Who is Aponte, the new editor of the newspaper Il Secolo XIX bought by Gedi
Why did the entrepreneur Gianluigi Aponte of the giant MSC buy the Genoa newspaper "Il Secolo XIX" from Gedi of the Exor-Elkann group? Francis Walsingham's letter
Dear director,
I am disheartened, stunned, melancholy, sad. Let's just say disappointed, yes. Reading Italian newspapers recently at your suggestion, after years of being in the United States I only read international newspapers, primarily Anglo-Saxon ones, I had formed a precise and positive, highly positive idea of the Italian entrepreneur Gianluigi Aponte: one who is self-made, who does not give interviews, who does not go on TV, who is not seen in living rooms, who does not participate in aperithink and who solemnly snubs the palaces of power, both political and economic and financial, even if recently bought Italo .
Instead today I discover that the entrepreneur – who owns a global shopping giant -, like any Angelucci, buys a local newspaper (the Genoese Secolo XIX ) from the Gedi group of the Elkann family.
Sadness. Infinite sadness.
I also had that idea from an article from months ago in the newspaper Repubblica , which thus described Aponte's entrepreneurial empire which aims to build the first world freight and passenger transport group, by sea and by land, integrated both upstream and downstream: “There is an Italian entrepreneur who in 53 years has built an empire which today, in terms of size, could compete with the American giants, Amazon, Google, Facebook. But that has nothing to do with the new economy, on the contrary. This is about old-fashioned transportation of goods and people. The entrepreneur, born in Sorrento in 1940, is called Gianluigi Aponte, the company is Msc and it is difficult even to define its perimeter, given that his companies are not listed on the stock exchange and the offices are distributed between Geneva, Luxembourg , Cyprus to escape prying eyes”.
But then I asked myself: what does Aponte have to do with a local newspaper, with a newspaper sold in and around Genoa?
Then I read Stefano Cingolani's article in the Foglio and I understand everything.
“But why the 19th century ? To answer we must take a look at the interest in Genoa and its port where it wants to invest more and more. At a summit with local authorities at Palazzo San Giorgio on 14 February, he confirmed that he is focusing on both cruises and freight traffic. But the port needs to be expanded and adapted. The construction of the new breakwater is decisive and was blocked just yesterday by the Anti-Corruption Authority. The structure is used to bring in huge container ships over 400 meters long. The current dam is 550 meters from the coast, while the new one will be 6.2 kilometers long and built at a distance of 800 meters to allow larger ships to rotate on themselves in case of manoeuvres. The Anac has targeted it from the beginning, claiming that the infrastructure was inserted illegitimately in the Genoa decree and in the Pnrr. The port authority resorted to a direct assignment of the works to the Webuild group in October 2022. For Anac, however, it would be necessary to start all over again with a new exploratory tender. The blockade causes not only delays, but enormous costs. Therefore the economic and political network that revolves around Genoa has become of primary importance and risks also having repercussions on the central government".
Does Aponte buy Genoa's Secolo XIX ? “It's as if Rocco Siffredi bought Playboy – declared Ferruccio Sansa, opposition councilor in the Liguria region – Il Secolo XIX will end up in the MSC group of shipowner Gianluigi Aponte. Billionaire with a Neapolitan heart and a wallet in Switzerland. Aponte, in addition to Secolo, purchased four other newspapers. Three of these deal with maritime economics. Certainly an economically sound property. But information as well as money requires freedom and independence. Il Secolo will have to write about the port, the main industry of its region, while the ownership of the newspaper will be in the hands of a shipping giant. On the one hand, Aponte, the shipowner, will ask those who govern the city to assign piers and create works such as the dam. On the other hand, Aponte editore should be free to criticize the very authorities from which he asks for authorizations and concessions. But in Italy the figure of the pure publisher does not exist. Who knows what will happen now to the director of Il Secolo Stefania Aloia who in recent months had dared to criticize Toti's power, simply doing her duty as an independent journalist".
Okay, at this point I expect Aponte to also give a future to Ita Airways if the acquisition of the Treasury company by the German Lufthansa ends up falling through due to the Frenchness of the European Commission . And maybe then Aponte himself will be able to give a worthy editorial future to the newspaper Repubblica as well. Because this morning I read with dismay – thanks to one of your posts on , Capital and m2o), to build a strong, innovative and dynamic digital media company".
Ah: so now Elkann's group will focus more and more on entertainment. Well, on the other hand the new course has begun on their sites some time ago and I see that it is also appearing on the historic newspapers: today in the Foreground of the newspaper La Stampa – and not on the Shows page – an interview with the singer appears Gigi D'Alessio which takes up an entire page.
If Paolo Mieli will go down in history for having – as was said at the time – wearing a miniskirt in Corriere della Sera , what will be said about the Elkann?
Oh to know…
A melancholy greeting from your Francis
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/chi-e-aponte-il-nuovo-editore-del-quotidiano-il-secolo-xix-comprato-da-gedi/ on Thu, 28 Mar 2024 10:00:38 +0000.