PALERMO, Sicily (CN) - In a shock to Italian journalism and politics, two of Italy's most important daily newspapers, the left-leaning La Repubblica and liberal La Stampa, may be sold to a Greek shipping and media magnate with a conservative outlook and ties to authoritarian figures.
On Friday, La Repubblica's staff went on strike and the newspaper is set to be absent from newsstands this weekend. The previous day, La Stampa staff walked out in protest and the newspaper was not printed.
La Repubblica was founded in Rome in 1976 by Eugenio Scalfari, one of Italy's most revered journalists, and the paper helped modernize Italian journalism with hard-hitting criticism of corruption in politics. It has become the voice of the country's center-left progressive intelligentsia and electorate. The Turin-based La Stampa has roots that go back to 1867 and it is a highly respected liberal publication known for its investigative journalism and high-quality reports.
The sale of the two storied newspapers is part of a pending deal between John Elkann, the heir of the Agnelli business dynasty best known for founding the Fiat automobile company, and Greek shipping and media magnate Theodore Kyriakou.
Kyriakou is close to Greece's conservative government and heads the Antenna Group, Greece's biggest media company. Reportedly, Kyriakou's bid to take over the two newspapers and other media holdings under Elkann's GEDI Group is financed in part with funds from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which is controlled by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is accused of ordering the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Details about the deal were far from clear by Friday, but the news sent shockwaves through Italian politics and media circles with critics calling the sale a betrayal of journalism, a threat to democracy and a dangerous step toward foreign ownership of Italian media.
There were fears Kyriakou might want to close La Stampa altogether and order drastic layoffs at La Repubblica. Elkann's GEDI Group also owns other media outlets, including the online news site HuffPost, the popular Deejay radio station and Limes, a highly-regarded Italian foreign affairs magazine.
Antenna did not immediately return a message seeking comment. There was no immediate way to reach GEDI for comment.
Journalists at La Repubblica issued a statement Thursday expressing "profound dismay" at Elkann's announcement about the sale of the GEDI media company. They accused Elkann of dismantling the publication "piece by piece over the years."
"We are ready for a season of fierce struggle to protect the rights of our workers and the identity of our newspaper in the face of its sale to a foreign group with no experience in the already challenging Italian publishing landscape," the Repubblica staff said.
They demanded GEDI safeguard the newspaper against job cuts and ensure "the protection of the political and cultural identity" of the paper.
"At stake is not just a brand, but the very survival of critical thinking," the Repubblica statement read.
Journalists around Italy rallied in support of their colleagues at the beleaguered newspapers. Politicians, especially those in opposition to Italy's right-wing government led by far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, decried the pending sale as a threat to pluralism in journalism and warned major changes at the newspapers risked undermining the country's democracy.
Elly Schlein, the head of the center-left Democratic Party, blasted the GEDI Group for a series of financial decisions that had weakened the company in recent years.
"We are extremely concerned about the risks of weakening or even dismantling a fundamental pillar of democracy," she said, as reported by Italian media.
Her alarm reflected a wider concern that Italy may see the loss of two of its most prominent liberal and left-leaning publications should the sale go through.
Greek media reported that Kyriakou is known to be close to right-wing figures, including U.S. President Donald Trump. He attended a dinner hosted by the emir of Qatar in Doha in May during Trump's visit to the Middle East. He also held a dinner last month for a large delegation of Trump administration diplomats and American businessmen in conjunction with Greece's announcement that it was working with ExxonMobil to open up its waters to exploration for oil and natural gas.
A takeover of GEDI by Kyriakou would signal the first time a foreign investor has gained control of major Italian newspapers, according to Andrea Malaguti, the director at La Stampa.
Malaguti, speaking on LA7, a television news channel, said there were concerns Kyriakou might want to close La Stampa because he reportedly is not interested in newspapers.
Italy, as elsewhere, is seeing its multifaceted newspaper industry come under huge strain as readership evaporates, advertising sales plunge and people - especially the young - move to online sources for their news.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, La Repubblica and its center-right competitor, Il Corriere della Sera, both sold more than 1 million copies a day.
This year, for the first time, daily circulation for all Italian newspapers dropped to below 1 million copies, said Guido D'Ubaldo, the president of the Council of the Order of Journalists of Lazio, in an interview with Radio Radicale.
Along with plummeting sales has come a steep dropoff in advertising revenue. Print newspaper ad revenue has fallen from about $2.5 billion in 2005 to about $470 million in 2022, according to Italian government data.
Meanwhile, digital advertising has grown, but newspapers capture only a small slice of it, competing with global Big Tech giants.
D'Ubaldo warned the pending GEDI sale posed a major danger for the futures of both newspapers.
"But it's most of all a risk for democracy because if two great newspapers like these are closed at a moment when the newspaper industry is going through such hard times, then that really means our democracy is in danger," he said.
He said La Repubblica, Italy's second-most read newspaper after Il Corriere della Sera, plays a crucial role because of its critical approach to the Meloni government. By comparison, he said Il Corriere della Sera is not so confrontational.
He noted that La Stampa has made a name for itself through its investigative journalism and that it has become Italy's newspaper with the most female journalists.
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.
Source: Courthouse News Service
