How do automotive interests shape the media landscape?
What's happening in Italy right now provides a particularly clear/extreme example
Repubblica is one of the top 2 Italian daily newspapers. It was owned since the 1970s by the De Benedetti family. Until 2020...
(thread)
What's happening in Italy right now provides a particularly clear/extreme example
Repubblica is one of the top 2 Italian daily newspapers. It was owned since the 1970s by the De Benedetti family. Until 2020...
(thread)
In 2020 the Editorial group that owns Repubblica was acquired by the Agnelli family - major shareholders of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
ft.com/content/945ca7…
ft.com/content/945ca7…
Note that another of the main Italian newspapers, La Stampa, has been (and still is) controlled by the Agnellis for most of its history. They also owned shares of Corriere della Sera (top daily for sales) for 30+ years.
The takeover of Repubblica has been controversial because, unlike Stampa and Corriere, historically it has been more of a leftwing newspaper.
So what has happened since the (very recent) takeover of Repubblica by FCA? Well, the editor-in-chief has been fired, despite recently having been subject of death threats from neo-fascist groups. The journalists went on strike against that decision repubblica.it/cronaca/2020/0…
Prominent columnists such as Gad Lerner are already quitting the newspaper saying that "it's changed so much in a few weeks - I don't recognise it anymore" corriere.it/cultura/20_mag…
Also, Repubblica has started a pretty aggressive (and dare I say, shameless, campaign) in favour of state aid for... carmakers in the COVID crisis
The headlines in favour of state-aid to the Italian automotive sector have been multiplying over the last few days affaritaliani.it/economia/fca-c…
Note that state-aid to FCA is rather controversial since the multinational - unique among the top global car makers - has moved its headquarters abroad to avoid taxes in its country of origin
As of 18.5, the latest news is that the Editorial Board of Repubblica wanted to publish a statement on the state-aid measures to FCA, but have been denied permission to do so by the new Editor-in-Chief...
So, according to leaked news, the Editorial Board is meeting this afternoon to discuss the possibility of... resigning en masse (!)
This story comes from IT, so international readers might be inclined to dismiss it as "well, that's Italy, everyone knows they're corrupted, not relevant to us".
But you'd be wrong to do so. The Agnellis are the biggest shareholder of... The Economist
But you'd be wrong to do so. The Agnellis are the biggest shareholder of... The Economist
Longer piece (in Italian) on the latest developments here ilfattoquotidiano.it/2020/05/18/la-…
Update: the statement of the Editorial Board has now been published on the homepage (repubblica.it/cronaca/2020/0…)
"We believe that topics linked to the owner's economic interests should be treated with care... we will monitor that the newspaper's indipendence is preserved"
"We believe that topics linked to the owner's economic interests should be treated with care... we will monitor that the newspaper's indipendence is preserved"
