Media

Digital School, the training initiative promoted by Donna Moderna, CasaFacile and Sale&Pepe, has launched three new e-learning courses for aspiring writers: Creative Writing – romantic fiction, life stories and the thriller – online from today on Digitalschool.it.

The new courses are aimed at those who want to write, share emotions and tell stories. Under the guidance of publishing professionals including editors and authors, it will be possible to acquire the tools of creative writing, to practise and refine your skills while learning to apply narrative methods and explore in more detail specific narrative genres, in line with individual interests, for example, in romantic fiction, life stories and the thriller.

Each of the three options on offer is organised in two modules: the first, run by Edoardo Brugnatelli, an editor at Mondadori, will outline the notions underlying creative writing; while the second will illustrate the narrative techniques of the chosen genre, with advice and observations from the writers Alessandra Appiano, for romantic fictions, Michela Murgia, for life stories and Grazia Verasani, for the thriller.

All participants will have the possibility of seeing their stories published Donnamoderna.com. Plus, every month, Edoardo Brugnatelli will select three pieces of work for personalised editing and publication on the site.

The teaching materials for the course includes 3 hours of online video lessons with practical exercises, supporting documentation and 2 test games to ascertain the skills acquired and a final certificate of attendance.

Enrolment for the entire programme (first and second modules) ives participants the option to buy the other two modules by the writers.

For more information about enrolment and costs, please go to: Digitalschool.it.

The official hashtag is: #progettodigitalschool.

Focus Junior, the Mondadori monthly designed to satisfy the curiosity of young readers with innovative, amusing and stimulating content that enables them to discover the world in a new and intelligent way, presents “Become a journalist”, a project aimed at attracting school-age children to the world of journalism and explaining the mechanisms behind the news.

“Become a journalist with Focus Junior” offers teachers a short and simple guide to stimulate and encourage pupils to create their own newspaper while, at the same time, exploiting the potential of new digital media.

The aim is to teach a new approach to education that is in line with the mission of Focus Junior to “have fun discovering the world”.

“With this project we want to give teachers an additional tool with which to draw even the most reluctant pupils into a love of writing. But we also want to stimulate children’s natural curiosity, spirit of observation and critical sense,” declared Sarah Pozzoli, the editor of Focus Junior. “ The class newspaper that will be created from this initiative will give the kids a lasting and tangible memory of the importance of working in a team to create something unique and wonderful of which they can be proud.”

The initiative, which has been developed in collaboration with the agency La Fabbrica, will run from March to May 2016 and is targeted at pupils in the last three years of primary school across Italy. Participating schools will be sent a journalist kit with a handbook outlining the know-how necessary to guide classes towards the production of their own newspaper.

The guide will also contain the answers to all the fundamental questions concerning how to attract children to the world of journalism: How an articles is created? What is a helm? Why photographs are important? How to distinguish between news that is true or false? Is it possible to conduct an investigation only using a smartphone? What does it mean to write for the web, and how is it different from writing for print and why is it important to find a way to be more visible on search engines? How do you start a blog or create an online newspaper? And how do you include multimedia content in them?

Each class will have until 30 May to submit their work to the editorial staff of Focus Junior, that, in September, will choose the best for publication in the magazine or on the web site.

The winning class will also be invited to spend an entire day in the editorial department of Focus Junior.

“Become a journalist” is just the first of many initiatives by Focus Junior for children and schools, aimed at making it possible to discover the importance of teamwork and, above all, understand how the nature of work is changing in the digital age.

30 March sees the start of the third edition of Panorama d’Italia, the live & media experience of Panorama, that gives an account of Italy directly from its squares with initiatives and events open to all. The newsmagazine edited by Giorgio Mulè returns to celebrate the protagonists of the best of Italian business, economy, culture and food & wine in 10 Italian cities between March and November with an award-winning format and many new features.

With a well-tested formula behind it, including talk shows, debates with protagonists from national politics, conferences, entertainment: last year alone the tour reached 4 million people. The people who directly participated in the events in cities totalled 110,000, with 375 guests and speakers (including 6 government ministers, 8 regional presidents and 8 mayors), 500 media outlets, 191 entrepreneurs involved in round tables and 600 companies, also including 180 innovative start-ups, 15 universities and a total of 37 sponsors.

“Panorama d’Italia is a spark with the capacity to generate enthusiasm and really discuss “the best seen close up” as our claim says. The number of citizens engaged by our initiatives say a great deal but not everything,” said Panorama editor Giorgio Mulè. “The reason for this overwhelming success lies in the formula: we talk about the real, natural Italy, without bells and whistles.”

“Panorama d’Italia has shown that it is an enormous photograph of the real Italy, able to immortalise the best seen close up,” Mulè added. “Every square metre of the country contains a story that’s worth telling and, once again, we want to tell it from the inside. We did it last year with 400 pages and 160 hours of live streaming. We’re doing it again this year with even more commitment and, thanks to the new partnership with Focus, we will reach a net of 9.8 million contacts, from print and online,” Mulè concluded.

The stages
In 10 stages between March and November, Panorama will cross Italy from north to south, involving examples of local excellence an prestigious guests, moderated by some of the newsmagazine’s leading journalists. For four days each city will host a rich calendar of events in the most lively and significant locations in town, in close contact with the protagonists.

Starting in Genoa (30 March -2 April) before moving on to Macerata (20-23 April), Perugia (11-14 May), Padua (8-11 June), Ravenna (29 June – 2 July), the Amalfi coast (7-10 September), Cagliari (28 September-1 October), a special stage in Milan (16-22 October) and winding up in Mantua (9-12 November) and Trapani (23-26 November).

What’s new in 2016
There is much that is new in the 2016 edition, which confirms the most appreciated events of last year and expands the offer with new partners and projects.

Focus meetings: the Panorama d’Italia schedule will be enhanced by two events organised for each step in collaboration with Focus, with 5 million readers, Italy’s most widely-read magazine, edited by Jacopo Loredan. The first meeting is dedicated to space exploration with the exceptional and prestigious fixed guest, the astronaut Umberto Guidoni, and the participation of scientists and astronauts from the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) and the European Space Agency (ESA). The second meeting, organised in collaboration with the Department of the science of the Earth’s System and Environmental Technologies CNR and the Italian Air Force, and will be dedicated to the climate, the environment and renewable energy, issues that are crucial for our future and on which the CNR and the Air Force are conducting important research and innovation activities.

During both events, participants will have the opportunity to try a virtual reality experience, thanks to an app developed exclusively for the occasion by the technology company ETT.

The Schools and Job Orientation Project: Also this year will see the repetition of an initiative that in 2015 enabled Panorama to donate 3,500 books to Italian schools involved in the tour. The passage through training to work remains, of course, one of the key issues of the entire programme and a special initiative is dedicated to innovative companies: “90 secondi per spiccare il volo” (“90 seconds to take off”), is a competition that, on every stage of the tour, awards the best start ups with a special “tool box” with tools and resources to develop the business. To take part, all you need to do is to submit a 90-second video that Panorama will publish on its web site.

In addition to training and work, there is also support for universities that will, from time to time, host meetings with startuppers, venture capitalists and innovation experts to discuss the possibilities of developing business and opportunities in the territory. In addition, Panorama d’Italia will devote the Friday mornings to activities to job orientation, mainly for young school-leavers, final-year students and recent graduates who will be able to take part in roundtables and individual meetings, made in collaboration with HRCommunity Academy Italia and human resources professionals from the leading companies in the area.

The Milan stage: Milan, the capital of Lombardy, will be a special step of the tour and, extraordinarily, will last for 7 days in which there will be even more events and initiatives. These will include the creation by Panorama of an innovative work training project. With the direct involvement of the editorial staff of the magazine and a number of high schools in Milan, a special edition of the school magazine will be produced that will be distributed during the events on the programme. Subsequently, the kids will have the chance to participate in a training internship directly in the offices of the newsmagazine.

A solidarity partnership: the charitable partnership with the Lega del Filo d’Oro will be renewed also for 2016, but this year it will take the form of a project: to contribute to the creation of the new centre at Osimo, an entirely new home for the deaf and blind and the sensory disabled in general. The collection of funds will be made thanks to the cooperation of Cruciani, who, for the occasion, have produced a limited-edition bracelet that will be on sale exclusively at the locations of the events on the tour dates and from the Lega del Filo d’Oro’s web site. Proceeds from the sale of the bracelet will be entirely dedicated to the association’s ends.

While a Panorama d’Italia info point will be a fixed presence during the entire stage, other areas of the city will host institutional events and entertainment. Prestigious authors of books being published will be the protagonists of meet-the-author events, while actors and directors will be involved in a special event dedicated to the cinema and organised by Piera Detassis, editor of Ciak and chairman of Rome’s Fondazione Cinema. Singers and musicians will be involved in exclusive interviews and concerts that will be open to the public.

In addition to the meetings and debates with leading national figures from the world of politics and business, Panorama d’Italia will also be an opportunity to rediscover the beauties of the local artistic heritage, thanks to a guided tour led by Vittorio Sgarbi of the most significant art works. Plus, this year, Panorama will organise, in collaboration with the municipalities, special guided tours of palaces and other artistic locations generally closed to the public, in order to discover the hidden treasures of each city.

Ample space will also be given to the fin food and wine of the area, with show cooking events featuring the best chefs and meetings with personalities from the world of food.

Finally, every Saturday, the editor of Chi Alfonso Signorini will invite a celebrity from the world of show business to take part in an exclusive talk show.

Panorama d’Italia online
The main events will be covered live on Panoramaditalia.it, on the channel Panorama.tv. In fact, last year alone, over 160 hours of events were broadcast in streaming, as well as real time updates, photos and videos of the stages of the tour. The tour’s web site also this year will feature an area to register for the events which will also ensure a free three-month subscription to the digital edition of Panorama.

It will be possible to share impressions and experiences of all the Panorama d’Italia events on the leading social networks using the hashtag #panoramaditalia. The official Twitter account @panoramaditalia will provide real time coverage of the most significant moments involving the protagonists of each event. Last year alone, the number of users in the community on social media numbered 276,500, with a total of 2,780,000 views only on Facebook.

Partners
Panorama d’Italia is able to count on high level partners, who share a commitment to enhancing Italian excellence in the territories. They include: Autostrade per l’Italia, Cobat, Cruciani, Eicma, Enel, IBM, Invitalia, Poste Italiane, Sicily by Car, Università Telematica Pegaso and TgCom24 Mediaset. The charity partnership with the Lega del Filo d’oro will accompany all stages of the tour. Moreover, stage by stage, media partnerships will be activated with leading local newspapers and TV and radio stations.

“Panorama d’Italia” has been organised in collaboration with Triumph Group International, for executive production, organisation and logistics, while the platform and digital strategy is managed by H2H.

From tomorrow, Icon Design, Mondadori’s upscale design and furniture magazine, becomes a real monthly: a magazine with a sophisticated personality reporting on the world of design through stories about the talent that characterise it.

Confirming the original formula of the editor Michele Lupi, with a design approach and a focus on architecture and design as a starting point for cross-sectoral storytelling that looks at design design also in adjacent worlds of fashion, art and technology. The upscale positioning of Icon Design is consolidated also by its international dimension, with the collaboration of photographers and world-renowned writers, as well as the presence in every issue of an English translation of the main stories, combined with distribution in major cities in Europe, the US and Asia.
There will be eight issues this year that will come out between March and December.

This year’s first issue, on newsstands from tomorrow, features on the cover Jasper Morrison, the world-class English icon from the world of design, with a retrospective of his work (Thingness) and his highly personal selection of objects (MyCollection) from the Museum für Gestaltung collection: Also in this issue is Frenchman Didier Faustino, a designer sui generis and a “nomad among the arts” who blurs the boundaries of design with film, literature and painting, and thereby avoiding definition.
As editor Michele Lupi explained. “We want to emphasise, on the one hand, our interest in icons – it’s not a coincidence that call ourselves Icon Design – and, on the other, our vocation for research aimed at enabling our readers to discover always interesting worlds. The role of a magazine is certainly to highlight the quality of the great, but also to uncover stories that the general public does not know, and giving both the same dignity,” Lupi concluded.

Icon Design will also take its content online with icondesign.it, which, in line with the editorial content of the magazine, selects and reports what’s new in the world of design, with particular attention to the stories that hide behind the most creative objects and personalities of the design world.
The site has a responsive layout and four thematic channels: News (with events and the latest news from the world of design), Products (objects of style, cutting-edge design projects and iconic products), Storytelling (stories of artists, designers, internationally-renowned architects, emerging creatives and great photographers), Places (design places and districts, artists’ workshops, the most beautiful houses and places to discover).
The title’s offer is completed with editorial specials, with news, photos and in-depth coverage of the most important forthcoming events: e.g. the Milan Design Week and Milan Design Film Festival. Icon Design is also on Facebook (facebook.com/icondesignIT) and Instagram (instagram.com/icondesignIT).
The first issue of 2016 is published with 65 advertising pages with over 50 of the best brands from the sector.

During the Milan Fashion Week, Grazia International Network has organised an exclusive event to celebrate the first official presentation of the collection of Aire de Jeu.

Last February, the brand, created by the young Korean designer Jihye Park, won the first “Grazia Next Glam Award” for having provided the best interpretation, in a dress, of the easy chic style for which Grazia is standard-bearer around the world..

In announcing the victory, which stood out from among the many talented under-35 designers in competition for the “Grazia Next Glam Award 2015”, a prestigious jury, chaired by Carla Vanni (director of the Grazia International Network), along with Giorgio Armani, Mario Dell’Oglio (chairman of the Italian Chamber of Fashion Buyers), the designer Stella Jean and Jane Reeve (the former chief executive of the Italian Chamber of Fashion).

The presentation of the Aire de Jeu collection at the Milan Fashion Week is an absolute first for the label in front of an international professional audience at one of the most important events in the calendar of the world’s fashion industry.

The location selected by Grazia International Network for the event is an art gallery, an unusual but at the same time elegant and refined venue in which the clothes from the collection Reflection by Aire de Jeu – inspired by the play of light and shade created by the fabrics and colours and reflections on a woman’s body – will become authentic installations, enriched with drawings by artist and art director of Grazia Italy, Daniele Costa.

With this initiative, which is part of the official calendar of presentations at the Milan Fashion Week, Grazia once again highlights its fashion vocation – the characteristic of the brand – and the promotion of new talent.

Following the success of previous editions, also this year, the magazine Focus Junior and the Polytechnic University of Milan have joined together for the “Tutti insieme all’università” (“All Together at University”) project which is aimed at children between the ages of 7 and 13: five appointments offering an opportunity to participate, some years in advance, in real university lectures of big scientific topics with some of the best teachers of the Polytechnic University of Milan.

The lessons, that will take place in the months of February and March, have been designed to respond to kids’ curiosity using innovative, amusing and stimulating content that will help them to discover the world in a new and intelligent way that is entirely consistent with the educate-by-entertaining approach that guides all the activities of the Focus Junior brand.

The initiative starts on 27 February with two appointments, at 10.30 and at 12.00: practical experiments in physics will lead the kids through the science fiction and reality of the films of the Star Wars saga, and a look at some of the most recent technological inventions.

The lessons will continue on 5 March, with the excitement of robots, on 2 April with the discovery of the engines of the future, on 9 April with the design techniques for paper jewellery that respects the environment, and concluding with a final lesson on 14 May on how videogames work by deconstructing three of the most popular titles.

While the kids are “studying”, their parents will be given a guided tour of the Polytechnic University of Milan campus.

Participation is free, with a maximum of 400 places for each lesson.

All you have to do is sign up on the Polytechnic University of Milan web site, in the section devoted to events: www.eventi.polimi.it.

The expertise of the Donna Moderna, Starbene, CasaFacile, Cucina Moderna and Nostrofiglio.it brands has given birth to Opinion Model, a new shared marketing community that will enable users to learn about new products, to try them out at home and share them with their contacts.

“We are really confident in the potential of this new project that we have launched with our brands and partner companies,” declared Pamela Carati, Brand Manager Mass Market. “Opinion Model invites consumers to test the products proposed by companies: an initiative that, on the one hand, satisfies the consumers’ desire to test directly and fro free new products and, on the other, offers advantages for companies who can dialogue directly with the public and use the feedback to continuously improve their offer.” “Opinion Model will be organised in an initial 4-week launch phase in which four companies will each week make one of their products available. But the initiative will then continue for the whole of 2016,” Carati concluded.

Opinion Model aims to establish an ongoing relationship of trust with users and readers and rewarding the most active participants with incentives. There will also be the possibility of applying a mark of approval to the brands involved in the initiative.

The project is a precious asset for partner companies who will gain visibility within the tester community tester and benefit from the cross-media communication in support of the launch of Opinion Model.

Plus, the most significant results of the survey conducted by Mondadori on the opinions expressed by users will be reported of the Opinionmodel.it platform, as well as in the pages, on the web sites and social profiles of the brands involved.

Becoming a member of the community is very easy.

Users can sign up by visiting www.opinionmodel.it, and filling out the form related to their profile. Subsequently they can apply for the product they want to test.

Readers will have two weeks from the publication of the magazine to submit their application for one or more products. The candidates selected will then soon receive the material to be tested, delivered directly to their homes.

The initiative is the result of collaboration between the magazine titles Donna Moderna, Starbene, CasaFacile, Cucina Moderna and Nostrofiglio.it and the contribution of Mondadori’s content & data marketing area, brining together Cemit’s expertise in relational marketing Cemit and the know-how in digital engagement of Kiver.

Opinion Model will be supported by a campaign developed by Hi! Communication and will be spread across different channels: Mondadori magazines, TV, radio, web and social.

The proposal of the format to the market will be managed by Mediamond, that has already involved many companies from different sectors: beauty, health, food, homewares, as well as products for babies and maternity. Opinion Model is an important new feature in the advertising offer of the company and an innovative addition to clients’ marketing tools. Users who apply to test the products will be profiled on the basis of the interest shown in participating in the activities of the platform and may therefore also be subsequently involved in other tests of products of interest for them. This data-driven approach will markedly increase the efficacy of the operation.

The launch format for Opinion Model will have an estimated reach of over 11 million unique users (source: M— Cube: based Audipress and Audiweb data).

TV Sorrisi e Canzoni, Italy’s leading entertainment weekly is once again the essential point of reference for fans of the annual Festival della Canzone Italiana, with initiatives and special content in the magazine, on the web site Sorrisi.com and on social media, for minute-by-minute coverage of the year’s most anticipated musical event.

Following the success of Sanremo Start, the exclusive party – organised in collaboration with Radio Italia – that brought together the stars of the competition for a toast at the start of the Sanremo week, the association between TV Sorrisi e Canzoni and the Festival will be reinforced by Sorrisi.com, live from 9 to 13 February at Sanremo with a dedicated video station, a privileged vantage point to observe and meet the stars and guests of the event. For the entire week exclusive video-diaries by four champions: Annalisa, Lorenzo Fragola, Rocco Hunt and Valerio Scanu, who will talk about their own Sanremo experiences and what it feels like to be on the stage. Plus, backstage and behind-the-scenes curiosities, video interviews with the stars and every evening a live blog, also on Facebook and Twitter.

Readers can also take part with accounts of their own Festival experiences using the hashtag #ilmiosanremo, telling world how they experience the competition from their own homes, with friends, or on the streets of the Ligurian town itself, once again festooned with life-sized cardboard cut-outs of the presenters and the singers in competition – produced in collaboration with the City of Sanremo – beside which fans can take selfies to share with their friends and family. The most amusing photos will be selected by the editorial staff of Sorrisi and published on the site.

Moreover, once again, for this edition of the Festival, TV Sorrisi e Canzoni will publish three issues dedicated to the Festival: an authentic guide, in the weeks before, during and after the event, with exclusive covers, a previews of the lyrics of the songs, a full programme of every evening and, on the 12 February, the official compilation “Sanremo 2016”. A double CD with 35 tracks with the music from the stage of the Ariston Theatre, including unreleased tracks by the big names and the new songs and covers performed by previous winners on the evening of Thursday 11, a chance to enjoy again some of the best loved tunes form previous seasons. “Sanremo 2016” will be available on newsstands with TV Sorrisi e Canzoni for €14.90, excluding the price of the magazine.

Plus, with the competition “Vinci Sanremo 2016”, Sorrisi has given 10 readers the opportunity to participate live at the five evenings of the event.

Il mio Papa, the world’s first weekly entirely dedicated to Pope Francis, today celebrates its 100th issue: “An important starting point to improve our work,” said Aldo Vitali, editor of the magazine launched by Mondadori in March 2014 and now present in eight other countries around the world.

“For one hundred weeks we have been reporting what the Pope says and what the Pope does, with the same passion of the first issue and with a level of satisfaction that we never expected at the beginning of this adventure,” says Vitali. “With its unique formula and a positive and popular approach, in a short time Il mio Papa has been able to carry the Pope’s message even in small daily gestures, and to win more and more readers outside Italy. Pope Francis himself has asked to receive copies of our magazine at his Santa Marta residence,” Vitali concluded.

The 100th issue of Il mio Papa is on newsstands this week with a quiz where readers can test their knowledge about the Holy Father, answering 100 questions about his life, his family and his tastes.

Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni presents Cuccioli e Sorrisi, a new magazine for enthusiasts of cats, dogs & co, on newsstands this wek with the weekly edited by Aldo Vitali.

Cuccioli e Sorrisi will offer a monthly overview of how to care for pets, through more than 60 pages full of news, advice, stories and lively photographs.

Extensive space will be given to the most common pets that inhabit our homes, dogs and cats: insights and practical sections, along with the opinions of experts such as veterinarians and trainers, to help you understand how to choose, learn about and train your pets, and to live well with them in everyday situations.

The magazine is completed by paged with the latest news from the animal world, with a look also at less common pet species; the section “Books” for new reading suggestions; a story based on a literary classic with four-legged characters, and, finally, the comic adventures of two cute basset hound puppies “Baguette & Bonton”.

Also readers are invited to contribute by sending pictures of their pets on www.cuccioliesorrisi.com: the best shots will be published in the magazine.

Among the contents of the current issue is a focus on the relationship between dogs and children, and how to create a relationship that is healthy and stimulating for children’s development. In addition, all you need to know about vaccinations; a report on the most common plants that can pose a danger to pets, and the story of Mia, the canine star of the latest film with Laura Morante, told the dog trainer Massimo Perla.

Cuccioli e Sorrisi was created in collaboration with L’Arca di Noè, the official magazine of the TG5 programme, with the editorial support of Mozart, that also manages advertising sales.

The communication campaign will involve print media and in-store posters.

Cuccioli e Sorrisi will be on newsstands every month with the issue of of Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni at the price of €0.50.