The family Berlusconi sells 'The Journal'. Confirmation comes from Nicholas Porro, current deputy director of the newspaper, who with a tweet announced the sale of the historic newspaper founded by Indro Montanelli on 25 July 1974 after leaving Corriere della Sera. The new owner will be the family Angelucci, half healthcare industrialists and half publishers who already own “Tempo” and “Libero Quotidiano”. Recently Angelucci, through the finance company Tosinvest, sold the Corriere Group, which owns the Corriere dell'Umbria, Corriere di Siena, Corriere di Arezzo and Corriere della Maremma, to Polimedia.
Berlusconi sells Il Giornale: when?
Rumors had been circulating for some time about negotiations between the Berlusconi family, hitherto owned through a company of Paolo Berlusconi, brother of Silvio, of the newspaper Il Giornale ed Antonio Angelucci, a deputy who recently moved from Forza Italia to Lega. The operation would provide for the sale of the entire share package: Paolo Berlusconi's share (71,5%), which has already signed the agreement, the one held by Mondadori (18,4%) chaired by the daughter of the leader of Forza Italia, Marina Berlusconi, and that of the Amodei family (9,9%), advertising agency.
But the closing operation it still hasn't been there, sources inside the editorial board of the magazine have assured: it should only take place after the certification of the budget 2022 and the financial details of the operation will also depend on the losses that emerge and which could be greater than those of 2021 (about 8 million). And it is precisely the deterioration of the accounts that would have convinced the Berlusconi family to sell Il Giornale.
The appeal of Il Giornale journalists: "Securing jobs"
On December 15, the Cdr of Il Giornale had asked that any buyers guarantee the workforce. “The journalists, who are very clear that changes in the shareholding structure in information are physiological, however ask the current and historical shareholders (Paolo Berlusconi's Pbf and Mondadori) to guarantee, responsibly, the protection of jobs and the skills of an editorial team that has already seen its workforce shrink significantly (dropped from 80 to 51 editors in the last 4 years alone) and which has always contributed to remedying the publication's financial difficulties”. And then they assure: “There are many ways to guarantee the workforce in any change of ownership. We feel equally committed to asking any future buyer, because the journalists of the Giornale deserve to continue to have a real publisher. Confident of being able to continue our service to readers who, despite the times, remain numerous and passionate".
