The Board of Directors of Arnoldo Mondadori S.p.A. met today, under the Chairmanship of Marina Berlusconi, to examine and approve the consolidated balance sheet and management report for the year to 31st December 2011 as presented by the Group’s Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive, Maurizio Costa.

MARKET SCENARIO

In the second half of 2011 the global economic situation, and in particular in the countries in the euro zone, continued to shown strong signs of difficulty. In Italy the economy outlook deteriorated significantly during the autumn, marking the beginning of recession. This has had a negative impact on industrial production and investment, resulting in a consequent decline in consumer spending. Also in France the main macroeconomic indicators in 2011 showed a negative trend compared with the previous year.
The macroeconomic performance in the markets of reference for the Mondadori Group, in Italy and France, was affected by these negative trends, with a significant deterioration in the final quarter.

GROUP PERFORMANCE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2011

In this context, the Mondadori Group ended 2011 with consolidated net revenues of €1,509.8 million, a fall of 3,1% on the €1,558.3 million of 2010.

Consolidated gross operating profit came to €130.4 million, a fall of 7% compared with the €140.2 million of the previous year, as a proportion of revenues 8,6% compared with 9% in 2010. Excluding non-recurring positive items and investments in the development of the digital business, the reduction in gross operating profit was 3.3%.

Consolidated operating profit amounted to €103.8 million, down 9.1% from the €114.2 million in 2010, with depreciation and amortization of tangible and intangible assets of €26.6 million (€26 million in 2010).

Consolidated pre-tax profit came to €82.7 million, down 8.4% on the €90.3 million in 2010, with lower borrowing costs of €3.4 million and higher investment charges of €0.6 million.

Consolidated net profit came to €49.6 million, up 17.8% compared with the €42.1 million for the previous year, during which, however, there was an additional tax charge for previous years’ taxes of €8.7 million.

Gross cash flow for 2011 amounted to €76.2 million, compared with €68.1 million in 2010.

The Group’s net financial position showed a deficit of €335.4 million, an improvement of €7 million from the end of 2010, after dividend payments of €40.3 million during the year.

Information concerning personnel
On 31 December 2011 employees, permanent and determined, pursuant to the Group companies, consists of 3,664 units compared to 3,649 at the end of 2010.
2011 saw the conclusion of early retirement plans authorised by the government, which have seen the exit over two years of 233 employees, including both publishing and journalistic staff. There was a similar situation in France where the implementation of the so-called “social plan” has resulted, over two years, in the departure of 74 employees.
Overall, the restructuring plan announced in 2009, of which the above-mentioned ministerial programme was an important but not exclusive part, has been successfully completed.

THE BUSINESS AREAS

• BOOKS

In 2011, the trade book market in Italy has remained stable in terms of copies sold, while there was a decline of 1.4% in terms of value (source: Nielsen).
As regards the distribution channels, the slowdown of large-scale retailers was particularly critical, where the shortfall over the year was -7.9%, with a peak -20.3% in December. This figure is even more striking when one considers the performance of the ten best-selling titles: in terms of value in 2011 saw a decline of 48% in the top ten compared with the same figure as recorded in 2007.

In this context, Mondadori confirmed its leadership in the trade book market with a market share of 26.5% in terms of value (source: Nielsen).
In particular, 43 titles featured among the top 100 bestsellers of the year. Among these, Le prime luci del mattino by Fabio Volo, Nessuno si salva da solo by Margaret Mazzantini, the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, published by Mondadori, and Tre atti e due tempi by Giorgio Faletti, published by Einaudi, respectively, were first, fourth, eighth and tenth in the overall rankings of the year.

Revenues generated by the Books area amounted to €389.1 million, a fall of 6% compared with the €413.9 million in the previous year.
Gross operating profit, despite the lower revenues cited above, was substantially in line with the high level of 2010, thanks to a focused policy of costs controls and the positive contribution of subsidiaries.
In the Paperback sector the most significant initiative was the launch of new series called NumeriPrimi °, which involved all the publishing houses of the Group – Edizioni Mondadori, Einaudi, Piemme, Sperling & Kupfer – and the publication of the most successful titles in large format and quality paperbacks.
In the first ten months, NumeriPrimi° achieved sales of two million copies, with particularly success in the large-scale retail channel.

2011 was undoubtedly important for Books in terms of digital publishing, with the normal operation of Mondadori’s digital distribution platform and, in the second half of the year, the arrival in the Italian market of the major international e-book retailers. During 2011 Mondadori introduced over 3,000 e-books, recording quarter of sales from the Mondadori platform.
The Christmas period saw the highest average sales of the year with peaks of more than 4,000 downloads per day. Among the best sellers, also in the digital format, were new titles by Walter Isaacson, Fabio Volo, Giorgio Faletti and Margaret Mazzantini, as well as backlist titles such as Miglio 81 by Stephen king.
The objective is to digitise the entire catalogue of the group, around 15,000 titles by 2014.
In the school textbooks segment, the digitization programme of the catalogue is already 90% complete, with about 1,300 titles already available in e-book format.

• MAGAZINES ITALY

The current challenging macroeconomic environment continues to have a strong impact on the consumer magazine market in Italy, adversely affecting advertising revenues (-3.7% magazines; source: Nielsen), circulation (- 5% in terms of copies and -7.2% on a comparable basis; internal figures) and add-on sales (-0.5% in terms of value; internal figures). In addition to the effects of the economic situation are the structural changes, related to the digital evolution that is underway, which is having a negative impact on print products, to which especially younger readers are showing less and less interest.
Mondadori has acted to address the situation and has to achieved a performance that is better than the competition and strengthened its position as market leader (33.3%), as can be seen from the continued growth of the number of readers of the Group’s weekly and monthly titles that total some 35 million, or 82% of the total (Audipress 2011/III). In particular, the latest Audipress survey shows that Mondadori’s “audience” was up by 1.6% on the previous period.
In a markedly recessive context, the performance of the Magazines Italy area saw a fall in total revenues of 2.7%, from €471.40 million to €458.8 million.
In particular, Mondadori titles suffered most from the recessive phase in the market and ended the year with a shortfall in revenues of around 5%, due to a reduction in:
– circulation revenues (-4.7%), the effect of a sharp decline in subscriptions (-15%) and fewer copies sold with add-ons (-11%);
– revenues from sales of add-ons (-2.4%), mainly because of a decline in sales of music products. However, the Group’s leadership in the segment (35%) was maintained, with continued high level of profitability and in line with the previous year;
– advertising revenues were down by 3.8%, with a particularly poor performance in the weekly family titles and newsmagazines.This was partly offset by a positive trend in women’s magazines.
The results show, however, a significant increase that is also attributable to the capital gain realized on the sale of the stake in Hearst Mondadori Editoriale Srl. Even excluding the aforementioned non-recurring items, there was still growth in gross operating profit.

Properties
During 2011, Mondadori took a series of important steps with the Group’s web properties associated with the main magazine titles, achieving significant results, both in terms of advertising sales and traffic.
The results for 2011 should therefore be considered positive, with an improvement in all indicators at rates higher than the market, in particular advertising (+47.7% compared with +12.3% for the market as a whole; Nielsen) and growth in the number of unique users, over 6.6 million, an increase of 23.5% on the previous year. This trend benefited from positive performances by www.grazia.it (+73%), www.panorama.it (+63%) and www.donnamoderna.com (+27%). Also of note was the rapid growth of www.panoramauto.it, which was launched in the second half of the year.

• ADVERTISING

Market trends in advertising spending in Italy in 2011 saw an overall fall of 3.8% (source: Nielsen), confirming that the global financial crisis and the downturn in GDP have had a noticeable effect on all media with the sole exception of the internet.
Television was down by 3.1%. There was a significant decline in Radio (-7.8%) and newspapers (-7.7%), while magazines saw a smaller decline of -3.7%, with a particularly bad performance in the final quarter (-8.2%).
The slowdown in advertising has involved all the main sectors of the magazine advertising market except cosmetics and fashion.

In 2011 Mondadori Pubblicità recorded an overall fall in sales compared with 2010, ending the year with revenues of €219.9 million, compared with €233.9 million in 2010.
In terms of the magazine advertising, the fall in sales was due to the particularly negative performance in certain sectors such as FMCGs and interiors. In particular, the weeklies were hit hard, despite the good performance of Grazia (+3.2%) and Tu Style (+11.1%) and the substantial stability of Donna Moderna, the other weeklies of the Group were down on the previous year.
For monthlies meanwhile, the decline was less marked (-1.2%), thanks to the resilience of interiors and cooking titles and to the success of Panorama Icon, which was launched in April 2011 and enabled the Group to strengthen its position in the male fashion segment and Mondadori Pubblicità to offer a product which meets the needs of companies operating at the high-end of the market.
During 2011 Mondadori Pubblicità maintained a continuous focus on the trend in average prices compared to 2010, with stability for Donna Moderna, Grazia and Tu Style among the weeklies, and growth in the interiors and cooking monthlies, sometimes at the expense of volume.

Radio advertising revenues (R101 and Radio Kiss Kiss) grew by 0.7% due largely to the performance of the new organisational model of Mondadori Pubblicità from May 2011; there was a particularly positive trend for R101 in a market that saw a fall in spending of 7.8% (source: Nielsen).

In the Internet market the excellent results achieved by Mediamond, with overall growth of 56% compared to 2010, was the result of a positive performance by the main sites of the Group and the considerable success of TgCom (+59%) and Sport Mediaset (+30.2%) of the RTI Group.
Overall, the Mediamond portfolio was enhanced in 2011 with the addition of www.ilgiornale.it with sales that were above expectations.
After just two years Mediamond now sells advertising for vertical 30 sites, with 11.5 million unique users per month, as well as a considerable number of case studies with leading companies in its sectors of reference.

• MAGAZINES FRANCE

The magazine market in France, both in terms of circulation and advertising revenues, suffered a marked slowdown in the last part of the year, although less significant than in Italy. During the year, advertising, in terms of value was, essentially unchanged compared with the previous year while circulation saw a fall of 4.2%.
In this contexts, Mondadori France recorded growth in earnings thanks to positive performances by all of its titles.

The consolidated revenues for the year came to €348.1 million, up 1.1% on the €344.2 million of the previous year.
Gross operating profit was up by 16.8% on the previous year, thanks to a good performance in magazines and, in particular, the improvement of Grazia, as well as lower manufacturing costs and overheads.

Advertising revenues were up 3.3% to €85.4 million. This excellent performance is due mainly to strong growth in the upscale women’s titles, in particular the weekly Grazia (+34%) and the monthly Biba (+10%), which now account for 33.6% of total advertising revenues (27.2% in 2010).
It should also be noted that Grazia is now the second largest magazine in the market in terms of advertising pages (2,495 pages, up 39%). Even in terms of circulation, Grazia confirmed its success since the launch, growing by 3.1% to 184,000 copies.

In terms of circulation, which accounts for 69% of the total, revenues increased by 1.3%, to €239.5 million,, of particular relevance was the subscription channel, which accounted for 32.5% of total sales.
During the year a number of activities were launched focused on innovation and quality, key factors in the positive performance achieved in terms of circulation: in particular the launch of new formats for seven titles and the launch of the quarterly Guerres & Histoire.
The most successful titles include Modes & Travaux, which has become the leading title in its segment; among women’s magazines, Top Santé and Closer, which have strengthened their positions; in the popular science segment, Science & Vie and Science & Vie Junior continue to grow.
Mondadori France is the leader in the car sector with the weekly magazine Auto Plus and the bimonthly Auto-Journal.
Biba recorded the strongest growth among all of its competitors, with 326,000 copies (+4.5% compared with 2010).

International Activities
Despite some signs of a slowdown due to the ongoing global economic situation, the International Activities area confirmed the positive trend of previous years. Despite difficulties in terms of both consumer and advertising spending, the Group has responded with continuous expansion and geographic diversification and consolidating its position in major emerging markets such as China, Russia and the Asian market. The annual turnover of International Activities was over €160 million. Spearheading this growth is Grazia, a brand with a strong international success that now forms a network of twenty editions with editions in four continents.

Licensing: the end of 2011, there was a total of 27 international editions: seventeen of Grazia, seven of Casaviva, one of Flair, one of Interni, and one of Sale&Pepe. The different editions of Grazia generated a combined revenues of €107 million (+20% compared with 2010) with expectations of further growth for 2012, also thanks to the launch of new editions.

Advertising: thanks to a dedicated team focused on the fashion and interiors segments, in 2011 on the Italian market Mondadori generated advertising revenues of €6.8 million (+49% compared with 2010).

With regard to investments, Mondadori in active in China with its joint venture Mondadori SEEC Advertising Co Ltd: Grazia China, launched in February 2009, has already proved a great success (with revenues of €7.1 million, +87% compared with 2010). Given the rapid growth and potential of the Chinese market, Mondadori has several new projects currently under consideration, the first of which should be announced in the coming months.
Grazia Russia, which celebrated its fifth anniversary in March, during 2011 recorded revenues of €4.1 million, up 20% on an already positive 2010.
Despite the dramatic economic crisis in Greece, Attica Publications expects to be able to derive competitive advantages over its competitors.

• DIRECT

The Direct Area, which manages the retail and direct marketing businesses, conducts its activities through:
– a network of outlets across the country, comprising at the end of 2011 of 628 outlets (22 directly operated and 307 franchised book shops; 9 Multicenters; 213 Edicolè franchises, 18 directly managed Book club and 59 franchised stores):
– Cemit, the market leader in diversified strategies for the design and development of one- to-one communication and CRM.

Revenues in 2011 came to €265.5 million, a fall of 1.4% compared with the €269.2 million of 2010. The figures are not comparable due to changes in the scope, including the acquisition of the whole of Mondolibri SpA. On a like-for-like basis, the shortfall would be around 5% compared with the previous year.

The Multicenter outlets and bookshops, clubs and directly managed outlets, were all penalised by marked downturns that were as high as 12%, only the franchises and Edicolè outlets maintained a positive trend in revenues.
Also Cemit, which suffered significantly from the overall decline in investments in direct marketing, ended the year with a fall in revenues of 24%.
Faced with these difficulties, the company has increased its focus on costs, which explains the merger of Mondadori Franchising S.p.A. and Mondolibri S.p.A. with Mondadori Retail S.p.A., which changed its name to Mondadori Direct SpA, in the middle of the year.

• RADIO

R101, the Group’s radio station, generated revenues of €16.3 million, up by 12.4% compared with the €14.5 million of 2010, thanks to the performance of the car, food, media/publishing and telecommunications sectors, which account for approximately 50% of total turnover.
The market figures for total Radio advertising in 2011 however showed a fall of 7.8% compared with 2010 (source: Nielsen).

The increase in revenues for R101, as well as the alignment of the publisher’s share with other businesses of the Group, is also attributable to the performance of the sales network, which passed from a dedicated network to the more general representation of the entire sales force of Mondadori Pubblicità, which facilitated the entry of many new clients.

• DIGITAL

Revenues generated by the Digital Area came to €17.2 million, an increase of 63.8% compared with the €10.5 million of 2010. The turnover from digital publishing, e-commerce, diversified activities and IT infrastructure development and databases, amounted to €44.2 million, an increase of 23.5% on 2010.
The digital publishing activities primarily refer to e-books, self-publishing, online bool clubs, properties and digital advertising.

In e-commerce in 2011, the business was mainly through www.bol.it sites, which are focused on the sale of books, CDs, DVDs and e-books, which recorded growth in the number of orders (+23%) and the number of unique users (+42%), and www.abbonamenti.it, which manages both print and digital subscriptions.
CRM activities in 2011 saw the creation of the Mondadori Customer Data Base, a single structure which brings together all of the customers of the different business units and the development of information processes for the reconciliation of customers of the different companies of the Group.

RESULTS OF THE PARENT COMPANY ARNOLDO MONDADORI EDITORE S.P.A.
The Annual Report of the parent company, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore SpA, for the year to 31 December 2011 shows a net profit of €55.3 million (€51.7 million on 31 December 2010), while gross operating profit came to €48.5 million (€70.8 million in 2010).
These economic indicators show a contrasting trend; gross operating profit was affected by the significant decline in sales in both books and magazines, where both revenue from sales of copies and from advertising was down compared with 2010.
Also of significance, in absolute terms, was the total investments in digital activities that are still in the start-up phase.
Net profit, meanwhile, benefited from higher returns from the management of investments that, in 2011, included a capital gain of around €10 million from the sale of the company’s stake in Hearst Mondadori Editoriale Srl and a reduction in taxes including, in 2010, a non-recurring charge of €8.7 million, resulting from the adherence to the definition of pending tax disputes, established by Law N° 73 of 22 May 2010, and regarding a dispute with the tax authorities in Milan for the year 1991.

PROPOSAL FOR THE DESTINATION OF NET PROFIT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31.12.2011
The Board of Directors agreed to propose to the Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders, called for 19 April 2012 (or 20 April on second calling), to devolve to the extraordinary reserve the full amount of the net profit for the year ended 31 December 2011, which amounted to €55,342,667.63
Given the current market scenario and despite the increase in net profit for 2011 compared with that for 2010, the proposal of the Board of Directors not to distribute a dividend for 2011 is aimed at strengthening the financial structure.

FORECAST FOR THE FULL YEAR
In the first two months of the year trends related to consumer spending in general, and in particular in the markets of interest to Mondadori, remain significantly negative, in line with the closing months of 2011.
There are currently no signals of a turnaround that could significantly alter the trend, at least in the first half of the year. Similarly, there is also reduced visibility, also in the short term, with regard to the advertising market.
During 2012 the company’s priorities will be to maintain a firm hold on the Group’s leadership in magazines and books in Italy, the consolidation of the successes in France, the development of digital activities, both in books (e-books) and other areas, the expansion and diversification of the international activities, and the continuation of efforts to reduce operating costs in order to contain the negative impact of rising production costs.
In such a problematic scenario, and despite the abovementioned actions, it is currently difficult for the Group to achieve the same levels of profitability as in 2011.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. today announced, as per Art. 2.6.2 of the regulations governing markets organised and managed by Borsa Italiana S.p.A., the corporate events scheduled for 2012:

– Monday 19 March 2012: meeting of the Board of Directors for the approval of the Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2011;

– Monday 14 May 2012: meeting of the Board of Directors for the approval of the 1st Quarter Report to 31 March 2012;

– Thursday 26 July 2012: meeting of the Board of Directors for the approval of the Interim Report to 30 June 2012

– Tuesday 13 November 2012: meeting of the Board of Directors for the approval of the 3rd Quarter Report to 30 September 2012.

The Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders for the approval of the Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2011 will be held on Thursday 19 April 2012, on first calling, or Friday 20 April 2011, on an eventual second calling.

Analysts’ presentations of the results for the full year to 31 December 2011, the interim report to 30 June 2012 and the reports on the first and third quarters of 2012 will be held on the dates, as indicated above, of the respective meetings of the Board of Directors.

Any eventual changes will be promptly communicated to the market.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. has today announced that, in the period between 21 and 24 November 2011, the company bought a total of 265,822 its own shares (corresponding to 0.1078% of the company’s share capital) on the automated share market at an average price of € 1.32864 per share, for a total of € 353,182.26 in the context of the authorisation of the company’s AGM, held on 21 April 2011 (previously communicated as per Art. 144 bis of Consob regulation 11971/1999), to effect share buy back operations.
The details of the operations, as conducted daily, are indicated below:

Date N° of shares bought Weighted average price 21/11/2011 84,000 1.37070 22/11/2011 84,000 1.33206 23/11/2011 84,000 1.28986 24/11/2011 13,822 1.28796

Following these operations and taking account of the shares already in the portfolio, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. now directly holds 7,805,431 its own shares. A further 4,517,486 Mondadori shares are hold by the subsidiary Mondadori International S.p.A..
Consequently, as of today the total number of shares held now amounts to 12,322,917 corresponding to 5% of the share capital.

***
It should be noted that the Shareholders on 21 April 2011 authorised the buy back of a further 16,546,887 company shares, with respect to the shares already held, either directly or indirectly on the date of the authorisation issued by the AGM, bringing the total up to the limit of 10.52% of the present share capital.
The authorisation is valid until the meeting for the approval of the Annual Report for the year to 31 December 2011.

In line with the Shareholders’ authorisation, buy backs are effected on regulated markets as per art. 132 of the legislative decree 58/1998 and art. 144 bis, para. 1, B of Consob regulation 11971/99 according to operating procedures established by the regulations for the organisation and management of the markets themselves, which does not permit the direct combination of offers to buy with predetermined offers to sell.

It should also be noted that, in terms of price and daily volumes, acquisition operations are conducted in line with the norms foreseen by the EU regulation 2273/2003, and that, in terms of daily volumes, the company will not purchase a quantity greater than 25% of the average daily volume of Mondadori shares traded on the regulated market and calculated on the basis of the average daily volume of trading of Mondadori shares in the 20 trading days prior to the dates of purchase.

In bookshops from 29 November Ti racconto un sorriso (Mondadori, pp.60, €19) is a book and CD of short stories presented by six famous faces from television which has been put together to contribute to the appeal promoted by Mediafriends (the charity association created by Mediaset, Mondadori and Medusa), which this year is in favour of the Centro Benedetta D’Intino.
The book features seven tales, based on true stories, is illustrated by Paolo D’Altan and read, on the accompanying CD, by voices from R101: Cristiano Militello, Paolo Cavallone and Sara, Marco Balestri, Lester and Paolo Dini, Federico l’Olandese Volante, Chiara Lorenzutti and Alberto Davoli, Tamara Donà and Tamy T.

The first six tales all have a happy ending and are taken from stories of children in difficulty who, in different parts of the world, thanks to the help of the various associations supported by Mediafriends, have managed to regain their smile and the hope of a better life. Only the last story is still waiting to have its happy end.

Also this year, the stories are introduced by six personalities from the world of entertainment who have enthusiastically taken part in this charity effort: Enrico Brignano, Piero Chiambretti, Rita dalla Chiesa, Alessia Marcuzzi, Alfonso Signorini and Silvia Toffanin.

Porceeds from the book will be donated to Mediafriends Onlus which this year is supporting the Centro Benedetta D’Intino, the operating structure of the Fondazione Benedetta D’Intino, founded in 1992 by the Mondadori, D’Intino and Formenton families, in memory of Benedetta, who died at the age of fifteen months due to congenital heart diease.
The Centre works to guarantee a future for children with physical, psychological and social difficulties and operates in two sectors: psycho-therapeutic services, which helps children from birth with emotional problems, and, augmented and alternative communication services, which supports children and adolescents with serious communicative difficulties.
The aim of the Centro Benedetta D’Intino in Milan is also to consolidate in the daily lives of these children the results achieved by the Centre, with specially trained staff who continue to provide families, school mates, teachers and friends with the necessary support. Through its web site, www.mediafriends.itwww.mediafriends.it, Mediafriendswill publish the results of the progress being made and the use of the funds provided by the book.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. has today announced that, in the period between 14 and 18 November 2011, the company bought a total of 411,000 its own shares (corresponding to 0.1667% of the company’s share capital) on the automated share market at an average price of € 1.39972 per share, for a total of € 575,286.48 in the context of the authorisation of the company’s AGM, held on 21 April 2011 (previously communicated as per Art. 144 bis of Consob regulation 11971/1999), to effect share buy back operations.

The details of the operations, as conducted daily, are indicated below:

date N° of shares bought Weighted average price 14/11/2011 84,000 1.42930 15/11/2011 84,000 1.40198 16/11/2011 84,000 1.38329 17/11/2011 84,000 1.37990 18/11/2011 75,000 1.40468

Following these operations and taking account of the shares already in the portfolio, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. now directly holds 7,539,609 its own shares. A further 4,517,486 Mondadori shares are hold by the subsidiary Mondadori International S.p.A..
Consequently, as of today the total number of shares held now amounts to 12,057,095 corresponding to 4.89% of the share capital.

***

It should be noted that the Shareholders on 21 April 2011 authorised the buy back of a further 16,546,887 company shares, with respect to the shares already held, either directly or indirectly on the date of the authorisation issued by the AGM, bringing the total up to the limit of 10.52% of the present share capital.
The authorisation is valid until the meeting for the approval of the Annual Report for the year to 31 December 2011.

In line with the Shareholders’ authorisation, buy backs are effected on regulated markets as per art. 132 of the legislative decree 58/1998 and art. 144 bis, para. 1, B of Consob regulation 11971/99 according to operating procedures established by the regulations for the organisation and management of the markets themselves, which does not permit the direct combination of offers to buy with predetermined offers to sell.

It should also be noted that, in terms of price and daily volumes, acquisition operations are conducted in line with the norms foreseen by the EU regulation 2273/2003, and that, in terms of daily volumes, the company will not purchase a quantity greater than 25% of the average daily volume of Mondadori shares traded on the regulated market and calculated on the basis of the average daily volume of trading of Mondadori shares in the 20 trading days prior to the dates of purchase.

The Board of Directors of Arnoldo Mondadori S.p.A. met today, under the chairmanship of Marina Berlusconi, to examine and approve the interim report for the first nine months of the year to 30th September 2011, as presented by the Group’s deputy chairman and chief executive, Maurizio Costa.

THE MARKET SCENARIO
As is well known, the third quarter of the year saw a significant deterioration in markets, particularly in the eurozone. Concerns of an economic nature were heightened also by fears of a financial crisis even worse than that of the recent past.
The lack, at a European level, of an immediate and common response to market problems has resulted in an even more negative perception of the situation and a high level of pessimism about prospects for growth, employment and stability.
The magazine market in Italy saw a continuation of the decline in circulation and a was sharp downturn in advertising. The book sector remained essentially stable, despite the absence of bestsellers and falling cover prices. There was a particularly marked fall in retail sales, both in directly managed stores and the large-scale retail channel.
In France, there were no particular changes in the annual trend in the magazine sector while advertising, which remained buoyant until September, saw a downturn from the beginning of October.

GROUP PERFORMANCE FOR THE PERIOD TO 30 SEPTEMBER 2011
In the context of the situation described above, in the first nine months of the year the Mondadori Group recorded:
– revenues that were slightly down against the same period of 2010, with a growing contribution for digital activities;
– another improvement in operating profitability, thanks to essential stability in the traditional businesses while positive non-recurring elements have made it possible to compensate most of the development costs of the digital business;
– a marked increase in net profit, also due to the absence of extraordinary tax charges paid in 2010 relating to previous years.

Consolidated revenues came to €1,114.7 million, a slight fall (-1.4%) on the €1,130.2 million for the same period of 2010.

Consolidated gross operating profit amounted to €104.6 million (+1.5% on the €103.1 million for the first nine months of last year): on a like-for-like basis, excluding non-recurring items and investments for digital development, gross operating profit increased by del 3.2% compared with the same period of 2010.

Consolidated operating profit came to €87.8 million, an increase of 2.6% on the €85.6 million for the same period of 2010, with amortizations and depreciations on tangible assets of €16.8 million (€17.5 million in 2010).

Consolidated pre-tax profit amounted to €71.3 million, an increase of 5,6% on the €67.5 million of the same period of last year, with interest of €16.5 million, compared with €18.1 in 2010.

Consolidated net profit came to €44.1 million, an increase of 43.6% compared with the €30.7 million of the same period of the previous year, which was impacted by non-recurring tax charges related to previous years (net of which the increase would still have been of 11.9%).

Gross cash flow for the first nine months of 2011 amounted to €60.9 million, compared with €48.2 million for the same period of 2010.

The Group’s net financial position went from -€342.4 million at the end of 2010 to -€380.6 million on 30 September 2011 (-€369 million on 30 September 2010); and in May the company paid dividends of €40.3 million.

Information concerning personnel
On 30 September 2011 permanent and temporary contract staff employed by the companies of the Group amounted to 3,720, essentially in line with the figure for the same period of last year (3,717).

The headcount figure includes also the development activities of the new Digital Area, the start-up of a new web company (Glaming), the hiring on fixed-term contracts of a number of staff at museum bookshops and the consolidation of AME Editoriale Wellness.
Given these changes, the current headcount is in fact 52 units lower than the same period of 2010 (-1.4%).
Account should also be taken of the fact that the figure for September traditionally rises for the hiring of temporary seasonal staff related to the school textbook sector until the end of the year.

THE BUSINESS AREAS
BOOKS
Nielsen figures for the first nine months of 2011 show that the summer was characterised by a general uncertainty and weakness in consumer spending that resulted in a slowdown in sales. In this context, the Mondadori Group nevertheless confirmed its leadership in trade books with a market share of 26.1%.

Revenues generated by the Books area amounted to €280.5 million, a 4.8% fall compared with the €294.5 million of the same period of the previous year.

The editorial programme for the closing months of the year is expected to allow for a positive result in terms of market positioning, thanks to strong titles that include new novels by Fabio Volo (Le prime luci del mattino), Giorgio Faletti (Tre atti, due tempi), John Grisham (I contendenti) and Alessandro D’Avenia (Cose che nessuno sa), as well as the considerable interest generated by the only official biography of Jobs.
The quarter also saw the consolidation of growth for the new NumeriPrimi° series, which with sales of 1.6 million copies is at the top of the paperback bestsellers lists.

On the e-book front, on 30 September 2011 the Mondadori catalogue contained 2,700 trade titles, including apps. Thanks to the opening in Italy of Apple’s iBookstore, which has contributed to an increase of more than 100% in the sale of digital titles, growth forecasts for the year can be confirmed.

MAGAZINES ITALY
In a market context of generalised decline in Italian and international magazine publishing, the revenues of Magazines, Italy, which include, in addition to circulation and advertising revenues from Mondadori titles, also revenues from the distribution of titles published by third parties, amounted to €351.1 million, in fall of 3% compared with the €362 million for the first nine months of 2010.

This was the result of:
– a 4.8% fall in circulation revenues (above all due to a reduction in investments in the subscription channel) and a 5.2% slide in add-on sales, which nevertheless retained a high level of profitability in line with the previous year;
– as light reduction in advertising for Mondadori titles compared with 2010 (-0.7%), but with a better than the market trend (-1.8%; Source: Nielsen to August); a marked increase in sales for the internet and the titles of the international network, taking the overall figure to +0.8%.

Work continued in the third quarter on the re-launch and repositioning of titles, of particular note was Donna Moderna Wellness, a new title dedicated to the ecology of body and mind, and the redesign of Sale&Pepe and di Panorama Travel. Initial indications show excellent levels of appreciation prime by both readers and advertisers.
Regarding the Mondadori web sites, in the period from January to September advertising sales grew by 37%, after a particularly brilliant third quarter (+50%), and well ahead of the market (Source: Nielsen to August +13.5%), thanks to the performance of www.donnamoderna.com (+31%), www.grazia.it (+54%) and www.panorama.it (+84%).

MAGAZINES FRANCE
Mondadori France ended the first nine months of the year with revenues of € 259.6 million, a 2.8% increase on the €252.6 million of the same period of 2010.

Circulation revenues, which account for 69% of the total, rose by 2.4%; a particularly significant result given the difficult situation facing the magazine market in recent years which, also in France, has been marked by a constant decline (-4.2%; internal data, in terms of newsstand sales in September).

The total advertising market in the first nine months of the year recorded an increase, in terms of value, of 0.5% (Source: Kantar Media) before a downturn that began from October.
In the same period, Mondadori France out-performed the market with an increase of 5.7% in revenues compared with the same period of the previous year, reaching €62.7 million. This result was mainly due to the excellent performance in revenues from the women’s weekly Grazia (+52%) and the monthly Biba (+11%).
In the last 12 months (October 2010-September 2011) Grazia sold 2,436 advertising pages, an increase of 63%, putting it in second place for total pages among French magazines. The company’s upscale women’s titles now account for 33.5% of total advertising revenues (25.9% in the same period of 2010).

International activities
The positive revenues trend for the company’s international activities continued (+30% compared with the first nine months of 2010), driven by a marked increase in revenues from advertising (+60%). There was also a positive contribution from licensing revenues (+26%), in particular for Grazia Germany, Holland and China.
The number of editions of Mondadori titles published under licence also continued to grow, with three new editions in the period.
There was a decided improvement in the results of the 50-50 joint ventures in Russia and China, in particular thanks to a rise in advertising sales.
The Greek subsidiary Attica saw a fall in revenues due to the worsening financial crisis that has had a negative impact especially on advertising. Nevertheless – thanks to a good performance by the radio stations and a number of add-on initiatives, the reorganisation of the company and the renegotiation of procurement, the final result showed an improvement compared with the same period of last year.

ADVERTISING
Advertising trends in Italy in the first nine months of 2011 have largely confirmed the negative trend that characterised the first six months of the year (Source: Nielsen to August: -4%).
In particular, for the first time since the beginning of the crisis in 2008, there was a slowdown in newspapers (-8.3%), in particular the free press (-49.7%), radio (-5.5%) and television (-4.7%).
Magazines showed a limited downturn (1.8%) on the back of a good performance in the fashion, cosmetics and pharma sectors, and ongoing difficulties in other sectors. Bucking the trend was the internet (+13.5%), making it the healthiest medium at the present time.

With regard to the Group’s activities, Mondadori Magazines saw a slight fall (-0.7%), with continuing positive trends for trend Grazia, Donna Moderna and Tu Style. Monthlies were in line with 2010, with a resilient performance by titles in the interiors sector.

Efforts continued, along with the publisher, for the organisation of fashion events, including Pitti and Milano Fashion & Design, which this year involved Grazia, Interni and R101, as testimonials for an event that was notably successful with both sponsors and the public.

For radio, the new organisation of Mondadori Pubblicità, launched in May and focused on exploiting the sales potential of the company’s entire network, has made it possible to achieve greater results than in 2010, compared with a market that was down by 5.5%.

Advertising sales generated by Mediamond were very positive (+65.9%), thanks to the brilliant results of sites www.donnamoderna.com and www.grazia.it and news sites www.tg.com and www.sportmediaset.it.

The company closed the first nine months of the year with total sales of €165 million, a slight fall (-3.1%) compared with the €170.2 million of the same period of 2010. The difference was largely determined by a downturn in business for third party publishers.

DIRECT and RETAIL
In the first nine months of 2011 total revenues generated by the Direct and Retail area amounted to €182 million, a 3.8% increase on the €175.4 million of the same period of 2010 (for last year’s figures, Mondolibri S.p.A. was consolidated from 1 May 2010).

Direct
Business levels were affected by the negative economic climate and particularly by the fall in direct marketing activities by a number of operators in the large-scale retail sector, traditionally a substantial part of Cemit’s business: faced with a fall in revenues of over 20%, the company was nevertheless able to mitigate the impact on its results.

Retail
Total revenues from stores were in line with the same period of last year, thanks to new affiliations in the franchising network, which compensated for a fall in turnover at the company’s directly owned stores, the result of the closure of a number of significant locations in the centre of Rome and Turin.
The number of outlets in the network rose to 608 (compared with 570 at the end of September 2010).

Revenues generated by the franchise bookshop chain in the first nine months of 2011 rose by 12.8% compared with the same period of the previous year, thanks to new affiliations that increased the number of outlets to 499, compared with 463 in September 2010. On a like-for-like basis, revenues were in line with those of last year.

The directly owned shops saw a fall in turnover of 11.5% compared with the previous year, mainly due to the aforementioned closures. On a like-for-like basis, there was a 3.3% fall in sales.

RADIO
The Italian radio market to 30 September 2011 recorded an overall downturn of 5.5% on the previous year, with a more marked slide in the first half of the year (-8.4%), compensated by a clear recovery in the summer months (+11%), but followed by a decline in September (-6% – Source: FCP Assoradio).

Advertising sales for R101, which markedly outperformed the market, generated revenues in the first nine months of €11.7 million, a 14.7% increase on the €10.2 million of the same period of last year, with a more limited increase in the first half (+7.9%) and a more marked upswing in the last three months (+27%).

DIGITAL
Revenues in the first nine months of 2011 from direct activities amounted to €13.1 million, compared with €5.8 million in the same period of 2010, while the development of indirect digital activities, in the context of other business sectors (e-books, online book clubs, web sites, subscriptions and advertising), achieved a turnover of €19.9 million, up from the €16.4 million of the first nine months of last year. Overall, the Digital area Digital recorded total revenues of €33 million, compared with €22.2 million in the first nine months of 2010.

Among the direct activities, of note were:
– e-commerce, represented by the sale of books, editorial products and sundry goods by Bol.it, which saw a steady improvement (+50% year on year) in the number of monthly visitors (over 1 million users) and a growth in orders of 30% compared with the same period of 2010;
– the development of the applications and services for mobile phones area continued with the creation of apps that have reached the top of the iTunes best sellers list in their category. The last quarter also saw the launch of the first game for the iPad and iPhone produced by Mondadori;
– the Mondadori project for the development of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, aimed at bringing together all of the Group’s various client databases is continuing in line with the forecasted plan;
– on 28 September, the company was awarded a public gaming licence by the AAMS which will enable Glaming, a company owned jointly by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. (70%) and Fun Gaming S.r.l. (30%), to progressively launch a series of online games by the end of November.

FORECAST FOR THE FULL YEAR
The third quarter of the year saw a sharp increase in concerns about the health of the economy, above all in the eurozone, and the resilience of the public finances of member states.
This, combined with consequent pressures on the credit system, has worsened an already difficult situation in manufacturing, consumer spending and investments; while also unemployment, especially among the young, has reached very high levels.

The markets of reference for Mondadori have not been exempt from the general economic crisis, even if the company has so far been able to deal with the situation by placing even more attention on product quality and process efficiency, also with a view to containing costs.

With regard to the prospects for the full year, we can only repeat, with even greater conviction, what we said after the first half report, about the difficulty of making any forecasts, even in the short term.
It should also be noted that the figures for October show a generalised worsening of market indicators; consequently, the evolution of markets in the closing months of the year will be fundamental in determining a level of operating profitability in line with last year.

§
The interim report for the period to 30 September 2011, as approved by the board of directors, will be available from today at the company’s headquarters, Borsa italiana S.p.A. and on the corporate web site www.gruppomondadori.it (in the Investor Relations section).
§
The executive responsible for the preparation of the company’s accounts, Carlo Maria Vismara, declares that, as per art. 2, 154 bis of the Single Finance Text, the accounting information contained in this release corresponds to that contained in the company’s formal accounts.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. has announced that, as per Art. 70 para. 5 of CONSOB Regulation n°. 11971/1999 and integrating the documentation already deposited on 16 September 2011, the minutes of the meeting of the board of directors that approved the plant to merge by incorporation into the company the wholly-owned subsidiary AME Editoriale Wellness S.r.l., is now available for inspection at the company’s headquarters, at Borsa Italiana S.p.A. and on the company’s web site www.gruppomondadori.it (in the Governance section).

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. has today announced that, with reference to the last seven trading days, on October 4, 2011 the company bought a total of 50,000 its own shares (corresponding to 0.020% of the company’s share capital) on the automated share market at an average price of € 1.51872 per share, for a total of € 75,936.00 in the context of the authorisation of the company’s AGM, held on 21 April 2011 (previously communicated as per Art. 144 bis of Consob regulation 11971/1999), to effect share buy back operations.

Following this operation and taking account of the shares already in the portfolio, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. now directly holds 7,128,609 its own shares. A further 4,517,486 Mondadori shares are hold by the subsidiary Mondadori International S.p.A..
Consequently, as of today the total number of shares held now amounts to 11,646,095 corresponding to 4.72% of the share capital.

***

It should be noted that the Shareholders on 21 April 2011 authorised the buy back of a further 16,546,887 company shares, with respect to the shares already held, either directly or indirectly on the date of the authorisation issued by the AGM, bringing the total up to the limit of 10.52% of the present share capital.
The authorisation is valid until the meeting for the approval of the Annual Report for the year to 31 December 2011.

In line with the Shareholders’ authorisation, buy backs are effected on regulated markets as per art. 132 of the legislative decree 58/1998 and art. 144 bis, para. 1, B of Consob regulation 11971/99 according to operating procedures established by the regulations for the organisation and management of the markets themselves, which does not permit the direct combination of offers to buy with predetermined offers to sell.

It should also be noted that, in terms of price and daily volumes, acquisition operations are conducted in line with the norms foreseen by the EU regulation 2273/2003, and that, in terms of daily volumes, the company will not purchase a quantity greater than 25% of the average daily volume of Mondadori shares traded on the regulated market and calculated on the basis of the average daily volume of trading of Mondadori shares in the 20 trading days prior to the dates of purchase.

The next “World Magazine Congress” will be organised in Italy in partnership with Mondadori by FIPP (International Federation of the Periodical Press).
The meeting, which brings magazine publishers from around the world together every two years, will be held in Rome from 23 to 25 September 2013. The announcement was made at the end of two intense days of discussions in New Delhi, the location for this year’s 38th edition of the congress

Maurizio Costa, deputy chairman and chief executive of the Mondadori Group, was given the task by the chairman of the board of FIPP, Chris Llewellyn during the closing ceremony.
Costa had led the Mondadori delegation during the two days of the congress where it had participated in debates and panels on the most relevant issues facing magazine publishers: from the increasing importance of brands and the quality of editorial content, to the challenge of digital and the fast-growing emerging markets.

“We are proud to have the responsibility of hosting such a prestigious conference in Italy, an event that brings together delegations and representatives from the whole of the international publishing industry,” underlined Costa. “The process of transformation that is taking place in the media world is so rapid that being able to host in our country an occasion for discussion and exchange of such relevance is a great privilege. The decision by FIPP to hold its next congress in Italy is also an honour as it is a recognition of Mondadori’s position as one of the world’s leading players in the magazine business,” Costa added. “Until just a few years ago we had only a marginal international role. We now operate in 22 countries and Grazia, our leading brand, has 18 editions around the world, nine of which are weeklies. This rapid and successful development is a confirmation of the validity of a strategy for international growth through partnerships with leading publishers in other countries,” concluded Costa.

With 700 associated companies and branches in 61 countries, FIPP (International Federation of the Periodical Press) today represents more than 5,000 magazines, including leading brands around the world.
The last time that Italy was chosen to host the FIPP World Magazine Congress, which is held every two years, was in 1977. Prior to New Delhi, the last four meetings were held in London, Beijing, New York and Paris.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. has today announced that, in the period between 23 and 30 September 2011, the company bought a total of 200,000 its own shares (corresponding to 0.0811% of the company’s share capital) on the automated share market at an average price of € 1.5606 per share, for a total of € 312,131.02 in the context of the authorisation of the company’s AGM, held on 21 April 2011 (previously communicated as per Art. 144 bis of Consob regulation 11971/1999), to effect share buy back operations.
The details of the operations, as conducted daily, are indicated below:

date N° of shares bought Weighted average price 23/09/2011 100,000 1.50598 26/09/2011 12,000 1.55980 28/09/2011 20,000 1.63280 29/09/2011 14,000 1.61938 30/09/2011 54,000 1.62015

Following these operations and taking account of the shares already in the portfolio, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. now directly holds 7,078,609 its own shares. A further 4,517,486 Mondadori shares are hold by the subsidiary Mondadori International S.p.A..
Consequently, as of today the total number of shares held now amounts to 11,596,095 corresponding to 4.70% of the share capital.
***
It should be noted that the Shareholders on 21 April 2011 authorised the buy back of a further 16,546,887 company shares, with respect to the shares already held, either directly or indirectly on the date of the authorisation issued by the AGM, bringing the total up to the limit of 10.52% of the present share capital.
The authorisation is valid until the meeting for the approval of the Annual Report for the year to 31 December 2011.
In line with the Shareholders’ authorisation, buy backs are effected on regulated markets as per art. 132 of the legislative decree 58/1998 and art. 144 bis, para. 1, B of Consob regulation 11971/99 according to operating procedures established by the regulations for the organisation and management of the markets themselves, which does not permit the direct combination of offers to buy with predetermined offers to sell.
It should also be noted that, in terms of price and daily volumes, acquisition operations are conducted in line with the norms foreseen by the EU regulation 2273/2003, and that, in terms of daily volumes, the company will not purchase a quantity greater than 25% of the average daily volume of Mondadori shares traded on the regulated market and calculated on the basis of the average daily volume of trading of Mondadori shares in the 20 trading days prior to the dates of purchase.