Business

Sandro Boeri is named Creative Adviser of the Focus brand, a system consisting of six monthly, 2 bi-monthly and 2 quarterly titles, two websites and a range of special editions.

Over the years Boeri has developed – along with the editorial teams – a new way of transmitting knowledge: a simple, yet authoritative, interesting and often entertaining approach, able to translate the most cryptic specialist jargon into information accessible to everyone.

Focus has proved to be a highly effective medium reaching across all social and cultural levels, and opening up the so-called elitist world of culture and science.

Under the guidance of Boeri, who has been the editor in chief since 1995, the monthly has reached a readership of 6.4 million, making it the most widely read magazine in Italy (10.7% of the population), with a website over 513,000 unique users and 10.6 million page impressions.

“Focus today is no longer just a magazine but a cross-media knowledge centre,” says Boeri, who will leave the editorship of the monthly next June. “And it is in this area that I will continue to make a contribution to the development of the brand in all its possible forms: from education to new media, from events to smart-TV, from images to words, games, art, economics and science.”

Francesca Folda will be the new Editor in Chief of Focus and www.focus.it, and will also oversee the brand extensions Extra, D&R and Brain Trainer.

Folda, born in Rome, and not yet forty, built her career in Milan where she attended journalism school in 1995. Folda has accumulated in a short time a wealth of expertise, on different subjects and media, at news agencies and newspapers, television and the web. She was a reporter for ANSA and has been a columnist for several newspapers, before joining the magazine Panorama in 1999, where she produced reports from the world and journalistic investigations that also led to the award of the Saint Vincent prize in 2000. Since 2007 she has successfully explored the world of digital journalism, first on Panorama.it and then at Sky.it. In the last four years she edited the online portal of Sky Italia, where she also had management responsibilities. Under her leadership Sky.it unique users tripled and the number of page views and advertising revenues multiplied.

“Francesca Folda – whose career fits perfectly with the innovative character of Focus – will be responsible for the continued growth of both the magazine and the website by leveraging the value of the brand, the know-how of the editorial staff and the strength of community, paying particular attention to the originality and quality of content,” underlined Fabienne Schwalbe, CEO of G+J/M. “The new role of Creative Adviser to be held by Sandro Boeri, meanwhile, is linked to the overall development strategy of the Focus brand across all media, concentrated on its core values: to spread knowledge in an easy, accessible, attractive and authoritative way,” Schwalbe concluded.

The Gruner + Jahr / Mondadori joint venture, established in 1990, publishes Focus, Italy’s most widely read magazine, and its brand extensions Focus Junior, Focus Storia, Focus D&R, Focus Brain Trainer, Focus Pico, Focus Wild, Focus Storia Biografie, Focus Storia Wars and Focus Storia Collection. Completing the publisher’s portfolio are the monthly magazines Jack and Geo, and the portal nostrofiglio.it, market leader in online Parenting.

With the launch of Grazia South Africa, on newsstands from 18 May 2012, the number of international editions of the Grazia International Network rises to 20.

Published under license by Media 24 – the leader in Africa in business and consumer magazines – and edited by Danielle Weakley, Grazia South Africa is the network’s first edition in the African continent and will come out weekly.

Also this 20th international edition will be characterised by the usual easy chic formula that distinguishes the Grazia brand around the world: fashion, news and celebrities, enhanced by international trends, style and local trends.

The Grazia International Network: as well as in Italy, where the magazine has been published since 1938, Grazia is published as a weekly in France (by Mondadori France), Great Britain, Holland, Germany, UAE, India, Australia and South Africa (under licensing agreements) and in a joint venture with Independent Media in Russia. Meanwhile, a joint venture with SEEC Media Group Limited publishes a fortnightly Chinese edition of the magazine. Monthly editions of Grazia, also under license, are published in Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia, Bahrain, Thailand and Indonesia.

This week Chi launches Chi Junior, a new magazine dedicated to children’s fashion, overseen by the fashion and beauty editor Marina Bigi.

Chi Junior aims to be an authentic shopping guide: entering the world of kids ad translating it into a world of trends, news and glamour, also through the children of Italian and international celebrities, with reportage and interviews, fashion services and beauty suggestions in the classic Chi style.

The magazine is organised in nine sections: from clothing must haves for younger children to beauty issues connected to the care, pampering and protection of children’s health, as well as extensive travel and holiday features indicating destinations in Italy and abroad that are ideal for children. And, of course, there will also be a wealth of suggestions and news about cooking, games and children’s entertainment.

The cover of the first issue features Valeria Mazza and Taina, the youngest of her four children.

“Chi Junior is a demonstration that the market is ready to reward the ideas and capabilities of publishers able to create modern entertainment and lifestyle products. As is demonstrated by the success in terms of advertising pages and clients that we have managed to attract with this new project, with which we are very satisfied,” declared Angelo Sajeva, chairman and chief executive of Mondadori Pubblicità.

Chi Junior will be sold as a supplement with all of the print run of Chi at a supplementary price of 20 cents.

Mondadori and Open Road Integrated Media, a digital publisher and multimedia content company announced today from The London Book Fair that they have formed an international digital publishing partnership. Open Road will digitize, distribute and market english language versions of titles from Mondadori’s catalog starting with 50 ebooks. Mondadori is Open Road’s first foreign publishing partner and this announcement kicks off Open Road’s International Publishing Partner Program.

Jane Friedman cofounder and CEO of Open Road said: “The rise of digital publishing has made the world a smaller place and we are now able to quickly and efficiently publish translations of international books. Open Road is committed to working with international publishers to bring
works from foreign countries to a wider audience than they have ever had before. We are excited to build on the success we have enjoyed with our American partners and to start our international publishing program with Mondadori.”

“Thanks to the digital revolution,” said Maurizio Costa, deputy chairman and chief executive of the Mondadori Group, “geographical barriers are falling and the publisher is increasingly becoming also the promoter of its authors, not only at the national level, but also internationally. To publish in English the works of our most prestigious Italian authors,” Costa continued, “is a source of pride and satisfaction for Mondadori. Thanks to our commitment to digital and our partnership with Open Road, we can finally offer our authors direct access to the biggest market in the world.”

Open Road will digitally market all of the titles in the partnership. The company will create original marketing videos that will be distributed through its online platform and syndicated to content partners.
This announcement takes Open Road’s publishing partners program global. Since its launch, Open Road has worked with a variety of American publishers including MysteriousPress.com, Pegasus Books and Albert Whitman & Company.

The ebooks will be on sale globally starting this summer from Amazon.com, Apple iBookstore, BarnesandNoble.com, Google/IndieBound, Kobo Books,OverDrive, and the Sony Reader Store.

Open Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company. Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media. Open Road
has published ebooks from legendary authors including William Styron, Pat Conroy, Alice Walker, Jean Craighead George, Bette Greene, and Virginia Hamilton.

The Mondadori Group is among the most important publishing houses in Europe and is Italy’s biggest publisher of books through its publishing houses Edizioni Mondadori, Einaudi, Piemme and Sperling & Kupfer. Its wide-ranging production covers all market segments, including the ebook market.

Interni Legacy is the name of an important exhibition event conceived by the magazine Interni, edited by Gilda Bojardi, sponsored by the City of Milan, and co-produced by MINI and BE OPEN, to be held in the courtyards of the University of Milan, between today and 28 April, during the Milan design week.
The exhibition is open to the public from Monday 16 April to Sunday 22 April from 9am to midnight and from Monday 23 April to Saturday 28 April from 9am to 9pm.

Interni Legacy brings to the world of design messages like memories for the future and represented in installations that are ephemeral only the sense of their temporal duration, which is linked to the Milan design week.
Much is said about ‘inheritance’ in built form, of reflections on the condition of design, and a capacity to embrace different scales and types, from micro-architecture to the urban landscape, from interiors to the decorative object.
The exhibition reflects on the possibility of a “design legacy” over time and in terms of research, technologies, materials, figurative expressions, but also in terms of links to to a culture of sustainability and the minimisation of waste in our homes, workplaces and cities.
Interni Legacy, with the help of technologically advanced companies in the field of building materials and environmental sustainability, aims to stimulate ideas that can become the reference points in the complex scenario of contemporary design and furnishings, of research by means of a series of experimental installations.

The INSTALLATIONS, created by internationally-renowned designers, are also in metaphoric and symbolic terms, the announcement of new possibilities, shapes, types and solutions for the design of tomorrow. The works are located in areas of the University of Milan, Via Festa del Perdono 7, in the Cortile d’Onore, in the fifteenth and seventeenth-century courtyards and loggias.

A large number of designers, architects and companies have contributed with their designs to the creation of Interni Legacy: Akihisa Hirata with Panasonic, Scholten & Baijings with Mini, Alessandro and Francesco Mendini with Elegant Living, Michele De Lucchi with Listone Giordano, Marzorati Ronchetti and Publistand, Odile Decq with Flanders, Monica Armani with the Province of Trento, SOM with Carrara Marmotec, Standardarchitecture with Camerich, Ludovica + Roberto Palomba with Payanini and Zucchetti.Kos, Massimo Iosa Ghini with FMG Fabbrica Marmi e-Granite, Jacopo Foggini with Maip, Speech Tchoban/Kusnetzov with Taltos, The Fake Factory with Deborah Milano, Matteo Ragni with Campari and Verallia and Przemyslaw ‘Mac’ Stopa with Samsung Cheils Europe, Marc Sadler with Samsung Electronics, Jürgen Mayer H. with Vorwerk, Patricia Urquiola with Missoni, Lorenzo Palmeri with the Italian Institute of Photography, Marco Vigo with The Glass Farm, Ora ïto with GVM, Designers for Klein Karoo.

For the entire duration of the event, the Aula Magna (Great Hall) will host the Verge exhibition, curated by Elena Selina with Be Open.
Among the activities of Interni Legacy space will also be given to three conferences, run in collaboration with BeOpen, each of which will address a specific crossover topic that will be the subject of a roundtable discussion involving international personalities from various academic, cultural, and business backgrounds and focused on innovation and design, the participants will include Julian Schnabel, Gaetano Pesce, Paola Navone, Patricia Urquiola, Alberto Alessi, Elio Fiorucci, Carlo Cracco, Stuart Parr and Daniel Rozensztroch, art director of Merci Paris.

The meetings are open to all and will be held at the Aula Magna of the University of Milan on Tuesday 17 April at 10.30am, Wednesday 18 April at 10.30am and on Thursday 19 April at 5.30pm.

The activities of INTERNI will extend during to the days of the FuoriSalone to the Km Rosso in Bergamo, where Italcementi i.lab, in its new home designed by Richard Meier, and opened today, will host four lectures featuring architects linked to Interni Legacy and Italcementi, who will discuss the theme “Architecture. Building a sustainable legacy”: Odile Decq (17 April), Zhang Ke (18 April), Mario Cucinella (19 April) and Daniel Libeskind (20 April).

In view of the long-awaited week for lovers of design and the FuoriSalone, Interni has also organised a series of initiatives for web enthusiasts. This year the application of the Guida FuoriSalone® and the Guida ZeeMilano, will be available for free also for the iPad and Android operating systems form tablets and smartphones as well as the iPhone.

For more information: www.internimagazine.it

Panorama Icon, the men’s fashion and lifestyle supplement of the weekly newsmagazine Panorama, has formed a partnership with the “Italian Chamber of Fashion Buyers – THE BEST SHOPS”.

The association, chaired by Beppe Angiolini, brings together 120 companies, owners of Italy’s best upscale multi-brand stores: a network of sales outlets characterised by high profile shops, a wide variety of brands and the presence of market leading brands.
The magazine will be placed inside around 350 shops, to which 20,000 copies of the supplement will be distributed every six months.

Panorama Icon, which is edited by Emanuele Farneti and on newsstands with the latest issue on Thursday 5 April, is aimed at readers interested in fashion, travel, shopping and discovering the styles and thoughts of contemporary icons. The title’s great points of strength a the images: extensive fashion shoots, reportage and portraits by leading Italian and international photographers.

The protagonist of the latest cover is the “made in Italy” star par excellence, Riccardo Scamarcio the first Italian to appear on the cover of Icon, after Vincent Cassel, Adrien Brody, James Franco and Michael Pitt. The actor talks in a long and unconventional interview in which he rejects the label of rebel and talks about his relationship with his fans. In addition, Scamarcio is also the star of a fashion feature by the British portrait photographer Max Vaduluk who highlights his appeal and personality.

The iPhone app of Cucina No Problem, the magazine for fast and practical cooking, edited by Laura Maragliano, has reached 20,000 downloads just a month from the launch and has a range of content dedicated to Easter menus.

The Cucina No Problem app, which is available for free from the App Store with an initial offer of 100 recipes, every month allows users to renew their recipes thanks to the “in app purchase” system, with which, every month, special new packages are offered each featuring 30 recipes, which can be purchased directly through the app for just €1.59 each. The culinary specialities follow the main themes outlined every month in the print edition of the magazine which, according to the most recent Audipress data, recorded the highest growth in readers in its sector (+17% – 2011/III). The new recipes will expand the initial database and be permanently available to the user. Cookery enthusiasts can therefore enhance their cooking app with lots of new courses.

The application has been designed for all lovers of cooking who want to try out special, and simple, at the same time, recipes. The presentation of the recipes follows the same approach as the magazine and are divided into four categories:

– In half an hour
– Friends for dinner
– Great Classics
– Healthy but tasty

all accompanied by photos and information about calories, difficulty and preparation time.

To coincide with Easter, Cucina No Problem has decided to offer its users special packages inside the app for the festivities, as well as a selection of recipes entirely dedicated to chocolate! In addition, the application also includes a special section that is always available for vegetarians which, for this month only, can be downloaded for free.

With the Cucina No Problem app it is also possible to search for a recipe using the search function; to save “favourite” recipes for quick and easy access; and save time by using the “shopping list” function adding the necessary ingredients or making personal notes.

All that’s left is to set the “Timer” function and get into the kitchen to create your menu with the help of the Cucina No Problem app.

Tomorrow readers will discover from the newsstands the new Chi, a radically new product, not only in terms of content and look, but also in terms of style and the tone of voice that characterises the pages of the weekly.
The first and most marked distinctive element of the new magazine will come form the exclusive interviews with leading Italian and international stars conducted by the editor Alfonso Signorini.

“The new Chi,” explained Signorini, “is even more current, featuring the people beyond their celebrity and public profile and with a focus on trends and the evolution of our society and its personalities. And with an objective: that of giving the reader something to think about and to discuss. In short, a magazine to read and not just to flick through,” concluded Signorini.

Chi will have more background and a new point of view on stories about famous personalities through which it will also comment on current affairs.
Changes and innovations that will reinforce the weekly’s mission which has always been to inform and entertain the reader thanks to an authentic connection with the world of celebrities: a formula that has enabled Chi to become the top selling and most widely read women’s “people” magazine in Italy.

Among other new features will be the greater space devoted to fashion and beauty which has been completely reconfigured. In addition there will be new service-based columns on cooking, interiors and travel, completing the weekly’s offer with topics of interest to its mainly female audience.
Even the layout and use of images will be new, with more use of high-quality photographic services, produced exclusively for the magazine, also during important show business events.

The advertising market is reacting very positively to the new Chi, appreciating the new more newsy and international formula: sales for the first issues after the relaunch have already reached the extraordinary levels of the summer months. In 2011 Chi was chosen by over 500 clients, for a total of around 3,500 pages and the objective of Angelo Sajeva, chairman and chief executive of Mondadori Pubblicità, is to increase these figures even more, above all with clients from the fashion and cosmetics sectors, that currently account for 60% of the title’ advertising sales.

The launch of the new Chi will be supported by an important communication campaign, planned on TV, newspapers, women’s magazines, POS and the internet, accompanied by a special promotional cut price offer. The creativity for the campaign is by A&B.

Flair, the Mondadori women’s title first launched in 2003, will appear after the summer in a completely new guise with a new editorial team and a more international feel.

The new Flair will feature a surprising editorial mix highlighting all of the most fascinating aspects and impact of style, with a special focus on made in Italy creativity in international fashion. Flair will be a magazine with a highly contemporary vocation that anticipates trends, pays particular attention to image and is able to identify new talents and make connections between the cultural phenomena that revolve around the world of women’s fashion and cosmetics with the support of world famous writers and photographers.
Flair will therefore take up the female side of the upscale offer of Panorama, the newsmagazine edited by Giorgio Mulè, alongside Panorama Icon, the title male lifestyle supplement, successfully launched in the spring of 2011.

Flair will be edited by Emanuele Farneti, who will also continue to edit Panorama Icon. The editorial team will benefit from the addition of prestigious new members, starting with the fashion editor Fashion director, Sissy Vian, who comes with extensive experience in some of the fashion world’s most prestigious titles, including Harper’s Bazaar USA and UK, Vogue Italy, Vogue Spain and Vogue Japan, for which she is currently senior fashion editor.
The new creative director will be Susanna Cucco, who having participated in such editorial initiatives as L’Officiel Hommes, L’Officiel Hommes Italy, FFM, Fantom and Boiler, in recent years has been successfully engaged in fashion projects, luxury branding, advertising campaigns, as well as books and art exhibitions, working with some of the world’s leading photographers.
Flair will benefit from expanded distribution to the qualified target of Panorama, the Mondadori newsmagazine that offers to both readers and the market, in the year of its 50th anniversary, an increasingly rich and varied communication system which now includes the women’s up-market sector.
The launch of the new Flair is scheduled for after the summer (with three issues in 2012).

Mondadori has launched a competition for the development of an advertising campaign for the new Panorama, that will also appear on the market after the summer with a number of other new features.
Heads, Hi!, Ogilvy and Mather Advertising and Saatchi & Saatchi are the agencies that will be bidding for the contract. All of these internationally renowned agencies will attempt to develop a communication platform which in the mind of Mondadori need to have a strong, recognisable and distinctive impact, able to transmit to the target the huge transformation of the newsmagazine edited by Giorgio Mulè for which Mondadori expects to support with a 360° multimedia communication campaign, across a range of media, from TV to the web, print and social media.
The selection of the winning creative solution will be made around the middle of April.

Grazia, launched in China in February 2009, celebrated its third anniversary with a record issue in terms of advertising sales: on the cover an exclusive feature on the three most famous Chinese top models, produced in New York during the fashion week.

This performance is confirmation of the success of the Grazia brand in China, where the magazine is the most widely sold international glossy magazine, with sales of 1,162,000 per issue and double-digit growth rate in Q4 2011 in all of the cities in the country, from Shanghai to Beijing, Guangzhou and Hangzhou.

Grazia in China, which is the result of a unique and increasingly appreciated editorial formula, both by readers and advertisers, provides a diversified communication platform that includes a web site www.grazia.com.cn, which already has 1.8 unique users, the launch in April of an iPad version, events across the country such as “Fashion Class” and successful editorial supplements, including Grazia Men.

“This is the dynamic that Grazia is contributing to Mondadori’s development strategy in China, a country where we expect to develop other new business opportunities soon,” ha declared Fabrizio Lo Cicero, chairman of the Chinese joint-venture between the SEEC Group and Mondadori.

The Mondadori Group also works with other local partners in the country for the publication of Casaviva and Science et Vie.