How is Avvenire’s positioning evolving in the Italian news landscape?

“Avvenire over the past fifteen years has embarked on a path of steady growth that has made it the fourth largest newspaper in Italy in terms of print circulation and the fifth in the paper plus digital aggregate.

Ours is a national Catholic-inspired daily newspaper spread throughout Italy, with great attention to the evolution of society, news and economic and international current events.
Inspired by Pope Francis, like him we address the major issues of Italy and the world, the Church and religions, culture and science, customs and technology, the natural environment and human rights.

We have always stood out, as we do today under the editorship of Marco Tarquinio, for our extensive in-depth coverage, thanks to numerous editorials, rich sections of the newspaper and periodical inserts: Popotus, a real news magazine for the youngest; L’economia civile, a new multimedia container that recounts the evolution of the third sector, the most innovative ethical finance, and technologies with social impact with Avvenire’s unique gaze; and soon to be released Noi in famiglia, an insert to recount weekly experiences, insights, and life stories on everything related to the family in society and the church.

Today, Avvenire is at the center of a true editorial system that in addition to the daily newspaper includes a website with a voice-reading service for articles, dedicated vertical sites, social media presence with a high rate of engagement on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles, a podcast channel, an app where the digital daily newspaper and all its local editions can be consulted, the monthly Luoghi dell’Infinito, and a book production that also includes a series in collaboration with Vita e Pensiero.

Readers have a trust relationship that few other newspapers can boast, as evidenced by the110,000 copies circulated daily and the highest percentage of subscribers among all Italian newspapers, at 80 percent of readers.

The goal of the Strategic Plan to 2024 is to maintain the positioning and authority achieved in the information landscape, all while continuing to be sustainable, reducing operating costs and developing the product and publishing business.

Certainly, like other players in the industry, we were affected by the impact of the pandemic in 2020, but although it is too early to take stock, we do see some positive signs: for example, on the digital front, we are seeing the fruits of intensive online newspaper promotion activities that consolidate a trend that was already growing spontaneously, accelerated by the effects of the pandemic.

We also believe that this experience will accelerate the process toward digitization, especially with regard to the information provided on publishers’ websites, and thus the issue of the paywall.

Finally, we believe that the print newspaper has regained positioning and we hope it can be reevaluated.”What is the response of Avvenire’s publishing system in the face of evolving information business models?“The key word is innovation, but declined in our own way.

Avvenire has always been a newspaper capable of looking ahead, often ahead of its time: this is confirmed by some insights that are still valid today.

It was born from the idea of Pope Paul VI with the merger of L’Italia of Milan and Avvenire d’Italia of Bologna: in 1968, the Pontiff wanted to create a daily newspaper that would go beyond the national to bind itself to the territory.
It was an attention to communities, to individual territories that today is a value recognized as central to many of the company’s sustainability and business strategies.
An attention to the territory and a closeness to people still confirmed today by the 13 editions in which diocesan editions are hosted.

Even our journalistic language, and the very technical methods we use, confirm this original trait, the look to tomorrow.
Alongside and together with the paper newspaper, our subscribers can read from the first minute after midnight the digital editions for tablets, smartphones and PCs, and they have at their disposal a website that is always updated and structured in in-depth dossiers, like all other readers.
In addition, we were among the first to voice content or create the app, back in 2010.

Today, we think each project from the beginning in both digital and print format, we have included the proposal of podcasts, with a dedicated site: podcasts on history, art, faith, economics and many other topics that are truly original and engaging.

But the concept of innovation for us has a deeper meaning and is very much related to the values of responsible business.”Please explain: do values and innovation complement each other toward the goal of growth?“Innovation stems from our values: it lies in our focus on people, that is, our journalists and our readers, and in words like trust, credibility and quality.

We have always been alert to detect signs of change and new directions, that’s the secret: to keep listening to readers in order to offer ever new products capable of grasping the issues that most interest them.
But above all, to do so with an uncompromising quality of information, a focus on in-depth analysis far from the logic of pure emotionalism, of sterile polemic, but responsive to readers’ genuine desire for knowledge and information.

With this in mind, the guidelines outlined in the strategic plan to 2024 are born: Avvenire as an articulate, multichannel, authoritative and sustainable disinformation source with vertical products linked to the most valuable and impactful issues.

An example of this is the new editorial product The Civil Economy, which we presented on March 3, 2021,where we treat economic issues with the unique gaze of a newspaper that has always been an authoritative interpreter of these topics.
We want to provide information in the pages of the newspaper and at the same time to provide training with authoritative in-depth coverage and to reach different targets such as young people for example, through partnerships with a number of universities: The Civil Economy lends itself precisely to being a tool to work alongside professors in training university students who will be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

In conclusion, ours is a very traditional business but one that is greatly evolving and still lacks a clear path.
Even looking at the big international newspapers, there is no clear glimpse of what the new business model for news may be.

Avvenire’s approach to content and to the reader remains the one that has led to its current success: a way of doing innovation not only based on new technologies, but with people and quality at the center, so as to maintain the authoritative source positioning built up so far.

In 2021, there will be no shortage of new inserts on current issues dealt with in an original and in-depth manner by the signatures of our newspaper who tell a harmonious vision of Italian and international reality every day, supported by a value structure that makes Avvenire unique in the Italian publishing world.”