TheJoan Shorenstein Barone Center PRESS. POLITICS 'PUBLICPOLICY. HarvardUniversitY JohnF. KennedySchool of Government IrurnonucrroN Sylvia Poggioli, who coversItaly and, in these Silvio Berlusconi.They're in it for money and turbulent times, central and eastem Europefor power, probably in that order. And they're National Public Radio, was a Fellow at the |oan getting both. ShorensteinBarone Center on the Press,Politics In the process,there are problems. Many and Public Policy for the fall semesterof the Italians, even some in government/ are con- 1990-1991academic year. Her researchfocused cernedthat too much power may come to rest in on pressconcentration in ltaly, but her story too few hands.One official report said: "Power of could apply with equal drama to other European inJormation could be replacedby power over countries,too. information." Poggioli'sresearch strongly Across the continent, the winds of change suggeststhat the concern is valid. Investigative have beenblowing with unprecedentedforce. reporting into businessesor interests controlled Totalitarian communism has collapsed.Ger- by the Big-Fourhas been curtailed. Some stories many has been reunited. Economic integration of are simply off-limits. western Europehovers on the near horizon. In The Big-Fouralso effectively control the "Soviet the easta new (Jnion" arisesagainst a advertisingmarket in Italy-up to 80-85% of it. backdropof tenifying uncertainty. Everywhere A new entrepreneurwishing to establish an the old political and economicsystems are being additional television network, or a new newspa- transformed.It is then no surprise that newspa- per, will find it difficult to crack the advertising pers,radio and television stations, magazines, market, and thereforenext to impossible to publishing houses-the whole, complicated challengethe existing constellation of press network of masscommunication, so intimately power. linked to politics and the creation of public fournalists find themselvesfunctioning in a policy-are also in the processof major renova- new environment of fierce competition, in tion. which professionalvalues are often undercut by Poggioli'sis a story about Italian iournalism, economic considerations.Is democracyhurt or Italian industry and finally Italian politics. Untii helpedby thesenew factors? not too many years ago,the Italian presswas, as The concentration of more and more newspa- she put it, a "politically-subsidized" institution. persand radio/television in fewer and fewer Not unlike the pressin colonial America, Italian handshas broken the back of the old system of newspapersrepresented ltalian political parties political parties controlling the press,but it has or movements. The church had its own newspa- spawneda new set of concernsand challengesin per and radio station. The Christian Democrats Europethat may undermine the recent moves had theirs. They coveredthe news, but generally toward democracy.Poggioli has taken an impor- only the news compatible with their own politi- t,rnt step with her research and report toward cal views and agendas.They were not the Italian illuminating a major economic and political equivalent of the old Pravda, but they weren't developmentin Italy and throughout Europe.It's The New York Times either. one that fascinatesus-and should concern us. Then, in the past few years,as a direct result of the drive and determination of a remarkably Marvin Kalb small, acquisitive, vigorous group of business- Edward R. Munow Prolessor men, this institution that once dependedprima- Director, foan Shorenstein Barone Centet on the rily upon political patronagehas now been Press,Politics and Public PolicY turned on its head and converted into a busi- lohn F. Kennedy School of Government "lucrative ness-to quote Poggioli, a business." Harvard University Four men dominate the news industry: Giovanni Agnelli, Carlo DeBenedetti,Raul Gardini and THE IVIEDIA IN EUROPE AFTER 1992: A CASE STUDY OF IA REPWBLICA At the end of fuly 1990,the Italian media one tycoon, developedalongside the state-run world was rockedby a caseof censorship.The networks. This was made possibleby succeeding Rizzoli publishing company, one of the biggest governments' failure-or unwillingness-to in the country, suddenly announcedit had apply antitrust laws in the publishing sectorand cancelledplans to publish L'Intrigo (The In- to the total absenceof antitrust legislation in the trigue), the story of the attempted hostile take- commercial television sector.I proposeto show over of the best-sellingItalian dally, La in this paperhow the attempted hostile takeover Repubblica. The book was written by the well- of La Repubblica brought to the attention of known joumalist Gianpaolo Pansa,deputy editor Italian public opinion and-belatedly-of Italian of.La Repubblica. politicians the new and extraordinarydevelop- The book was ready for the presses.The last ment of an unparalleledmedia concentratron galley proofs had been corrected,the cover was with political implications that are powerful but already designed,the first printing had been set still undefined.In Italy today a tiny elite of for 70,000copies, and bookstoreswere already businessbarons-newsmakers in their own making orders.Rizzoli's decision not to publish right, as well as the major advertisers-have was unexpected.A company official told Pansa becomethe major media owners. that the book was too polemical towards people with whom Rizzoli has businessrelationships.t Those "people" were Silvio Berlusconi,the In ltaly today a tiny elite of television tycoon who started from scratch and built one of the world's biggestcommercial busrnessb arons-newsmakerc television empires. in their own right, as well as Berlusconiis the man who tried to take over the maior advertisers-hav e Rizzoli's rival and the country's biggestpublish- ing company, Mondadori. The company operates becomethe maior media ownerc. fifteen dailies, thirty-five magazines-including the two maior newsweeklies- and publishes about 2,000 books ayear. And the iewel in the The Highest Degree of Media Concentration in Mondadori crown is La Repubblica the paper, the Industrialized West founded in L976,which had revolutionized The battle for control of Mondadori has a cast Italian joumalism. of charactersand ingredients that could compete Berlusconi succeededin wresting control of with the glitzy soapoperas that are the usual fare Mondadori from Carlo De Benedetti-who is on Berlusconi'stelevision networks. Pansa's also the boss of Olivetti-in |anuary 1990.For book (publishedin October 1990by another months, the power struggle grabbedheadlines. company, Sperlingand Kupfer| describespolitical But by |une, following a legal battle that is still and financial intrigues and behind-the-scenes not over/ De Benedetti was back in command of political patrons and speculateson the probable the publishing company. goalsof the Mondadori takeover.But for the In August, after fourteen years of prolonged Rizzoli publishing company L'Intfigo was akin debate and a regulatory vacuum in which to an insider's Satanic Verces-e threat to a Berlusconiflourished, the Italian Parliament delicate balanceand silent agreementsin the finally passedantitrust legislation in the broad- media world and a seriousirritant for cast media sector-a bill which more or less Berlusconi'spolitical allies. sanctionedthe existing division of the television Rizzoli means Fiat, the auto giant, and there- spoils between Berlusconi and the three state- fore its patriarch Gianni Agnelli, the most run RAI television networks. powerful industrialist in ltaly. Agnelli is owner The events of the summer of 1990marked the of the Turin dai|y La Stampa, the country's third climax of a decadeduring which newspaper biggestpaper and through Fiat's indirect control readership more than doubled and the Italian of Rizzoli, Fiat controls the Milan daily // media underwent massive transformationsfrom Corrierc della Seru,one of ltaly's oldest and a politically-subsidized pressto a lucrative most prestigiouspapers. In covering the battle businessnow controlled by non-media conglom- for Mondadori, Il Corrierc della Serahad main- erates.At the same time, a commercial televi- tained an attitude of rigorous neutrality which sion sector,dominated almost exclusively by Pansa'sbook could have jeopardized. Sylvia Poggiok 1 The attempted takeover of La Repubblica was copiesprinted in Great Britain (with a popula- "cause a c6ldbre" that dominated the nation's tion of roughly the same size!,while the fapa- headlinesfor six months. Many observersagree nesedaily Asahi Shinbun alone had more than that the operation was maneuveredby the twice the entire circulation of all Italian newspa- SocialistParty and a large faction of the Chris- pers together.And Italy had one of the lowest tian Democrat Party to silence the first truly readershipsin the West far lower than, for independentnewspaper in post-war Italy and its example,the U.S. and Sweden.a gadfly founder-editor.The operation failed, but it This situation reflected the original sin of left its mark and La Repubblica is potentially the Italian daily press,which developed(as in lessindependent than it used to be. many other Europeancountries) not as a public The Italian media today is controlled by the serviceand/or a profit-making business,but country's mafor industrialists. In addition to rather as an instrument to uphold a cause/or a Agnelli, Berlusconi and De Benedetti,there is family or political or economic interests.After Raul Gardini whose Feruzzi agribusinessgiant