it will be possible to buy all the Mondadori guides (Guide Mondadori, Top 10, Scoprire l’Italia, Repertory and City Book) with a 25% discount.

Mondadori, the market leader in travel publishing with a catalogue of 200 titles, has always been engaged in environmental protection. The guides themselves are printed on FSC paper, which means that the paper is responsibly sourced.
With their support for “La Terra di Francesco” the Mondadori guides also confirm an attention for the growing sensitivity of the public about environmental tourism.

The FAI project for Assisi aims to redevelop and recover vegetation in the area to protect the biodiversity of the woodland, as well as restoring the buildings within the area. This zone of 60 hectares of hilly woodland, made up mainly of oak, maple and hornbeam trees as well as olive groves and cultivated fields, could be opened to the public by November 2001. This is the landscape that served as a backdrop to the paintings of Giotto and where we can today also find the land art work Il Terzo Paradiso donated by Michelangelo Pistoletto. It is land that represents the highest model of the communion between man and nature, in line with the teachings and principles of St Francis.

The second edition of “ANTEPRIME – Ti racconto il mio prossimo libro”, an even that offers writers the possibility of presenting their new books directly to the public and organised by the municipality of Pietrasanta, a town of sculptors and artists, along with the publishing houses Einaudi, Electa, Frassinelli, Mondadori, Piemme and Sperling & Kupfer, will be held in Pietrasanta from 10 to 12 June 2011.

At various significant locations around the town – from 6.30 pm until late in the evening – the very full programme will feature a number of both well-established and new Italian and foreign authors.

Last year ANTEPRIME recorded some 15,000 visitors at the 36 encounters organised with authors and this year the programme is even richer, with more than 60 events and on the final evening Ken Follett will take off his bestselling writer’s hat and take to the stage as a musician, playing and singing with his band “Damn Right I Got the Blues”, to entertain the audience in a surprising rock and blues concert.

ANTEPRIME opens to the public the kind of meetings that publishers regularly organise for booksellers to announce and present forthcoming titles. Meetings that are increasingly conducted by the authors themselves and in which they have an opportunity to give an account of the effort and the passion that goes into the creation of a book. On the various stages of Pietrasanta the authors will be accompanied by their editors and will be able to pursue in public the constant dialogue that underpins the relationship between an author and his or her publisher. Some will read extracts from their new books, while others will explain the background or the genesis of their new work. For all of them it will be an opportunity to satisfy a public demand to know more about writers, to answer questions and raise curiosities.

Mondadori and Vodafone Italia are launching the first digital newsstand for tablet devices: an authentic aggregator for digital magazines that will provide access to Italy’s best magazines and, with the Bol.it, to more than 110,000 ebooks.

Two markets with great potential side by side: the media industry, which in Italy, between digital and “physical” is worth around €21 billion (Source: PWC “Entertainment & Media Outlook in Italy) and a sector that is undergoing a profound transformation. At the same time, the mobile telecoms sector, currently worth about €21 billion (Source: Deutsche Bank), has been involved in the rapid spread of the most advanced communication services and devices, creating the conditions for the development of new ways of exploiting a vast array of content.

Mondadori and Vodafone, both market leaders, have combined their efforts to offer their customers and readers the most effective way of accessing paid content. The partnership opens the way to an innovative model in which digital editorial content will be made available on all kinds of device (tablets and smartphones), regardless of the operating system or technology.

With this agreement Mondadori and Vodafone will, from the beginning of June, open a digital newsstand with all of Italy’s leading magazines: from the start it will be possible to download for free, on devices running the Android operating system, six digital editions of Panorama, Panorama Economy and Grazia; other titles will be added from summer the weeklies Chi, Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni, Donna Moderna and Tu Style and the monthlies Cucina Moderna, Casaviva, Panoramauto and Pc Professionale.
And through an application for Bol.it – the Italian online bookstore with over 6 million products including books, CDs, DVDs, games and ebooks, Vodafone clients will also be able to access a catalogue of over 110,000 digital books, available at a 30% discount.

Vodafone Italia, which already since last summer has developed solutions to accompany the world of publishing towards a new business model for paid digital content, aims to be the best possible partner for digital media with its portfolio of products that is a model of excellent service with pre and post sales assistance and advice at all points of contact with the client and a network performance that makes them available always and everywhere.

Mondadori’s Digital area, which was created in September 2010 and is focused on the development of the publishing market through technology, is concentrating on the dual effort of creating new areas of business and the digital distribution of magazines, books and the Group’s other editorial products. In addition to its e-commerce and digital multimedia activities, the Digital area has recently added the development of applications for mobile devices.

“In a world in which cultural consumption is increasing and permeating the physical and digital lives of people, ensuring that access to content is easy and ubiquitous is part of the role of a publisher,” underlined Maurizio Costa, deputy chairman and chief executive of the Mondadori Group. “Increasing the value of what Mondadori can give to its customers/readers is at the heart of our development policies, and we are creating partnerships with telecom operators, device manufacturers and the leading internet brands precisely to ensure that customers can have access and buying opportunities everywhere. In this sense, the agreement with Vodafone is an important stage in the construction of our growth strategy,” Costa concluded.

“This agreement with Mondadori is a key element in our strategy,” stated Paolo Bertoluzzo, chief executive of Vodafone Italia, “because it is based on an open and horizontal model that allows us to offer, regardless of the type of device or operating system, not only digital newspapers, but also the widest range of magazines and ebooks. 2011 is the year of the tablet and the spread of these products will encourage the evolution of the business models of media companies. We want to facilitate this process by providing the best solutions in terms of connectivity, service, assistance and payment systems,” concluded Bertoluzzo.

The magazines available on the digital newsstand can be purchased easily and securely with telephone credit and a click, using one’s telephone number and password.
To make access to the digital newsstand and Bol.it simpler for customers, an application will be pre-installed on tables and available from “Vodafone Apps” where all applications of Vodafone and its partners (magazines, Bol.it, and newspapers) can be downloaded directly onto any device.

At the XXIV International Book Fair in Turin, Bol.it will launch DonaBol – Books donated by the web, a new charitable initiative that will involve the donation by Bol.it of a library to four Italian schools. The aim is to provide the schools with the texts that have had the biggest impact on the lives of readers and net users by sharing their favourite titles with friends, passing on emotions, tastes and opinions that are, in fact, exchanged and give users the sense of being a part of a community and being involved in an important initiative.

Through DonaBol, and along with those taking part, Bol.it will bring a passion for books and reading to others who can enjoy the positive effects of the actions of others. To support the schools and to give everyone the opportunity of helping kids and students become familiar with the books they deem fundamental.

The schools that will benefit from the initiative – among the most need in Milan, Turin, Naples and Palermo – have been selected thanks to the collaboration of the CGM cooperative, Italy’s largest network of social enterprises, operating across the country since 1987, which has more than 10,000 operating units and a staff of 45,000 in the various regions.

To take part in DonaBol all you need to do is visit the Bol.it stand at the Turin Book Fair (from 12 to 16 May 2011, pavilion 2, stand H126-J125) and sign up, or go to the web site www.bol.it where, from 12 May, there will be a dedicated page for Donabol, and indicate the five titles that you consider the most important in your life. When you have completed your list, the user will be invited to indicate the initiative to as many people as possible, sharing the titles on Facebook and Twitter and inviting their friends to take part. Everyone is invited to make their selection of books for DonaBol: the more contributions, the more books will be donated and the more the dream of donating a library to the four schools will become a reality.

The initiative will be launched on 12 May, with the opening of the Turin Book Fair, and will go on until the end of the month. When the collection of titles has been completed, the most selected titles will join those to be donated to the schools and Bol.it will support the head teachers of the selected schools, who will evaluate their suitability with the schools’ syllabus and needs.

Antonio Porro will be the Mondadori Group’s new General Manager Educational from June.
Porro will also be proposed to the respective boards of Mondadori Education and Mondadori Electa for the position of managing director.

Porro, who is from Milan, is 46 and has a degree in economics and business administration. Since January 2009 he has been in charge of Mergers & Acquisitions for the Mondadori Group, reporting directly to the deputy chairman and chief executive, Maurizio Costa.

Porro worked previously at Telecom Italia for a period of more than ten years; since 1995 with responsibilities in the Business Division, where he worked, among other things, on strategic marketing, and, from 2001 at the International Division, where he held a number of positions and focused on support and operations for subsidiaries.
He first worked at Mondadori in the early 1990 when he was responsible for development projects.

The Mondadori Group would like to thank Antonio Baravalle for his precious contribution and the seriousness and competence shown, and wishes him the very best in all his future professional endeavours.

NumeriPrimi° is the new brand, launched on 25 March 2011 for the bestselling titles published by Mondadori, Einaudi, Sperling & Kupfer, Piemme and Frassinelli.
This innovative project brings to bookstores, under a single brand, quality paperback editions of all of the bestselling titles of the Mondadori Group’s five publishing houses just a few months after their publication in hardcover, at advantageous prices and ahead of the paperback editions of the single imprints.

NumeriPrimi° will feature only successful titles published around 12 months for their first appearance in hardcover and is expected to produce 30-40 titles a year grouped in three different moments; with a single format, but different covers reflecting the original and at competitive prices of between €12 and €15; each title will be available under the new brand for around 18 months, before being definitively reallocated in the paperback catalogue of the original publishing house.

The new NumeriPrimi° brand is the result of collaboration between Mondadori and RobilantAssociati, Italy’s top brand design and strategy consultants, with a range of leading Italian companies among its clients.

With the definition of NumeriPrimi°, RobilantAssociati has identified, for the publishing sector, a response to a phenomenon already underway in other sectors: a demand for upscale products at more affordable prices, creating, along with the Group’s publishing houses, a new offer to add to the the market. Through its name and logo the new NumeriPrimi° brand will stand out and attract attention, exemplifying the values of success and accessibility that characterise the brand, while using an expressive and highly innovative and identifiable language.

The first 13 NumeriPrimi° titles, in bookstores from 25 March 2011 are:

John Grisham Ritorno a Ford County
Anne Holt La porta chiusa
Paolo Brosio A un passo dal baratro
Madeleine Wickham La compagna di scuola
Nicholas Sparks L’ultima canzone
Fabio Volo Il tempo che vorrei
Giancarlo De Cataldo Romanzo criminale
Dan Brown Il simbolo perduto
Mauro Corona Il canto delle manere
Fred Vargas Prima di morire addio
Clarissa Pinkola Estés Donne che corrono coi lupi
Alessandro D’Avenia Bianca come il latte, rossa come il sangue
Niccolò Ammaniti Che la festa cominci.

With a new layout and look, the completely renewed Mondadori Education web site – a point of reference for teachers, students and parents – is now online.
The site www.mondadorieducation.it covers all levels and years, from primary to the first and second level secondary, and university, and offers easy and rapid consultation for both catalogues of published materials and training – textbooks, courses, teaching materials and multimedia content in the company’s 12 imprints – as well as new services for teaching:

• @pprendiscienza, is the most extensive database of interactive resources for the study of the sciences in levels I and II of secondary schools with 30,000 digital assets and 1200 virtual lessons. A huge platform that provides digital teaching content and multimedia tools for the creation, integration and extension of daily lessons and the simplification of the work of the teacher;
• Me-book, a new customizable interactive digital book featuring multimedia content. With me-book both teachers and students can have rapid access to the digital content of the book, underline, highlight, make notes, compare documents on different pages, create and personalise lessons using the “slideshow” function and adding text and links directly to slides;
• Libropiùweb, is a new book concept that integrates study with printed texts with technology. The textbook is enriched online with exercises, interactive activities, more detailed background, self-correcting tests MP3 files, film clips, crosswords, conceptual maps and a range of other content;
• LinkYou is a combination of personalised services, created by Mondadori Education for teachers, that includes: Il tuo consulente personale (Your personal consultant) a Mondadori Education contact to assist users in the use of digital teaching materials with LIM and other tools; Il tuo consulente tecnico (Your personal technical consultant) comes into play when teachers want to introduce a teaching activity using new technology; Il tuo consulente didattico e disciplinare (Your personal teaching and disciplinary consultant) available for teachers who have selected Libropiùweb or having difficulties in accessing digital content.

LinkYou is also multimedia teaching seminars: free personalised training courses; a valuable and concrete support to evaluate and make the best use of all of the digital content that accompanies the textbooks chosen by teachers.

The home page also features a dynamic and continuously updated product showcase – contained in a central banner in Flash – a captivating way of presenting to users the new titles in educational publishing for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Scrolling down the page, there are three boxes at the bottom dedicated to the abovementioned services LinkYou, Me-book and the Devoto-Oli, the authoritative Italian dictionary, now edited by well-known linguistic scholars such Luca Serianni and Maurizio Trifone. A complete version of the 2011 edition of the Devoto-Oli dictionary is also available for the iPhone and iPad. The iPad version also allows users to personalise items and to share them on the leading social networks such as Facebook e Twitter, as well as by email.

Other sections provide information concerning the world of education: from teaching films on the Canale video (video channel) to news in “ME&YOU” and Appuntamenti (meetings & events) of interest for teachers.

Laura Donnini has been appointed general manager of Edizioni Mondadori, reporting to the general manager for trade books, Riccardo Cavallero.

Laura Donnini, who has a degree in economics and business administration and is the mother of two children, began her career in multinational consumer goods companies, where she worked for more than ten years in positions of growing responsibility, also at an international level. In 2001 she was appointed managing director of Harlequin Mondadori, the world’s leading publisher of romantic fiction, operating in Italy under the Harmony brand. In 2008 she became chief executive of Piemme, one of Italy’s top four publishing houses, where she reinforced the Geronimo Stilton and Battello a Vapore brands and developed the trade fiction area.

Laura Donnini’s professionalism and experience, combined with the excellent editorial team at Mondadori, are the best possible guarantee to face the new challenges of the market in an innovative and winning manner.

Mondadori would like to thank Massimo Turchetta for his contribution and commitment during his years with the company.

Wednesday 19 January – Maurizio Costa, deputy chairman and chief executive of Mondadori, and Pietro Citati, director of the Fondazione Valla, presented a copy of the new edition of The Koran, published in the Islamica series, to Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

The Holy Father expressed his gratitude and expressed his approval for this cultural and religious initiative.

“I am extremely honoured that the Holy Father agreed to accept the gift of a copy of the Koran, just as in 2006 he received a special edition of the Bible,” explained Maurizio Costa. “For Mondadori this event is a further recognition of the company’s tradition as a publisher that is careful to give voice to the widest range of opinions and thoughts in respect of the plurality of ideas and values.”

“There have been few and unsatisfactory previous Italian translations and the commentaries were no better,” underlined Pietro Citati. “Now Italians can read the Koran and abandon themselves to its solemn and tumultuous wave. I think there will be many surprises.”

The text, edited by Alberto Ventura, is published in a completely new translation by Ida Zilio-Grandi, who teaches Arabic language and literature at the University of Venice. The work has been overseen with an indispensable linguistic competence which aims to render the Koran clear and comprehensible, in a modern Italian free of the kind of archaic forms that have typified the translations of ancient religious texts.

The extensive commentary, the richest and most complete ever written in a European language, is the work of an international group of scholars – in addition to Ida Zilio-Grandi, Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Mohyiddin Yahia and Alberto Ventura – in an attempt to explain many of the difficulties and ambiguities in the text and to illuminate for the reader the meaning of each individual verse, the possible difference of interpretation and the stories to which reference is frequently made without sufficient background.

Mondadori and Google have signed a partnership that will make Mondadori Group’s wealth of Italian trade books available in electronic format around the world through Google Books and Google eBooks.

This partnership makes Mondadori, the biggest Italian publisher, to join Google Books and Google eBooks programme, and it means that a wealth of Italian literature and culture will be full text searchable and available for sale to readers around the world.

Google Books is already available in Italy and through Google Books readers around the world will be able to search for and find Mondadori Books through Google, to see an online preview of the books and to purchase physical copies of these books through online and physical retailers. Google eBooks–Google’s online bookstore–will launch in Europe in 2011. Through today’s announcement, Google will also sell Mondadori ebooks.

The trade catalogue of the Mondadori Group (Edizioni Mondadori, Einaudi, Sperling & Kupfer and Edizioni Piemme) includes over 10,000 titles, 1600 of which are already available as ebooks. All of the titles in the catalogue will gradually form part of the Google Books programme.

Mondadori is the leading company in the Italian book market with a share of 28.4% in 2009. The Group’s editorial production is mainly focused on fiction and essays, paperbacks and children’s books, with over 2000 new titles every year.

“The partnership with Google represents confirmation of Mondadori’s focus on growth and innovative solutions”, stated CEO of the Mondadori Group, Maurizio Costa. “Consistent with this vision we have decided to join forces with an authoritative platform such as the one belonging to Google both to offer a preview of our titles and to make the considerable range of titles produced by our publishing houses available for purchase”, he continued. “The agreement with Google without doubt represents a significant opportunity to promote the quality of our content and our editorial production on a large scale”, concluded Costa.

“This is a fantastic step for the promotion of Italian culture, and it will mean more opportunity for Italian writers, and readers around the globe,” said Santiago de la Mora, Director of Google Books for EMEA. “We want Google eBooks to help stimulate the online books environment, and by working with important publishers like Mondadori we can achieve this goal.”

With Google eBooks, readers can discover and buy books from the Google eBookstore or independent online booksellers who have partnered with Google. This provides a myriad of ways for books to be discovered and purchased online. Whether a consumer buys a Google eBook from Google or from an online bookseller, they are all stored in a single online library. Readers can view their Google eBooks on devices from laptops to netbooks to tablets to smartphones to e-readers.