After the announcement of the agreement with Msc for the sale of 19th centurythe union representatives of what remains of the editorial group Gedi they take stock of the results of four years of management Agnelli-Elkann. Since the family De Benedetti sold the controlling stake, the group was “torn to pieces, dismantled without any strategy“, writes the ‘surviving coordination of the Gedi group’, “with newspapers with even over 100 years of history replaced by sites all centered on marketing and on the sale of products. In the past we asked this question, directly, to the CEO Maurizio Scanavino (‘why buy Gedi and then dismantle it?’), without receiving a response”. The union representatives, consequently, “no longer place any trust in the words of the current management”.
“We consider this a sad story due to the value that journalism has in a democracy,” continues the analysis. “Newspapers are not objects like others, and here we quote the words of Corrado Augias addressed to Elkann a year ago: ‘With all due respect, engineer, I think you haven’t thought enough about what it means to be a newspaper publisher () The newspapers they have a soul, you need to handle them with care’. However, what remains of the Gedi group no longer has time to waste. With each passing day, with the certification before our eyes of the publisher’s lack of strategy and interest other than that of cut costs where there is now nothing left to cut, it is a missed opportunity to relaunch the professionalism of the editorial bodies, giving them confidence in the future. Publishing is a sector in crisis, in Italy and around the world, but stability and relaunch come through the passion of those who own and manage the newspapers, having their identity and independence at heart. Qualities that, in these years of history, we have not seen. That’s why we don’t even ask anymore reassurances, which we wouldn’t believe. The drip of sales rumours, fashionable denials and then ‘sudden’ sales was a depressing sight. We just hope that all this ends soon, in the best possible way for everyone.”
Meanwhile, the editorial committee of 19th century is preparing to implement “all the actions necessary for the safeguard of jobs and current ones contractual conditions to protect the autonomy of the newspaper and the quality of the information”. The territorial secretariats of the Slc Cgil and Fistel Cisl unions for their part ask to know the details of the operation, warning: “We will not tolerate maneuvers aimed at redefining the employment perimeter of the current GNN. Once again, the concerns highlighted by workers and trade union representatives have proven to be more than legitimate and well-founded, while the Gedi group’s decision to dispose of such an important newspaper is not understandable at this time. However, it is clear that it cannot be a mere market operation, but it will be necessary to clarify as soon as possible the objectives and investments that the new management intends to make”.
The only one to gloat is the president of the Liguria Region Giovanni Toti: “I think it is excellent news for the city, for the region and for an editorial team that means a lot for Liguria. MSC is one of the most important and solid companies in the world. It is an entrepreneurial group that has a series of important collaborations with Liguria on logistics and cruises and I believe that it could be an excellent opportunity for a newspaper which evidently the current publisher has decided is no longer strategic, but which evidently finds a new solid, healthy, serious, international publisher who can only relaunch and focus on the newspaper”.
