Corriere della Sera

Corriere della Sera was first published on Sunday 5 March 1876[5] by Eugenio Torelli Viollier.[6] In 1899 the paper began to offer a weekly illustrated supplement, Domenica del Corriere.[7]

In the 1910s and 1920s, under the direction of Luigi Albertini, Corriere della Sera became the most widely read newspaper in Italy, maintaining its importance and influence into the present century.[6] It was Corriere della Sera which introduced comics in Italy in 1908 through a supplement for children, namely Corriere dei Piccoli.[8]

The newspaper's headquarters has been in the same buildings since the beginning of the 20th century, and therefore it is popularly known as "the Via Solferino newspaper" after the street where it is still located. As the name indicates, it was originally an evening paper.

During the fascist regime in Italy Corriere della Sera funded the Mussolini Prize which was awarded to the writers Ada Negri and Emilio Cecchi among the others.[9]

Mario Borsa, a militant anti-fascist, was appointed the editor-in-chief of Corriere della Sera in May 1945.[10] He was fired because of his political leanings in August 1946 and was replaced by Guglielmo Emanuel, a right-wing journalist.[10] Emanuel served in the post until 1952.[10]

In the 1950s Corriere della Sera was the organ of the conservative establishment in Italy and was strongly anti-communist and pro-NATO.[10] The paper was functional in shaping the views of the Italian upper and middle classes during this period.[10]

The owners of the Corriere della Sera, the Crespi family,[11] sold a share to RCS Media in the 1960s and was listed in the Italian stock exchange. Its main shareholders were Mediobanca, the Fiat group and some of the biggest industrial and financial groups in Italy. In 1974 the RCS Media[12] moved on to control the majority of the paper.[13]

Alberto Cavallari was the editor-in-chief of the paper during the early 1980s.[11] In 1981 the newspaper was laterally involved in the P2 scandal when it was discovered that the secret Freemason lodge had the newspaper's editor Franco Di Bella and the former owner Angelo Rizzoli on its member lists. In September 1987 the paper launched a weekly magazine supplement, Sette, which is the first in its category in Italy.[14][15] From 1987 to 1992 the editor-in-chief of Corriere della Sera was Ugo Stille.[16]

The 1988 circulation of Corriere della Sera was 715,000 copies, making it the second most read newspaper in Italy.[17] The paper started its Saturday supplement, IO Donna, in 1996.[18] In 1997 Corriere della Sera was the best-selling Italian newspaper with a circulation of 687,000 copies.[19]

Corriere della Sera had a circulation of 715,000 copies in 2001.[20] In 2002 it fell to 681,000 copies.[12] In 2003, its then editor Ferruccio de Bortoli resigned from the post.[5] The journalists and opposition politicians claimed the resignation was due to the paper's criticism of Silvio Berlusconi.[5]

In 2004, Corriere della Sera launched an online English section focusing on Italian current affairs and culture. The same year it was the best-selling newspaper in Italy with a circulation of 677,542 copies.[21] Its circulation in December 2007 was 662,253 copies.[5]

It is one of the most visited Italian-language news websites, attracting over 2,4 million readers every day.[22] The online version of the paper was the thirteenth most visited website in the country.[23]

On 24 September 2014 Corriere della Sera changed its broadsheet format to the Berliner format.[24]

On 7 March 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, Corriere della Sera leaked a draft decree to put into lockdown several northern provinces particularly affected by the virus. The leaked news sparked a panic exodus to the south, and the threat of further contagion led to a nationwide lockdown.[25]

The "Third Page" (a one page-survey dedicated to culture) used to feature a main article named Elzeviro (named after the font originally used), which over the years has published contributions from all the editors as well as major novelists, poets and journalists. On Monday, Corriere is published along with "L'Economia", a weekly finance and business magazine. On Thursday, it is published with "Sette", a current events magazine. On Sunday, it is published along with "la Lettura", a weekly literary supplement.

The Italian novelist Dino Buzzati was a journalist at the Corriere della Sera. Other notable contributors include Eugenio Montale, Curzio Malaparte, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Enzo Bettiza, Italo Calvino, Alberto Moravia, Amos Oz, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Guido Piovene, Giovanni Spadolini, Oriana Fallaci, Alessandra Farkas, Lando Ferretti, Brunella Gasperini, Enzo Biagi, Indro Montanelli, Giovanni Sartori, Paolo Brera, Francesco Alberoni, Tracy Chevalier, Goffredo Parise, Sergio Romano, Sandro Paternostro, Arturo Quintavalle, Roberto Gervaso, Alan Friedman, Tommaso Landolfi, Alberto Ronchey, Maria Grazia Cutuli, Camilla Cederna and Paolo Mieli.

Editors

Columnist & Journalists

• Corriere dei Piccoli, originally a children's supplement of the Corriere della Sera.
• List of non-English newspapers with English language subsections
• Media of Italy
• Propaganda and censorship in Italy during the First World War

• Merrill, John C. and Harold A. Fisher (1980). The world's great dailies: profiles of fifty newspapers. pp. 104–110.
• Corriere Canadese - the defunct Canadian newspaper where the infamous Vincent C. Torrieri worked. wwwenglishtraining.it

• Official website

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