Focus Junior

During the exclusive evening Live Vision – the Future of Brands, the media showcase organised at the Spazio Gessi in Via Manzoni in Milan by Mondadori Media Area Magazine and Piemme Media Platform, Mondadori Media’s exclusive retailer, the directors presented the values and future strategies of the publishing brands in an innovative way, answering questions posed by the talents of the TAAG! interacting with a special middleman: artificial intelligence.

Carlo Mandelli, Director of the Mondadori Media Area Magazine, said: “Piemme is the ideal partner for enhancing some of our brands, due to its important network of investors in strategic sectors. The collaboration, which started a year ago with TV Sorrisi e Canzoni and Chi, and more recently with the Focus system, is generating excellent results. For the future, thanks also to this collaboration, we plan to continue pursuing a multimedia strategy, offering exclusive content on all platforms, from magazines to digital, from events to talent”.

Walter Bonanno, Director of Piemme S.p.A., stated: “Our corporate strategy is focused on the development of advertising and storytelling, and I would like to emphasise the strategic role of the partnership with Mondadori Media in enhancing the publishing brands. Looking to the future, we reaffirm our commitment to a multimedia strategy that integrates all available platforms in a comprehensive and effective way. We will continue to invest in creating exclusive, high-quality projects, while keeping a close eye on emerging trends and the needs of our audience. We also want these initiatives to not only inform and entertain, but to inspire and stimulate critical thinking among readers and users. So, we’re excited to continue our collaboration with Mondadori Media and to work together to build a successful future”.

Here is what we can expect in terms of future brand strategies.

FOCUS

Science populariser Marco Martinelli interviews Raffaele Leone, editor of Focus, Focus Storia and Focus Live.

The Focus brand, founded around the principle of spreading science so that it’s accessible to everyone, and not just enthusiasts, has always been committed to making science current and relevant in various areas of everyday life, reaching a generalist audience through its platform.
Focus will continue to focus on its multi-channel strategy, which includes a magazine, website, social media, videos, talks, podcasts, a TV channel, an academy for students interested in science journalism, and a science outreach festival. Emphasis will also be placed on training, especially for students and teachers, and in-depth study of areas such as sustainability, green energy, mobility, robotics, artificial intelligence, health, and many other topical issues.
Focus intends to maintain its position as a leader in science popularisation, increasing its reach and positively influencing the general public’s understanding of science, thanks to teamwork involving the entire editorial staff and talent involved.

FOCUS JUNIOR

Science populariser Marco Martinelli interviews Sarah Pozzoli, Director of Focus Junior, Focus Wild and Focus Pico.

The values of Focus Junior are centred on an educational approach that stimulates curiosity and critical thinking in children, with a strong focus on STEM subjects – environment, sustainability, art and history.
The goal for Focus Junior is to remain at the forefront of children’s education and information, adapting to the changing needs and interests of the new generation. Thus, the strategy envisages strengthened collaboration with schools and companies to promote innovative educational projects; expanded digital and interactive content to better engage children in the technological age; a focus on topics such as climate change, fake news and science journalism to educate children to become informed and aware citizens; and the development of new initiatives and workshops that encourage hands-on, experiential learning.

TV E SORRISI

TV host and influencer Giulia Salemi interviews Aldo Vitali, TV Sorrisi e Canzoni Director.

Thanks to its authority, recognisability, credibility and clarity, TV Sorrisi e Canzoni has been a leader in the world of entertainment, television and show business for over 70 years. The management of TV Sorrisi e Canzoni stands out for its ability to provide exclusive previews, in-depth interviews and a broad spectrum of content ranging from TV to music, from cinema to streaming, as well as integrating topics such as travel, food, mobility and current affairs.
For the future, the strategy will focus on innovation and adaptation to new trends in media and entertainment, including through collaboration with talent. There will be an increased focus on interactivity and personalisation, thus responding to the needs of an audience seeking tailor-made and technologically integrated entertainment experiences. However, TV Sorrisi e Canzoni will continue to direct the tastes and preferences of the Italian public, continuing to provide rich and varied content and remaining an authoritative standard in the sector.

CHI

Host and performer Pierpaolo Pretelli interview Massimo Borgnis, director of Chi.

Founded on values like engagement and interaction, with a strong commitment to social media and innovative formats such as ‘CASA CHI’, the Chi brand stands out for its credibility and authenticity, offering real stories and exclusive scoops. Chi also explains trends and lifestyles, influencing consumption and becoming not only a cultural standard, but an entertainment one, too. Chi differs from traditional gossip magazines in several respects, relying on a special, trusted relationship with celebrities and offering exclusive interviews and insights into their lives, projects and passions.
The brand will continue to go beyond just gossip, offering an in-depth and respectful account of public figures and offer a wider range of content, focusing on fashion, beauty, lifestyle, travel, cooking and wellness.

The evening closed with a DJ set by Federico Chimirri, DJ, chef and influencer.

Mondadori Media is Italy’s leading multimedia publisher, with a distinctive positioning and audience on the publishing market. The Mondadori Group’s social multimedia company caters to the passions of the Italian people through its brands – food, beauty, fashion, health and wellness , science and tech – and reaches more than 27.5 million unique users every month (source: Audicom November 2023) and more than 100 million fans (source: Comscore Shareablee + Pinterest Insight December 2023).

Piemme has six of the most important newspapers (Il Messaggero, Il Mattino, Il Gazzettino, Corriere Adriatico, Nuovo Quotidiano di Puglia and Leggo), websites (online platforms for the respective newspapers and licensed third-party sites: Aranzulla.it, Centro Meteo Italiano, Funweek.it), magazines (Molto, Mondadori Media, Mondadori Scienza, Periodici San Paolo), TV (Telenova), Piemme designs projects tailored to customers’ settings, producing multimedia campaigns that synergistically integrate print and digital, radio and TV. Piemme also manages local advertising on Radio Subasio and RCS media in its reference areas.

Travel Kids – Italy in Intercity with Focus Junior is the new podcast channel designed for children (6–12 years old) and parents travelling. Created in collaboration with Trenitalia – the parent company of the FS Group’s Passenger Hub – its 100+ podcasts will accompany families on an incredible step-by-step story across Italy and the Islands: odd stories, amusing anecdotes about places, characters, objects, science, nature, animals and much more.

Podcasts are a winning tool to disseminate culture and entertainment: people listen to them to learn, study and laugh. In Italy, every month 12 million people listen to podcasts (Ipsos research), with numbers steadily increasing year after year, especially in the younger age groups. Focus Junior, the leading brand in the kids’ sector, and Loquis, the first platform for listening to and narrating the world via geolocalised podcasts, will take the young passengers of Intercity, the Trenitalia Business management company headed by Luigi Corradi, and their families on a journey to discover the many wonders of Italy: from the incredible story of Ciro, the baby dinosaur preserved at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Milan, to the reason why the Tower of Pisa leans, along with stories of pirates and witches in Liguria, to the mystery of the Riace Bronzes in Calabria.

“Italy is the real Wonderland, where every place has curious stories just waiting to be told”, said Sarah Pozzoli, Focus Junior Director. “Thanks to this initiative, created in collaboration with Loquis and Trenitalia, Focus Junior has been able to narrate the history and beauty of Italy through podcasts designed specifically for children and young people, with a light but authoritative tone and a rigorous eye for content. Travel Kids is in line with our mission “to entertain while discovering the world”, in this case our peninsula, a true treasure rich in history, culture and biodiversity”.

Focus Junior and Loquis will stimulate the imagination and curiosity of young people with relaxing and educational content, using simple and entertaining language suitable for the whole family. The narrators for this project will be Andrea Lucchetta, former Italian national volleyball team player, and Creator Alessio Bourcet aka Pika Palindromo.

“Loquis is a very special kind of navigator: instead of providing directions, it tells us about the places we visit”, said Bruno Pellegrini, CEO of Loquis. “We created it because we are convinced that knowledge of the world and its locations is as necessary as ever in this time when people are withdrawing into virtual worlds. This is why we are very happy to create a project dedicated to the youngsters, creating educational entertainment, which is one of the social aims of Loquis, where the smartphone is just a tool for listening to stories dedicated to the beauty of our cities, leaving the eyes free to enjoy them”.

For Domenico Scida, Trenitalia’s Intercity Business Director, “This is an initiative designed for families and children who can travel by Intercity and share moments of leisure and culture”. “We are happy”, added Scida, “to start an important collaboration with Loquis and Focus Junior, to accompany and entertain all children travelling on our trains, with an increasingly customised service, recounting curiosities and anecdotes about Italian cities, from North to South, in a fun and dynamic way”.

The first 50 podcasts are already available on the Milan-Lecce, Taranto-Reggio Calabria and Milan-Ventimiglia routes. 100 podcasts are expected by mid-January 2024, on all parts of Trenitalia’s Intercity network.

For the 2023/2024 school year, numerous initiatives aimed at teachers, students and families have been organised. All conceived by Focus, Focus Scuola, Focus Junior and Focus Wild, the brand leaders in publishing in Italy for the Mondadori Group, which, once again this year, are confirmed as promoters of innovative educational proposals for the school world.

With the start of the school year, the Focus Scuola website will, as always, be available to teachers with news, insights and useful tips to make their lessons more engaging and inclusive.

The Focus Scuola Newsletter, curated by the editorial staff of Focus Junior in collaboration with a team of specialised, professional journalists, is back. The Newsletter, which has more than 20,000 Italian teachers already subscribed to it, is aimed at primary and secondary school teachers. The main goal is to provide ideas and playful and innovative proposals to get the students more involved during lessons. Each week Focus Scuola Newsletter offers topical insights for lectures and group work, ideas for science labs, STEAM worksheets to make science a more exciting subject, in-depth features explained in a simple way to explain complicated topics, and features on innovative teaching methods and classroom management thanks to advice from top experts. In addition to being able to preview all Focus initiatives for the school world, teachers will also have the opportunity to share class projects with the entire registered teacher community.

Here is the link to subscribe to the Newsletter.

Starting in October, the Academies by Focus Junior, Focus and Focus Storia which, every year, involve hundreds of classes and thousands of students, will resume.
Focus Junior’s Journalism Academy, aimed at young people in primary and secondary schools and in which more than 500 classes and over 10,000 students took part last year, includes a three lessons course dedicated to media and environmental education. The first two events explain how to create a magazine, how to write an article, and how to recognise fake news in a simple and fun way, while the third deals with climate change and ecological transition. The goal of the Focus Junior Academy is to encourage critical thinking and inform the youngsters on two topics that are crucial today in order to become informed citizens. The Academy is organised in collaboration with the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Pseudosciences (Cicap) and the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (Cmcc).

“Thanks to the Academies’ initiative the editorial staff of Focus Junior help schools and teachers throughout Italy to explain complex issues through engaging storytelling that captures the attention of the youngest learners,” said Sarah Pozzoli, Director of Focus Junior. “We journalists have the same goal as teachers: to raise future citizens who can think critically and adopt a more sustainable lifestyle”, she concluded.

The Academies of Focus and Focus Storia, aimed at students in secondary schools and in which more than 100 classes and over 2,500 students participated last year, involve a course of four events during which young people step into the shoes of actual editors for each issue, actively participate in source and image research, attend editorial meetings, and are involved in analysing the commissioned work and publishing content on the various social channels, where their proposals and ideas will be added and promoted.

Raffaele Leone, Director of Focus, thus reiterates the importance of establishing synergistic collaboration with schools: “The school world is doubly important to us: on the one hand because we feel that teachers and their educational mission are close to our hearts, and on the other hand because discovering a dialogue with the new generation, who increasingly keep themselves informed through additional tools and channels besides print media, is a strong motivation for us. We’re dealing with a positive two-way exchange: showing how to make a science magazine gets young people involved in the topics covered, in reading, in researching sources. Seeing how they draw on tools other than print prompts us to create formats and languages that are more suited to them. We can say that Focus is one of the most innovative tools on the market in terms of dissemination and multimedia, with its magazines, website, social media platforms, podcasts, Academies and live events that make the annual Focus Live a success,” concluded the Director.

Completing the Focus offer for schools for the 2023/2024 school year is a great new feature: the Focus School Camp, innovative educational projects aimed at all Italian schools on all levels, representing a revolutionary way of thinking about and experiencing educational trips. A comprehensive new proposal that starts with classroom training, moves through practice during camp, and ends with the development of a final digital project that will be presented in class and posted on the Focus School Camp digital bulletin board. The themes of the School Camp by Focus Junior, Focus Wild, Focus and Focus Storia are varied, and designed specifically to meet any educational needs of different school classes and age groups of students.

After the great success of two editions of the Focus Junior Summer Camp, the Focus School Camp is again collaborating with Sunnylife, the market-leading tour operator in the school trip and summer camp sector.

Finally, teachers will also be able to subscribe to the Focus brand magazines this year using their Carta del Docente and, from mid-October, the Bonus Scuola returns, allowing educational institutions to apply for a subsidy for subscriptions and magazines purchased during the school year by making a specific request to: sgc@mondadori.it.

Focus, Focus Storia, Focus Junior and Focus Wild launch the first School Camps edition, a new project conceived in partnership with Sunny Life, a company specialised in tourism and cultural travels for children between 6 to 18 years of age and affirmed tour operator of the Focus Junior Summer Camps.

The School Camps provide innovative and complete educational offers focused on students and teachers, starting from in-class training to on-field experience at the camp and ending with the drafting of final summary in digital format.

The Focus system brands pursue their licensing development through this initiative, by further extending their educational offer to educational trips: real training, interdisciplinary and customised courses – using the tested STEAM approach – to spread knowledge on scientific and mathematical subjects with the help of other disciplines such as art, history and architecture.

Such activity, designed for primary and secondary school students, aims to stimulate and involve the youngest by exploiting knowledge and developing skills. Such project asserts the attention of the Focus, Focus Storia, Focus Junior and Focus Wild brands towards both the education of the youngest and highly topical issues, such as sustainability and inclusion.

In addition to being real learning workshops, the 2023/2024 School Camps allow children to live truly unforgettable experiences under the guidance of professionals.

• Focus, a leading brand of scientific information, provides a package of ideas specifically designed for secondary schools and studied around the most current educational topics, with particular interest and insight into the technical, scientific and technological fields.
• Focus Storia, a magazine dedicated to the most striking historical and cultural facts and great protagonists of the past and present, offers a special catalogue conceived for secondary schools and designed to revive those places in which traces of our history are still evident.
• Focus Junior, a point of reference in the kids’ segment, suggests experiences developed to introduce topics such as innovation, sustainability and inclusion to primary and secondary school students – through a multidisciplinary and transversal approach – always according to the needs and age of such young learners.
• Focus Wild, an intergenerational brand dedicated to the world of animals and nature, provides primary and secondary schools with a vast repertoire of experiences conceived to specifically attract the students’ attention towards the most current and urgent environmental issues, always in an engaging, fun and exciting way.

Verona, Milan, Genoa, Rome, Pompeii and Matera are just some of the destinations planned for the School Camps of Focus, Focus Storia, Focus Junior and Focus Wild. All destinations were selected by the Mondadori Group brand among the vast range of cruises and school trips suggested in Sunny Life’s catalogue.

The complete and updated catalogue will be available on the following link: http://focuscamp.it/.

Focus Junior Days is the new educational, entertaining, interactive project-event with hands-on experimenting organised by Il Centro in Arese, which will include interesting and attention-grabbing science laboratories and creative activities for children and families. The events will take place over 8 week-ends between March and November 2023.

This intense and unmissable schedule of free events will cover exciting topics such as astronomy, sustainability, nutrition, history, palaeontology and chemistry. The events are organised with the collaboration of Focus Junior, the main Mondadori Group brand in the kids segment. The activities are for children aged between 6 and 13, with the aim of making them interested in science, technology, sustainability and current affairs by stimulating them to interact.

A project partner is Iper La grande i, one of the most important actors in large-scale retail trading in Italy, which will offer a free snack to all children participating in the activities.

“Astronaut apprentices”, “Save the Blue Planet”, “Eating makes you healthy”, “A stroll in history”, “Health champions”, “Climate change”, “A day in the Jurassic age”, “We all love chemistry” are the 8 names of the 8 Focus Junior Days, which include educational activities, in some cases also jointly with local schools.

Children who take part in at least 5 of the 8 scheduled events will receive the Focus Junior scientific passport and a surprise at the end of the programme. Each event lasts 45 minutes and there will be sessions at different times: 10.30 – 11.30 – 14.30 – 15.30 – 16.30 – 17.30.

The first event, scheduled for Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 March in the Events Area on the 1^st floor, is “Astronaut apprentices” and the topic is astronomy. For information on the activities and to take part in the programme, simply book, free of charge, in the shopping mall’s website centroilcentro.it.

Focus Junior Days: the programme

Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 March
“Astronaut apprentices”

Spectacular experiments to understand why Mercury is covered in craters, what gases can be found in the infernal atmosphere of Venus and why Mars is red, what the rings of Saturn are made of, what the storms of Jupiter are, how cold Neptune and Pluto can be. Children will be able to discover the age, structure and temperature of the Sun, defeat gravity and travel in space, understand that a black hole is not a hole… and it is not actually black. They will amuse themselves calculating the weight and age of human beings on different planets, according to the duration of a planetary year.

Friday 21 and Saturday 22 April
“Save the Blue Planet” under the patronage of Earth Day Italia
On Earth Day (22 April), the topic will be pure sustainability. Reduce, reuse, recycle… waste: from a huge problem to an enormous opportunity. Water is life: we are all united against pollution and plastic in the seas, to protect our Blue Planet and save the living beings on it. Through experiments and activities, children will be able to observe the physical and chemical properties of the H₂O molecule, understand how much water there is on the surface of the planet, discover the percentage of water on the Earth that can be used for various purposes, understand the water footprint, see the effects of water pollution on the environment and ecosystems, learn what “plastic islands” and microplastics are, activate a hydroelectric turbine and transform the kinetic energy of waterfalls and tides into electricity.

Friday 19 and Saturday 20 May
“Eating makes you healthy”, with the collaboration of Iper La grande i
Learn in an entertaining manner how food is turned into energy, what nutrition groups are and the nutritional properties of each food. The food pyramid: how it is composed and how to “read” it, the social and cultural value of food. Who invented the most famous foods such as pizza, spaghetti and ice cream. How our metabolism works and how to read food labels and restaurant menus to discover calories.

Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 June
“A stroll in history”
A journey through the inventions and discoveries that made “history”. Learn about the pharaohs, the fascinating hieroglyphic writing system, ancient Egyptian excellence such as the sun dial, the water hourglass, medicine and astronomy, the mummification process. The legacy of ancient Greek thinking, from philosophy to the Olympic Games, the importance of democratic assemblies in ancient Athens. Children will be able to understand how useful are zero (a revolutionary invention from the Arab world) and a compass, used by Chinese sailors over 4000 years ago. They will also learn about the origins of chemistry through fascinating alchemy experiments.

Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 July
“Health champions”
Practising sport has always been linked to personal growth, intended as physical and intellectual development: “mens sana in corpore sano” [Latin for “a healthy mind in a healthy body”]. Children will discover that there is a positive correlation between health and exercising regularly, learn the difference between physical exercise, practising sport and physical fitness, how physical exercise shapes the body, makes it more agile and protects it.

Saturday 30 September and Sunday 1 October
“Climate change” under the patronage of Earth Day Italia
The topics addressed will be energy and environmental sustainability… on a mission to save the planet! From fossil fuels to global warming, from greenhouse gases to sustainable sources. Children will be able to simulate rising seas, discover how energy is produced, learn about carbon dioxide and its effects on climate, the sustainable alternatives for our future and for our beautiful planet, imagine a future of cars powered by hydrogen and solar power.

Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 October
“A day in the Jurassic age”
The creatures that all children love: dinosaurs. A journey to discover the “terrible lizards” that ruled the world, learning about their features and surprising characteristics, debunking widespread misconceptions, understanding the mechanisms underlying evolution and the new frontiers of palaeontology.
Children will be able to discover what the Earth was like millions of years ago, why dinosaurs were enormous and the main features of carnivores and herbivores, the real reason dinosaurs became extinct and how fossils are extracted after being trapped in rocks for thousands of years.

Friday 24 and Saturday 25 November
“We all love chemistry”
An entertaining journey in the miniature world of atoms and molecules, through phase transitions to incredible chemical reactions. Children will perform experiments to learn all matter is made of atoms and molecules. They will learn to recognise the three states of matter and what happens if the temperature changes, and that there are immobile atoms, moving atoms and crazy atoms in gases, liquids or solids. Children will discover about amazing sublimation, what happens if the substances in granny’s cupboard are mixed, the difference between simple mixtures and chemical reactions and how to perform the most incredible reactions without “explosions”.

Fun, surprises and experiences are the three ingredients of the new project of Il centro in Arese, which further confirm its vocation and its closeness to customers, to provide entertaining and care-free moments with friends and family.
All the information is available on centroilcentro.it.

The Pietrarsa National Railway Museum today hosted the State of Privacy ’22 event sponsored by the Regional Authority of Campania and the Municipality of Naples, which promotes correct use of digital data among users.

As part of this important event, McDonald’s and Mondadori Media, the Mondadori Group’s social multimedia company, took up the proposal of the Garante della Privacy – the Italian data protection authority – by signing an agreement in which they undertake to promote correct use of digital data among young users: the objective is to make available the necessary tools to educate youngsters about the value of their personal data in order to help them become active, knowledgeable citizens, users and consumers.

Through Focus Junior, the reference brand for children and teenagers which uses an edutainment approach to offer its readers a means to explore the world, concepts and terminology will be explained in a simple entertaining way to stimulate curiosity with the right questions and a touch of irony. Assisted by specialists on the subject, Focus Junior will publish articles in the magazine, videos, posts, memes and short clips on its website and social media.

The same content will be amplified in McDonald’s restaurants with a booklet edited by Focus Junior, packed with cartoons, infographics and illustrations, which will be distributed during events organised for youngsters. Given its widespread presence across Italy, McDonald’s is an effective amplifier of values, especially among young people, who have always been one of its most faithful publics.

“We are happy to have accepted the invitation of the Garante della Privacy and to have signed this important undertaking to safeguard the younger members of the community,” commented Luisa Adami, General Counsel and Franchising Director McDonald’s Italia. “Personal data processing is an issue to which we pay great attention: protecting our users is a priority. We are proud to join a project to raise awareness among children and young people, an initiative I feel strongly about not only in my role as General Counsel, but also as the mother of two daughters who come into the project’s target group.”

“Educating children and young people about personal data protection is a priority for society as a whole, and one in which, as a publisher that talks to the younger generations on a daily basis, we want to play an active part,” said Mondadori Media Chief Operating Officer Andrea Santagata. “This is why we have responded with such enthusiasm to the appeal of the Garante della Privacy to take concrete action in this area: we are doing so with a project organised by the Focus Junior brand, to answer the questions of young people and their families and give them the knowledge to be aware and responsible.”

 McDonald’s Italia

Active in Italy for 35 years, today McDonald’s has 640 restaurants across the country and a total of 27,000 employees who serve 1 million customers every day. Ninety percent of McDonald’s Italian restaurants are managed on a franchising basis by 140 local entrepreneurs, reflecting the brand’s strong local roots. McDonald’s confirms its intention of being a “local” brand

also through its choice of suppliers, 85% of whom are Italian companies or companies that have production operations in Italy. Worldwide, McDonald’s operates in more than 100 countries with over 38,000 restaurants.

 Mondadori Media

Mondadori Media is Italy’s leading multimedia publisher, with a distinctive positioning and audience on the editorial market. Through its brands, the Mondadori Group’s social multimedia company caters for the passions of the Italians – food, entertainment, science, fashion, edutainment and much more – and reaches more than 25 million unique users every month (source: Audiweb Jan-June 2022), an overall fanbase of 70 million people (source: Shareablee + social insight 2022) and almost 9 million readers (source: Audipress 2022/I).

Focus Junior has brought out a line of Easter eggs created to help children discover the world of animals and its fascinating multicoloured creatures.

The new product stems from the licensing agreement signed by the Mondadori Group’s flagship brand in the kids segment, and Walcor, a leading producer of Easter eggs and chocolate coins.

The initiative is another example of the strength and unique position of Focus Junior. The wealth and dependability of its content has enabled the brand over the years to broaden its educational offer from the magazine to social media, from the web to the Academies and events and, more recently, to develop licensing opportunities: projects and collaboration with distinguished partners whose reputation has further enhanced Focus Junior‘s distinctive positioning.

A range of offers aligned with the brand philosophy, which have successfully extended from the design of play and educational areas to the publication of game-books, from collections of exercise books, schools materials and miniature flow-packs to the design of made-to-measure children’s bedrooms, as well as confectionery.

In this last segment, after the success of the projects developed in recent years with other important industry players, Focus Junior is renewing its position with an offer created in collaboration with Walcor to stimulate the interest and imagination of children.

THE EASTER EGGS «FOCUS JUNIOR ANIMALI DAI 1000 COLORI»
Inside their Easter eggs from the «Animali dai 1000 colori» line, kids will find a Focus Junior kit intended to allow small nature-lovers to deepen their knowledge: each egg will contain one of five packs of Carioca coloured pencils so that the child can give free rein to their creativity and colour the exclusive illustrations of five animals, available on the link https://wal-cor.it/progettispeciali/divertiticonwalcor/ together with an identity card providing a host of information and interesting facts.

A play-based learning experience, which kids can also share with the social community by publishing their coloured creations with the hashtag #PasquaDai1000Colori.

Focus Junior is the brand created to satisfy the natural curiosity of children between the ages of 7 and 13 who want to have fun through an intelligent new way of discovering the world. The brand is supported by an increasingly dynamic integrated communication system with wide popular appeal, which on all channels combines a broad variety of content with a play-based constructive approach.

Surrender to the suggestive biodiversity of the sea and the secrets of its extraordinary ecosystem through the language of illusion. Until 31 January 2022, the University of Milano-Bicocca is hosting “IllusiOcean™”, an exhibition conceived and coordinated by Paolo Galli, professor of ecology at the university, and created in collaboration with Mondadori Media and the National Museum of Cinema in Turin.

The aims of the exhibition dedicated to the sea include raising awareness – among civil society, schools of all levels, the academic world and the scientific community – of the importance of achieving the sustainable development objectives for oceanic sciences set by the United Nations for the decade (2021-2030) of oceanic sciences, in particular Goal 14: to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.

The exhibition is an interactive experience divided into three thematic areas.

The first area consists of four rooms and two corners, each examining an aspect of the sea: from the biodiversity of tropical marine ecosystems to the problem of plastic pollution.

The exhibition path begins with a corner dedicated to “Virtual Reality” where, thanks to 3D viewers, visitors can explore the wonders of the world’s coral reefs and discover the process of coral restoration. It is also possible to simulate the sensory experience of an underwater geyser and enjoy an special natural spectacle.

In the “Sottomarino delle illusioni” (Submarine of Illusions) visitors can dive into the depths of the Maldives, an archipelago that hosts some of the world’s largest coral reefs: an area of over 4500 km² of extraordinary biodiversity and nearly 300 different species of coral. In this room, visitors will have the opportunity to get to know the marine organisms that shelter here. But to do this, they will have to sharpen their senses: walking from one side of the space to the other, where they will see the figures shrink or enlarge and algae and fish that transform into strange shapes.

The “Stanza degli specchi” (Room of Mirrors) places us among schools of jellyfish, fascinating marine animals that are found in seas around the world, where they float, driven by currents. And among the luminous umbrellas of these creatures, we can also see traces of the all-too-human threat called pollution.

This room was designed with the support of master glassmaker Fabio Fornasier from Murano, who created glass jellyfish using the traditional manual method and reproduced – also in glass – some of the many plastic objects that infest our seas.

The room “Mare sotto i Riflettori, il cinema racconta gli oceani” (The Sea in the Spotlight, the cinema and the oceans) is the result of collaboration with the National Museum of Cinema in Turin. This section offers a new interactive experience with all the magic of underwater filming, with clips, objects and unique curiosities. “The relationship between man and then sea has always been one of the recurring themes in the history of cinema,” said Domenico De Gaetano, director of the National Museum of Cinema, “our fascination with the underwater world lends itself well to illusions and special effects and we are delighted with this prestigious collaboration, which allows us to show another fascinating side of the Seventh Art.”

The sea is a treasure chest containing many different species of animals and plants: some are easy to spot, others hide and blend in. To recognise them, you need an expert eye, patience and a lot of attention. In the “Labirinto dei segreti marini” (Labyrinth of marine secrets) children from three to five years old can have a lot of fun looking for them and getting lost among the walls of this special room

The second corner, “Messaggio in Bottiglia” (Message in a Bottle), takes us back in time, to when letters were placed in glass bottles and thrown into the sea letting the currents carry them ashore. Fortunately, today we no longer need to throw a message into the ocean to communicate with the world: but through the “ocean that is the web”, visitors can launch their own message of hope to be launched on social networks using a virtual glass bottle.

The second area of the exhibition features 30 giant photographs, taken by some of the greatest experts in underwater photography – including Massimo Boyer – and depicting the evocative illusions created by nature that make our oceans so spectacular: the mimicry of some species of fish, for example, or the phenomenon that generates the effect of underwater waterfalls in Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean.

The third block is dedicated to the work done by high -chool students from the Vittorio Veneto and Luigi Cremona scientific high schools in Milan and the Emilio Sereni Agricultural Technical Institute in Rome. In recent months, around 500 students participated in the “Percorsi per le Competenze Trasversali e per l’Orientamento” (Paths towards Crossover Skills and Orientation) by designing and creating parts of the exhibition: reconstructions of models of the seabed, scientific games, illustrative posters, drawings and audio guides for visitors.

“With IllusiOcean the Milano-Bicocca University takes another important step towards restarting after the pandemic, inviting schools, families and citizens to discover an exhibition dedicated to the sea. We are delighted to inaugurate this exhibition which, thanks to the language of illusions, is not only great fun, but also encourages us to reflect on one of the priorities set by the UN 2030 Agenda: the protection of the health of the sea. It’s a challenge in which our researchers are engaged every day in the study of sustainable development solutions for the protection of the marine ecosystem,” said Deputy Rector, Marco Orlandi.

The exhibition is free and open to the public every Friday from 11am to 6pm and on Saturdays, twice a month, at the same times, at the Galleria della scienza (Buildings U1/U2, 1^st floor, Piazza della Scienza, Milan).

Entrance is by reservation only and you can book on the  illusiocean.it website and present your green pass (vaccination passport) at the door.

In addition, every Tuesday and Thursday morning, from 8am to 10am or from 11am to 1pm, by writing to illusiocean@unimib.it, you can book guided tours for schools.

Thanks to collaboration with Mondadori Media, from the end of October the “IllusiOcean™” exhibition will also be available online, exclusively on the website of Focus, Italy’s most widely read monthly, a reference point for fans and enthusiasts of technology, science, nature, medicine and innovation. By accessing the dedicated section of Focus.it., users can navigate in immersive mode inside the rooms of illusions and discover, in a virtual journey, many curiosities about the sea and its inhabitants.

“The Milano-Bicocca University exhibition organised by Professor Paolo Galli on the optical illusions and the sea is original, stimulating and fun. Three adjectives that have always been part of the DNA of Focus and it was therefore natural for us to offer our partnership to IllusiOcean.  A partnership that, in addition to narrating and describing the exhibition, allows people to visit the exhibition also virtually on Focus.it,” said the editor of Focus, Raffaele Leone. “It is original because it is the result of an original and creative idea; stimulating because it wants to encourage us to reflect on the wonders of the sea and the need to preserve them; fun because it communicates playfully with the special effects of optical illusions. How could Focus not be there?”

And the experience with “IllusiOcean™” is not limited to the exhibition. Throughout the exhibition period, a rich programme of initiatives promoted by Focus and Focus Junior, the magazine that is a point of reference for kids, has been planned to raise the awareness of readers, teachers and students about the marine world and explore the issues raised by the initiative. Starting from the issue of Focus on newsstands this month, which is entirely dedicated to the importance of water: from the cycle of the sea, the planet’s real liquid engine, to the life of the cetaceans that populate the waters of our peninsula, to the story of the coral clinic in the Maldives, with lots of other special unmissable content.

Every week, on focusjunior.it and the magazine’s social media channels, young people can also find insights and curiosities on the issues raised by the exhibition, but not only. In fact, they can also share photos, articles, ideas and suggestions for looking after the seas and oceans with the editorial team, using the email address focusjunior@focusjunior.it: and the most original content will be published both online and in the magazine. “Children, and young people in general, are worried about climate change and the future of the planet: so, as always, Focus Junior gives voice to their thoughts and ideas,” said Sarah Pozzoli, the editor of Focus Junior.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Società italiana di Ecologia (Italian Society of Ecology) – (S.It.E), the Lombardy Region and the City of Milan.

Focus and Focus Junior, the Mondadori Group brands, leaders in the popular science segment, are the media partners of “IllusiOcean™”, an exhibition developed by the Milano-Bicocca University, in collaboration with the National Museum of Cinema in Turin, dedicated to the wonders of the sea.

This initiative will enable Focus – Italy’s most widely read magazine, with a total audience of 6.4 million readers and users and a multimedia communication system that includes the web, a TV channel, social media and events – to strengthen its commitment to safeguarding the planet, through the promotion of the sustainable development goals of the UN Agenda 2030 aimed at readers, students and teachers that will continue throughout the year.

The exhibition has been conceived with the aim of raising public awareness of the marine environment and its creatures, using the fascinating world of illusions capable of altering our perception of reality in a fun and surprising way.

This itinerant project, that will start on 1 October in Milan and have a digital life, thanks to an exclusive collaboration with Focus that will offer users the opportunity to visit the exhibition on its website: with an immersive experience that users will be able to navigate within “rooms of illusions” and discover a range of curiosities about the sea and its inhabitants.

Constantly in support of exclusive events related to the world of science, the Mondadori Group’s contribution to the sector revolve around Focus, Focus Junior, Focus Pico and Focus Scuola will also accompany readers in the coming months and throughout the entire period of the exhibition with a rich programme of initiatives: insights, digital workshops, webinars and special content from the magazines, on social media and the web.

“When I met Professor Paolo Galli from the Bicocca University he told me about the exhibition he had in mind, and I immediately proposed a partnership with Focus,” explained Raffaele Leone, editor of the popular science magazine, leader in the sector. “The sea and its protection, the professor’s special subjects, are familiar topics for us at Focus. Optical illusions are also a form of magic that has always fascinated us and, coincidentally, when I met Galli we had a cover that was hitting newsstands precisely on optical illusions. From that happy alignment of the stars, the exhibition could not but be a joint endeavour. The partnership is part of a wider project of rooting Focus in the territory to make it a publishing phenomenon that, starting from the printed edition, becomes increasingly multifaceted. This initiative with the University Bicocca is a perfect example.”

FOCUS: SPECIAL ISSUE, WEBINARS AND ACADEMY

To coincide with the opening of the exhibition Focus, in collaboration with the Bicocca University, will dedicate a large in-depth special to “Life underwater” in the issue on newsstands from 21 September.

Objective 14 will be a topic on which high school students will also compete in a series of meetings organised in the autumn by Focus Academy, a Focus project which aims to attract children to science and history through online educational activities, in line with the school-work alternation aims defined by the PCTO convention.

In addition, the magazine will organise a special webinar designed especially for students but open to all readers, dedicated to Objective 14 of the 2030 Agenda which focuses on the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

FOCUS JUNIOR ACADEMY EVENTS

Already this month we will start from the events of the Focus Junior Academy, the Focus Junior didactic workshop for primary and lower secondary school children. The May events, which are already fully booked, are dedicated to enabling students to discover the fantastic world of corals and how to protect them: three days of lessons during which the classes will build, together with journalists, an in-depth feature that will be published in the magazine and on the web from 21 June.

Another event for Focus Junior readers will take place in July with a feature made with fascinating and surprising images of underwater illusions.

“Our young readers are very attracted to the underwater world and the life of marine species,” said Sarah Pozzoli, editor of Focus Junior. In addition, for some years they have been increasingly interested in issues related to the wellbeing of the planet. The exhibition perfectly combines these two aspects: curiosity and environmental protection.”

FOCUS SCUOLA E AND FOCUS PICO INITIATIVES

There will also be a series of special initiatives for teachers: a webinar organised by Focus Scuola, the magazine that provides support to teachers of primary and secondary schools with advice on teaching and materials. An event to explore the issues related to the UN Agenda with proposals for workshops and innovative activities to involve students on the subject of illusions.

There will also be space to discover the wonders of the sea even for younger children: Focus Pico, the monthly magazine designed for children between the ages of 3 and 6, will propose, in the July issue, games, stickers, a science poster on the fish that live in coral reefs and a special illustrated history of the world of the sea, created in collaboration with the children and teachers of the Bicocca University Children’s School.

Focus is Italy’s most widely read magazine, with a total audience of 6.4 million readers and users (Source: Nielsen media impact data fusion, November 2020). It is increasingly appreciated and engaging on social media, where it has a growing audience of over 3.2 million followers (Source: Shareablee, April 2021). The magazine is at the centre of a multimedia ecosystem that includes the web, a TV channel, social media and events: a distinctive reference point for highly topical issues, from science to technology to nature, thanks to the contribution of authoritative voices of international renown. and an approach that is always fresh and rigorous.

Focus Junior is a reference point in the world of kids, with an average monthly circulation of over 88,000 copies (Source: Ads, January 2021), 589,000 unique users per month on the site (Source: Audiweb, January 2021) and a social community of 142,000 fans (source: Shareablee, April 2021).
Mondadori Group

For over 110 years, the mission of the Mondadori Group has been to promote the dissemination of culture and ideas, ensuring a quality offer of entertainment to the widest possible audience. Leader in the book market and the number one Italian multimedia publisher, Mondadori has embarked on a path of social responsibility that also includes the promotion, across all its channels, of quality content that rewards sustainability, plurality of thought, diversity and inclusion, with an approach that is constantly focused on innovation.
Mondadori’s commitment is reflected in a series of activities in support of the communities in which the Group operates: from the promotion of reading and education to training and social and health care.
The Group has also adopted a plan of initiatives aimed at reducing the environmental impact of its offices and bookstores, which has resulted in a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and led to an increase in the use of certified paper for the production of books and magazines.

Focus, the Mondadori Group brand, leader in popular science and a point of reference for science and current affairs, is launching new initiatives for students, teachers and users in 2021.

Next month sees the launch of Focus Academy, a new project by Focus and Focus Storia aimed at attracting kids from second level high schools to science and history with online training activities, in line with the alternating school/work programmes outlined in the relevant convention.

At the heart of this year’s programme are the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Agenda 2030, a 360° awareness building plan that will involve the magazine, with special detailed coverage, the web, with the multimedia content of Focus.it, and, from February, a series of monthly webinars open to all with scientists and experts, to stimulate debate and develop awareness among the young about the actions necessary for our future and based around six issues identified by the editorial team: the risks to biodiversity; health; discrepancies in the distribution of energy; more sustainable cities; food for all; the risks to oceans; climate change.

“For Focus adopting the UN goals is only natural, given that they are about saving our planet, scientific and technological development, and the quality of human life,” explained Raffaele Leone, editor of Focus and Focus Storia. “The issues we have selected are part of the magazine’s DNA given our long-standing support for environmental sustainability, medical and technological research and the protection of biodiversity. That all of this coincides with the launch of the Academy is an added value. Kids are extremely aware of these issues. Indeed, they are an authentic driving force for governments and research. They expect that we adults commit to reducing our environmental impact and outline new ways of pursuing these aims. To discuss these issues with them will provide an added stimulus also for us.”

The classes that enrol at the Academy will connect once a week, for four weeks, with the editorial teams of Focus and Focus Storia, to experience, live, the creation of a popular science and history magazine. The students will be actively involved and will have the opportunity to try writing articles or conducting interviews that will then be selected by the team for eventual publication in subsequent issues of Focus.

Also Focus Junior, the brand for children between the ages of 8 and 12 who want to have fun discovering the world in a new and intelligent way, has adopted the UN Agenda by proposing for the Focus Junior Academy digital workshops dedicated to eight of the 2030 goals: health and wellbeing; quality education; clean and accessible energy; industry, innovation and infrastructure; sustainable cities and communities; underwater life; life on earth; and the partnership for goals.

The project, now in its third year, is designed to provide additional tools to assist the syllabus of primary and middle schools, in line also with recent directives which from this year include inter-disciplinary civic education. During the encounters, pupils will work in class on a detailed multimedia journalistic project with the editorial team that will be published on the Focus Junior web site and magazine. The January, February and March appointments of the Focus Junior Academy are already fully booked, with the participation of more than 150 pupils for each workshop.

Finally, for teachers, a series of webinars and monographs have been put together by Focus Scuola, the monthly magazine that supports primary and middle school teachers with the best teaching advice and suggestions to look more closely at the issues related to the UN Agenda 2030 and innovative teaching practices, though ideas, and best practice from experts in the sector.

“In this period of great uncertainty and social upheaval, Focus Junior has decided to reinforce its role in support of children and early teens in an effort to accompany them in their progress towards being future citizens,” said Sarah Pozzoli, editor of Focus Junior and Focus Scuola. “Our objective has become that of trying to ensure that education goes beyond knowledge and skills and is a method for creating a new forma mentis in order to imagine a more sustainable world, that is also more peaceful and free of social, gender and racial discrimination, in line with the guidelines of the UN’s Agenda 2030. And we will do this in our usual style and learning-by-doing approach, while stimulating curiosity and a sense of irony.”

This is how the Focus system is further reinforcing its offer in the education sector: from collaboration with institutions and companies, to school-based projects involving students, families, schools and teachers, and successfully developing activities and events that speak directly to the protagonists of the world of education thanks to an innovative and engaging didactic vision.
Focus is Italy’s most widely read magazine, with a total audience of 7 million readers and users (Source: Nielsen media impact data fusion, April 2020) and 2.9 million followers on social media channels (Source: Shareablee, November 2020).
Focus Junior is a point of reference in the world of kids, with an average monthly circulation of 100,000 copies (Source: Ads, Jan-Sep 2020), 589,000 unique users per month on its web site (Source: Audiweb, Jan-Oct 2020) and a community of 140,000 fans on social media (Source: Shareablee, November 2020).

For information and enrolments:

https://www.focus.it/education/academy/focus-academy-n

https://www.focusjunior.it/progetti-scuola-primaria/focus-junior-academy-scuola-di-giornalismo-con-focus-junior/