From Utopia to InRete, passing through Comin and beyond. Journey among the lobbyists who created newspapers on the web. Facts, names and publications
There are lobbyists and lobbyists. There are pure lobbyists; lobbyists who also offer communication services and lobbyists who are becoming passionate about publishing. Sign of the times and perhaps also of a change that this difficult profession imposes on those who want to “affect”.
In Italy, the lobby market is thriving, especially if we think that in recent years the activities of the legislator, at different levels, have become complicated and multiplied and the interest groups, companies, need to immediately understand the scenarios and to influence those who make decisions.
For this reason, the lobbyists of our house are gearing up (here the accounts of the major companies in the sector), not only leveraging advocacy, a very complicated activity by its nature, but going directly to create “places”, which the internet allows to develop quickly and flexibly, or real newspapers on the web. TRUE-NEWS.IT: THE INRETE SITE
Let’s take the case of Inrete, a company founded by Simone Dattoli, with headquarters in Rome and Milan (where the center of its activities linked to the Lombardy Region rotates), which for some months has created a website news True-news.it, a publication registered at the Court of Milan in 2020 and directed by Fabio Massa. What True-news looks like
We read from the magazine’s website: “An overall world of relationships between content and people that remains in balance between the need to inform, the ability to create contact, authority, contemporaneity. A vertical and horizontal system, multi-channel, pop yet with selected audiences, which runs through various media (online newspaper, dedicated newsletters, Instagram news, television, radio, live events). Born from the experience of Inrete and Exclusive Srl (which gave life to the new joint venture Inpagina), it is something unique in the Italian panorama, for its authority and the ability to tell and talk to the productive part of the country “.
Among the channels of the magazine that refers to Inrete not only politics, economics and sport, but also a segment dedicated to the world of pharma and events. Among the latter, those handled directly by the agency for the most part in Lombardy. On paper, a generalist project, very ambitious from the outset, but which is already defined as “something unique” in the Italian panorama, so much so as to make rankings and report cards for native digital newspapers. THE WATCHER POST: UTOPIA’S WATCH DOG
Another initiative worth mentioning, born within the activities of Utopia Lab, a Public, Media and Legal Affairs company, founded by Giampiero Zurlo, and the online newspaper The Watcher Post, thewatcherpost.it, which aims to be the ” watchdog ”of the political and economic system. This is how the newspaper directed by Pietro Tatafiore presents itself: “The Watcher Post is a newspaper of political and economic analysis, with an eye that is always attentive also to the social and cultural phenomena of contemporaneity. The editorial objective is to respond to the demand for in-depth information that comes from institutional and non-institutional stakeholders, as well as from players in the business, associative, financial, cultural and media world. The editorial team, directed by Piero Tatafiore, and made up of journalists and communication and institutional relations professionals, supported by collaborators and editorialists who are experts in internal, foreign and economic affairs. Why the name The Watcher Post
In the aftermath of American independence, US constitutionalism with this expression wanted to represent the social function that the press, and in general those who worked in the world of information and public relations, should have carried out for civil society: to be the guardians of the system, of the “WatchDog”, that is, of the real “Guard Dogs” towards the political and economic power. This newspaper hopes to interpret this function in the best possible way “.
The watcher post offers a series of services and insights on the most varied topics, from economics to politics, passing through innovation and health. The collaboration between The Watcher Post and Utopia Studios is very synergistic, a creature on which Zurlo has worked a lot in recent months, a real schedule made up of direct, national and international press reviews, which makes use of the collaboration of editorialists and commentators such as Daniele Capezzone. DECODE39: THE BET (ALSO) BY GIANLUCA COMIN
One of the most recent experiments in the publishing and lobbying field is that of Decode39 (Geopolitical Insights from Italy, reads the newspaper), born in the context of the activities of the magazine Formiche founded by Paolo Messa. The intent of decode39.com is very high. To inform readers of the international panorama on Italian issues in English and Arabic. Often and gladly, however, you will find more than the insights the English translations of the articles of the newspaper Formiche.net directed by Giorgio Rutelli. On the other hand, Decode39 was born as a spin-off of Formiche. The publishing company Decode39 Srl was established in February 2021 and has this corporate structure: 70% of the shares of Lola Media Group, the company that controls the magazine founded by Paolo Messa, 20% of Futuro2020 Srl,
The event, introduced by @valeriacovato and moderated by Flavia Giacobbe, director of @formichenews, was the occasion for the launch of # Decode39, the first geopolitical insights site from Italy, in English (@ en_decode39) and Arabic ( @ ar_decode39) pic.twitter.com/UqMPh6mYUI
– Comin & Partners (@cominandpa) December 10, 2021
The company, with a capital of 10,000 euros, has a board of directors chaired by Federico Vincenzoni (CEO of Tuttosport) and trained by Enrico Comin (as Messa in Leonardo and son of the communicator-lobbyist Gianluca Comin, Stefano Ragugini (operational director of Formiche) and Luca Bader, former member of Leonardo’s Board of Directors and close collaborator of Paolo Gentiloni, when he was Foreign Minister and President of the Council.FROM PUBLISHING TO LOBBY: FRANCESCO DINI FOUND DINI ROMITI CONSULTING
Those who have never left the publishing and media sector and set up their own business as a lobbyist are Francesco Dini, historical head of Public Affairs of the Cir Group who refers to the De Benedetti family, who recently founded Dini Romiti Consulting with Roberta Romiti , a consulting firm with experience in the fields of Public and Regulatory Affairs and Media Relations. “Dini Romiti Consulting is specialized in economic-political analysis, in the activity of representing the positioning of your company, in the context of all the phases of the legislative and decision-making process in the institutional monitoring of the issues that interest you. Identify opportunities for public discussion with reference institutions, manages for you a network of institutional contacts with which to develop constant comparisons in the sectors of interest and defines with you the strategies and contents to support your business. Furthermore, Dini Romiti Consulting operates in the field of M&A and asset enhancement processes “. Francesco Dini is currently vice president of Fieg, the Italian federation of publishers, and is in GEDI, the publishing group that controls La Repubblica and L’Espresso owned by Exor, vice president of Elemedia (Radio Deejai, Radio Capital and Radio m2o) . Dini is also a director of Gedi News Network and is a director of ANSA and Audipress. A and asset enhancement “. Francesco Dini is currently vice president of Fieg, the Italian federation of publishers, and is in GEDI, the publishing group that controls La Repubblica and L’Espresso owned by Exor, vice president of Elemedia (Radio Deejai, Radio Capital and Radio m2o) . Dini is also a director of Gedi News Network and is a director of ANSA and Audipress. A and asset enhancement “. Francesco Dini is currently vice president of Fieg, the Italian federation of publishers, and is in GEDI, the publishing group that controls La Repubblica and L’Espresso owned by Exor, vice president of Elemedia (Radio Deejai, Radio Capital and Radio m2o) . Dini is also a director of Gedi News Network and is a director of ANSA and Audipress.
To close, Parliament is recently discussing the regulation of lobbies, a bill which provides in one of the passages, in article 4 paragraph 6 that “they cannot be registered in the Register for the representation of interests (…) Order of Journalists “. But this seems to be another story.
(Extract from an article published on Policy Maker)
