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la Repubblica (; English: "the Republic") is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper with an average circulation of 151,309 copies in May 2023. Accertamenti Diffusione Stampa, May 2023. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo, and Arnoldo Mondadori Editore as a leftist newspaper, which proclaimed itself a "newspaper-party" (giornale-partito). During the early years of la Repubblica, its political views and readership ranged from the reformist left to the extraparliamentary left. Into the 21st century, it is identified with centre-left politics, and was known for its anti-Berlusconism, and Silvio Berlusconi's personal scorn for the paper.
In April 2020, the paper was acquired by the GEDI Gruppo Editoriale of John Elkann and the Agnelli family, who is also the founder and owner of La Stampa. Maurizio Molinari, the then editor of La Stampa, was appointed as la Repubblica's editor in place of ; this prompted the resignation of several journalists opposed to this change. Under Molinari, it took a moderate line, and tried to go beyond the political left and right, and against populism. At the same time, because "information is essential to support and animate a widespread laboratory of ideas on what economic justice means today", it was concerned about economic and social inequalities. Under Molinari, it equated work on paper to digital work and followed the digital first theory. La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera are known for their fact-checking. Alongside Corriere della Sera, La Stampa, Il Sole 24 Ore, and Il Messaggero, it is one of the main national newspapers in Italy.
During the first two years, it built up a core-audience identified as members of the centre-left and the Italian Communist Party (PCI). In 1977, Scalfari decided to cater to the university student movement, so la Repubblica began its expansion. The strength of the newspaper lay particularly in the editorial comments section, which was always incisive and thought-provoking. In the meantime, Giampaolo Pansa from Corriere della Sera became the deputy director, alongside Rocca and Pirani.
In 1981, Corriere della Sera was hit by a scandal when chief editor Franco Di Bella was outed as a member of the secret masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2). This allowed la Repubblica to win extra readers and recruit a number of prestigious commentators, such as Enzo Biagi and Alberto Ronchey from Corriere della Sera. Aiming to gain top circulation in Italy, chief editor Scalfari launched new reader-friendly initiatives. There were now 40 pages, including news sections, entertainment, and sport. The newspaper was pitched as an omnibus newspaper, namely a paper catering to all types of readers. Politically, while the paper kept backing the Progressivism left, its approach to governmental parties changed; its traditional opposition to Craxi's line was coupled with overtures to Ciriaco De Mita, one of the leading figures of the left wing of the Christian Democracy party. This seemed to pay off as in 1985 la Repubblica sold an average of 372,940 copies, about 150,000 more than in 1981.
1986 marked the newspaper's tenth birthday. A special issue was released in celebration, Dieci anni 1976/1985 ("Ten Years 1976/1985"), consisting of ten files in coated paper, one per each year, with the re-issuing of many original articles. The launch was backed by a successful advertising campaign featuring a young university student seen purchasing la Repubblica. Ten years later, the same student was pictured as an adult; he is holding the same newspaper but in the meantime he worked his way up to an important managerial position in a large company. The same year saw the launch of weekly financial supplement, Affari & finanza, edited by Giuseppe Turani. la Repubblica continued the game of catch up with Corriere della Sera, and in December 1986 managed to overtake their rivals.
In 1987, la Repubblica launched a prize competition called Portfolio, a type of stock market-based lottery. Readers were encouraged to buy the newspaper daily in order to check share value. The prize turned out to cost more than the supplements earned, the latter increasing sales for one or two days a week only. la Repubblica expanded by almost 200,000 copies within three months, stretching to a total daily average of nearly 700,000. At that point, la Repubblica became the best-selling Italian newspaper. The 1988 circulation of the paper was 730,000 copies, making it the most read newspaper in Italy. At the end of the 1980s, the paper reached a circulation of 800,000 copies; by 2015, the paper had the country's second highest circulation, after Corriere della Sera, at about 275,000 copies. Corriere della Sera hit back with a free Saturday magazine and la Repubblica reciprocated with their own magazine, Venerdì, launched on 16 October 1987, the same day as Affari & Finanza. The via Solferino publishing group did not reclaim the top spot for two years.
In the following years, new publishing projects were added. la Repubblica, which up to then was not published on Monday, bought Lunedì di Repubblica for 50 million lire. This was a satirical magazine and the first real fake newspaper; it was published by Vincenzo Sparagna, author of Frigidaire. Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso at first sued Sparagna for plagiarism but lost when the court acknowledged Lunedì di Repubblica as an original masthead. The launch occurred on 10 January 1994; in this period, the newspaper had an average circulation of 660,000 copies. 1995, besides being the year of the introduction of the supplements Musica! Rock & altro and Salute, was the year of a graphical change as colour was introduced on the first page and in advertisements. In May 1996, after twenty years, Eugenio Scalfari resigned as editor-in-chief but remained an important contributor to the newspaper. He was succeeded by Ezio Mauro. That same year, the weekly women's supplement D – la Repubblica delle donne ("D – The Republic of Women") was launched.
On 14 January 1997, the online version of the newspaper, Repubblica.it, was launched. In May 2007, the paper's website was listed 11th among the top 30 brands of the month in Italy, with almost 5 million unique visitors, and being the first daily newspaper ahead of Corriere della Sera; during the same month, the paper had sold about 566,000 copies compared to the circa 594,000 copies of Corriere della Sera. By October 2007, it had become the main Italian information website, with over 10.6 million visitors, and in 2010 was the tenth most visited website in the country, ahead of Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, YouTube, and MSN.
In 2004, through a gradual process, the newspaper introduced colour in every page. This decision forced the whole Italian newspaper market to adopt similar measures. On 19 October 2007, the newspaper's graphics and layout were renovated. la Repubblica split in two newspapers: one dedicated to the news and the other (called R2) to analysis of current events. On 20 November 2007, the newspaper revealed wiretapping transcripts between certain RAI and Mediaset directors, aimed at modifying some parts of the TV scheduling of 2005 regarding the death of Pope John Paul II and the 2005 Italian regional elections.
In August 2009, Berlusconi sued the newspaper, after it published ten questions addressed to him, which he refused to answer on the grounds that they were "rhetorical, defamatory, and discrediting". Asking for €1 million in damages, the lawsuit also cited a 6 August 2009 article in which the paper described him as blackmailable, and was not limited to Italy, as his lawyer sued British, French, and Spanish outlets for publishing news about his personal life. In turn, the then opposition led by the Democratic Party asked Berlusconi to sue all of them. Mauro, one of the authors of the contested articles, commented: "Unable to answer, except with a lie, Silvio Berlusconi has decided to bring the ten questions of la Repubblica to court, thus covering up – at least in Italy – the public shame of private behavior which is at the centre of an international scandal and persecutes him politically. It is the first time, in the memory of a free country, that a politician sues the questions that are addressed to him."
In September 2011, Rome's civil court rejected Berlusconi's damage claims on the grounds that the ten questions "constitute the legitimate exercise of the right to criticize and lawful manifestation of the freedom of thought and opinion guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution". Berlusconi had insulted the paper's journalists and invited industrialists to boycott advertising in la Repubblica. The paper described it as an "unprecedented case of a political leader denouncing questions because he cannot answer". The sentence judged the ten questions to be "founded on a solid core of truthfulness ... civil and correct". The sentence concluded that "in a democratic country it is the right and duty of the press to ask those who hold political and government offices to account and explain their behavior" so that citizens can judge the public figure "not only on the carried out, but also with reference to its ethical heritage and the consistency of its behaviour".
Following the purchase of GEDI group by John Elkann, was removed from his post as editor and replaced by Maurizio Molinari in April 2020. was put at the executive role, among other changes of roles. The appointment of Molinari and the role of Elkann were criticized, and led to several journalists to resign, and the paper's former editor Carlo De Benedetti to found the Domani newspaper. Under Molinari, la Repubblica underwent several and significant changes, particularly on digital. In November 2021, both la Repubblica and La Stampa, which is also owned by Elkann's group, underwent readership losses despite Elkann's ambition plans to turn around the paper's deficits. In July 2022, Scalfari died.
In July 2023, there was a classist controversy about an article written for the paper by Elkann's father, Alain Elkann, who compared the behavior of young people he sat next to on a train to that of Landsknecht. Further controversy was caused by the young Elkann's article for La Stampa. Molinari refused to publish a letter in which the paper's journalists distanced themselves from the elder Elkann but said that he understood their reasoning.
In September 2024 Maurizio Molinari was replaced by Mario Orfeo.
After the acquisition of the paper by John Elkann in April 2020, Maurizio Molinari was appointed as the new paper's editor, in a move that saw several changes of position that were criticized, and that saw Molinari of La Stampa, which is also owned by Elkann's GEDI group, replacing . Scalfari warned the paper not to move away from its liberal-socialist positions, which he described thusly: "I have always believed in a liberal socialism, capable of uniting equality and reformism ... at the forefront in guiding the country and Europe in this direction." Critics described the Molinari appointment as the de-Scalfarization of the paper. This prompted journalists like Enrico Deaglio, , and Gad Lerner to end their cooperation with the paper. Carlo De Benedetti, a former editor of the paper, also protested the decision to appoint Molinari as the paper's editor. In May 2020, De Benedetti announced the foundation of a new newspaper called Domani.
Under Molinari, the paper took a moderate line. In his first editorial published on 25 April 2020, Molinari indicated the way to enhance both the paper and online versions of the paper, which was suffering losses in readership. He proclaimed the need to fight populism and the old and new inequalities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2020, he said: "We claim to address the crucial issues of this time. No longer dividing the world into the old right–left categories, but debating the environment, social inequalities, digital rights. la Repubblica is the gymnasium of ideas where it is possible to address these topics. It must do so by hosting multiple opinions, even if they are conflicting." Into the 2022 Italian general election, the paper under Molinari was opposed to Giorgia Meloni's politics. Elkann asked Molinari to moderate the paper's anti-Melonism to keep in line with the Agnelli family's tradition of supporting the Italian government, whether from the political left or right; Meloni's party and coalition were widely seen as the favourite to lead the next Italian government. He referenced a quote from his grandfather, Gianni Agnelli, who used to say: "We are governmental and institutional by definition."
Since 2021, ADS has abandoned the distinction between paper copy and digital copy, which has been replaced by the distinction between "individual sales" (copies paid for by the buyer) and "multiple sales" (copies paid for by third parties). With the new calculation method, circulation always exceeds print run.
| 301,565 |
| 323,469 |
| 504,098 |
| 518,907 |
| 580,966 |
| 588,275 |
| 587,268 |
| 586,419 |
| 581,102 |
| 579,269 |
| 574,717 |
| 566,811 |
| 562,494 |
| 562,857 |
| 594,213 |
| 575,447 |
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