The Mondadori Group launches the magazine Giallo Zafferano: leader on the web and new on newsstands

From Italy’s number one cooking web site comes a new magazine Giallo Zafferano. The Mondadori Group’s new monthly, on newsstands from Saturday 18 March, can already boast of two firsts: it has the same name as a brand leader in the digital world and is the first cooking magazine, in Italy and in Europe, to have been born from a web site.

Giallo Zafferano offers readers the opportunity of enjoying an experience that begins on the site and is completed with the magazine, with a distinctive offer compared to others on the market, thanks to continuous interaction between the web, social networks and the magazine, giving the brand an increasingly wide total audience.

The starting point is the 6.8 million unique users per month (source: Audiweb view total digital audience, December 2016) and a strong presence on social networks, where Giallo Zafferano already has a total of  4.6 million fans on Facebook.

The magazine, edited by Laura Maragliano, is an ideal bridge to “bring the kitchen into the hands of the reader” and enjoy an even richer experience. “This is the first time a cooking title has been born from a site: Giallo Zafferano is the result of two worlds and two experiences that meet and merge. Our team is made up of long-established professionals working alongside experts under 30, to share ideas and skills. We have begun to build a magazine with a unique, positive and interactive character. And we are confident that readers will welcome it with the same enthusiasm we have brought to this new project,” said the editor Laura Maragliano.

Giallo Zafferano has five distinctive features:

• 100 new recipes every month, created and tested by the editorial staff;
• a innovative square format and a layout that plays with white space and with all the dishes photographed from above;
• the creation of a community that includes the three much-loved faces of the Giallo Zafferano web site, as well as the magazine’s bloggers and journalists: in each issue three teams will face a new culinary challenge;
• the augmented reality app “Gruppo Mondadori AR+”, available for iOS and Android, to access filmed recipes, videos and extra content, and to interact with other users who are looking through the magazine;
• interaction with readers, who can vote on the site or using the app for their favourite dish from the monthly challenge and take part in the final contest by proposing a recipe that the editorial team will select for publication in the next issue, in a continuous online and offline dialogue.

The first issue of the magazine will be available on newsstands and at all the major retail chains both as a stand-alone product, at the special introductory price of €1, or in combination with the leading Italian weeklies, Donna Moderna, Chi, Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni, Grazia, Tustyle, Starbene and Confidenze (at €0.50, plus the price of the weekly), with a total print run of 1 million copies.

Giallo Zafferano makes its debut on newsstands with good numbers, also from the point of view of advertising sales with a total of 47 pages and out of the total 136 pages of the first issue.

The launch of this new magazine enhances the food system of the Mondadori Group, an offer able to cover, with its online and offline brand, all segments of the food sector: from historical publications such as Sale & Pepe, which this year celebrates its 30^th anniversary, to Cucina Moderna, the current market leader with sales of 249,000 copies (source: Ads December 2016), which celebrates its 20^th anniversary, as well as Cucina no problem, launched 15 years ago, and the more recent Guida Cucina and the newcomers CookAround and Giallo Zafferano and the Sale & Cucina School.

A brand portfolio which, with 96 issues per year, already has a circulation market share of over 60%, and a total overall audience of more than 9 million contacts, of which 7.4 million unique users per month and around 2 million readers per month (source: Audiweb view total digital audience, December 2016 + Audipress 2016 /III).

THE CONTENT OF THE MAGAZINE GIALLO ZAFFERANO

The magazine opens with the presentation of what’s new inside, a calendar of significant dates during the month, the products of the season and an extensive feature on a popular ingredient, easily found in our kitchens, with 30 new recipes quick and easy to prepare recipes, one for each day of the month.

The centre of the magazine gives space to the three teams, each headed by a well-known face from the web site – Manuel, for fast ethnic cuisine; Giovanni, for traditional cooking; Aurora, for vegetarian food – while bloggers and staff journalists each month will propose a new dish, with video-recipes available using the augmented reality app, a menu and 8 themed dishes. The three team leaders will also compete in a culinary challenge that will change every month and that readers can vote for on both the website or app.

Supporting each section readers will find fact sheets on food, both fresh and packaged, practical advice on the what and how to buy and at the centre of the magazine a poster to remove and keep.

The final pages are given over to the cooking school: sweet and savoury specialties meticulously explained with step by step, in pure Giallo Zafferano style, with technical information on cuts of meat and fish, advice on etiquette and do-it-yourself, a list of wines and a focus on kitchen items, from utensils to the latest electrical appliances.

For the launch of Giallo Zafferano a communication campaign has been planned on print media, the web and large-scale retail outlets, with creativity managed by Hi! Communication.

To mark the publication of the first issue, Giallo Zafferano will also be the protagonist of a series of meetings during the Milan Design Week, with show cooking and themed evenings that will take place in the exclusive location of the Casa Facile Design Lab in Via Solferino 14, in Milan, form 4 to 9 April from 7 to 9 pm.