Left-leaning La Repubblica and Agnelli family’s La Stampa to come together as single ‘daily and digital information’ group

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Italian newspapers La Repubblica and La Stampa will be brought together under one roof after Fiat Chrysler and CIR Holding announced that they were merging their editorial groups.

The deal would create “a leading European group in the daily and digital information industry”, CIR said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that the merger would be complete by 30 June and the dailies would keep their titles.

The most significant consolidation in Italy’s struggling print media sector since the digital revolution unites the production of country’s third and fourthbest-selling papers.

La Repubblica, founded in 1976, has a left-leaning perspective while La Stampa, first published in 1867 in industrial Turin in Italy’s north-west, is considered the voice of the billionaire Agnelli family, founders of the Fiat carmaker.

L’Espresso, publisher of Rome-based La Repubblica, and Itedi, which owns the Turin-based La Stampa, realised a combined turnover of about €750m (£585m) in 2015, CIR said.

Fiat Chrysler controls 77% of Itedi, while CIR is the parent company of L’Espresso. Rumours of the impending merger boosted shares of L’Espresso on Wednesday, which closed up 15.09% on the Milan stock exchange.