What are the Caltagirone al Messaggero up to? Publisher interference in business pages? Stragulp!
The Professione Reporter website, also animated by journalists who have worked on Il Messaggero, writes that the publisher of the Roman newspaper, therefore the Caltagirone group, "views the economic pages" of the Messaggero in the mid-afternoon. Really? All normal? Also for the order of journalists? Facts, names and insights on the sidelines of the resignation (or dismissal?) of Deputy Director De Paolini
What really happens to the Messenger of Caltagirone?
The Caltagirone group, publisher of the Messaggero , has announced ( with some satisfaction ) that it has received the resignation of Osvaldo De Paolini, deputy director of the Roman daily, journalist and long-time economic-financial director. News that has taken everyone by surprise, according to the reconstructions of Prima Comunicazione , who wrote: "Well-informed sources report […] that until the late afternoon [of June 6, ed ] De Paolini was regularly at his post in via del Tritone, he normally carried out his usual duties and nothing foreshadowed the tear". In truth, among insiders, some frictions had been known for some time – after so much and passionate sympathy – between the editor and the leading journalist of the Roman newspaper, so much so that for some time the editorial group had been looking for a figure who before or then it could replace the mastery of De Paolini.
WHAT DO THE CALTAGIRONE COMBINE WITH THE MESSENGER?
However, something significant must have happened at the top management of Il Messaggero , and something even more significant was brought to light by the website of the "Professione reporter" cultural association, founded on 12 March 2021 by journalists Raffaele Fiengo, Alberto Ferrigolo, Andrea Garibaldi (who for years worked at Il Messaggero in various roles, as evidenced by LinkedIn), Giampiero Gramaglia, Vittorio Roidi (who began his career at Il Messaggero ), "in order to contribute to the study and the relaunch of journalism" also based on the experience carried out by the homonymous unrecognized association born in April 2019.
They are all senior signatures, who therefore know well both how 'editorial life' unfolds, and how the origin of news is checked and ascertained. Also because many of them, such as Roidi and Garibaldi, for example, have passed through via del Tritone, the headquarters of the Roman newspaper at the center of attention. In short, theirs is not a gossip site: what we read has passed the scrutiny of the case. And here, precisely with reference to the torpedoing of De Paolini by the Caltagirones, one of their articles brings out background news that seems juicier and tastier than the main course and leads to worrying questions about the management of the Messaggero.
After having underlined how "The editor of Il Messaggero Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone" has "used to the change of top management of his newspapers in the blink of an eye", the article reads: "The economic pages are viewed by the editor every day at mid-afternoon". A shiver runs down your spine, even in a country where conflict of interest is the norm and not the exception.
QUESTIONS WHICH WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE ANSWERS
How would it be to say that the publisher views the pages in the mid-afternoon? And what is meant by “viewing”? Does he limit himself to previewing them, without waiting for the newspaper at the newsstand the next day? Does it bite us? Does it decide the hierarchy of the news, dimensions, titles and bolts? Do you only view the economics and finance section or also the Molto Economia supplement and also the economics and finance articles that appear for a few days in the first section of the newspaper? And who views the pages? The director, the deputy director responsible for economics or the editor-in-chief of economics? But above all, who 'views' those pages? Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, president of the Caltagirone Group, or his daughter Azzurra, managing director of Caltagirone Editore, vice president of Caltagirone SpA, managing director of Il Messaggero and president of Il Gazzettino , present on the boards of directors of Banca Generali , of Cementir Holding, of other companies of the Caltagirone Group and the Musica per Roma Foundation?
The ramification of the group is as follows – ranging from large works such as Vianini Lavori and cement via Cementir up to the investments in Assicurazioni Generali, Banco Bpm, Anima (the managed savings funds), with relationships which, as mentioned by Start Magazine , even reach China – that the conflict of interest for those who also choose to operate in the publishing sector is already around the corner in itself.
If then, instead of acting as an enlightened publisher, he peeps into the daily affairs of the editorial staff, then here we have a potential bomb on our hands capable of overwhelming the seriousness of the publication and the credibility of the editorial staff, the rules of conduct and those of the code of ethics protecting the independence of journalists.
In short, if what is written is true – and why doubt it? – we should hear the criticisms, with annexed complaints and inquiries, from the heads of the Order of Journalists, and perhaps even the remarks of the federation of publishers.
Then there remains a question to ask: Professione Reporter writes generically "The economic pages are viewed by the editor every day in mid-afternoon". Well, it's true that the newspaper closes late at night and this can change the way we live and understand the day, but the expression "mid-afternoon" can hardly mean past 6 pm (not even in Spain, where even the siesta he makes it start at 4pm and dinner around 10pm), closing time for stock market trading.
In short, considering the ramifications of the group and the economic and financial interests at stake, discovering in this way that the publisher with stock exchanges still open has preview access to information and scoops (typical of the pieces by De Paolini and Rosario Dimito, finance correspondent known for its exclusive news) sensitive from a stock market point of view further increases the seriousness of the facts reported by Professione Reporter .
Knock knock , is everything normal?
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/che-combinano-i-caltagirone-al-messaggero-ingerenze-delleditore-nelle-pagine-economiche-stragulp/ on Thu, 08 Jun 2023 10:35:05 +0000.