The compass that guides us, on paper and digital, is centered on three coordinates, which are the fundamental rights of a reader: not knowing, not understanding, not getting bored. The navigation has just begun. And we are happy to have you on board this journey towards change

Carlo verdelli, today's conductor, at the special evening at Villa Necchi Campiglio in Milan

Dear readers I'm not here to tell you about Today , or not only at least. I'm here to tell you about changes. And of the fact that without the urgency of changing our gaze on what we have around us, and quite a bit also on ourselves, on the convictions we have acquired, on the privileges considered untouchable, it will be very difficult to emerge unscathed from the change of civilization, of era geology, which affects us all. Like it or not, history has inaugurated a new chapter, the digital age: it's up to us, each of us, to choose whether to stay with the dinosaurs and therefore condemn ourselves to extinction. Or adapt, evolve, question yourself and start again with another step, other horizons. I start from an evidence that I believe unites everyone. What does each of us have in our pocket or purse, such as the object from which we are no longer separated? The smart cell phone, the smartphone, a 'thing' that has now entered our lives, our habits and that not having it before is like having forgotten the house keys. Right? Here, this is the most evident sign not of a change in progress but of a change that has already taken place.

Stefano De Martino: 'The biggest change? My son' Stefano De Martino: 'The biggest change? My son'

The question is : if the time we live in is very different from what we lived 10/20 years ago, it makes sense to continue doing business, newspapers, one's profession, as if these 10/20 years were still the present, and not even so much a past next? The answer we gave ourselves with the publisher is that with Today it was worth the risk, because every change certainly involves risks but also possibilities that would otherwise remain unexplored. And we jumped in.

Oooh Today , the weekly that surprises you, the weekly that wasn't there. Better paper, more pages, new and indisputably prestigious signatures (without doing anyone an injustice, apart from Ferruccio de Bortoli who opens each issue with his mastery, I would mention for all Liliana Segre, who closes the paper with her Stanza, and is a reason of immense pride to have you with us every week). Was that enough? It wasn't enough. It was necessary to rethink a weekly that would find a different way to speak to an ever-changing public, experimenting with a language that was closer to the ambition of being a newspaper for all Italians in 2022 and to follow, with a choice of topics (from Ukraine to Binario 21, from Elisabetta's death to expensive bills) that widened the scope: 'light' situations and characters, of course, but together with themes more related to what happens in the real world, not only in the enchanted one of the star system or itchy of the gossip. Life is made up of the need to escape but also the need for clear and simple information on what is happening around us, without being ashamed to tell things with emotion, warmth, passion, ingredients that do not demean, rather give intensity to journalism for all, and therefore lazily defined as popular, as if it were a lower category, which it is not, rather the opposite. I don't go long on the subject: replace Popular with Pop, and it all adds up.

The accounts are coming back to Today ? Does the drawn map really lead anywhere? For what they're worth, the numbers for these first 8 months would say yes. There is a world outside the established routes, there is a land beyond the known sea, and inhabitants whose profiles have perhaps been underestimated, the dignity of being an interested and interesting public. Have we arrived at port? Mission accomplished? No way. Navigation has just begun and it needs a good wind and a lot of petrol to continue towards a goal which, however, as the first part of our experiment shows, is not a mirage. That land really exists, you readers really exist and you are waiting for us, on newsstands or on social media, every week and at any time, because you begin to feel part of a community in aggregation. Today's community is being built for you, thanks to a publisher who believed in it, to an editorial staff who jumped into the challenge with competence and passion, to advertising investors who are beginning to place their trust in the healthy and courageous madness of leaving the for the uncertain.

True, we live in difficult times , which cause anxiety and seem to advise caution. Yet it is not always true that when the sea swells the best solution is to stand still and wait for it to pass. One way that is perhaps worth considering, in times of uncertainty, is to dare. Going against the current instead of suffering from it. Change to keep up with the rush that other changes impose on the world and on our way of thinking about it. Change in order not to resign yourself to a slow but inexorable retreat. Change to grow. The challenge started eight months ago with Today it's all in here. Taking a newspaper that has made the history of newspapers in Italy and, respecting its magnificent tradition, bringing it into the new Evo, not on a whim but out of necessity to adapt to an irreversibly changed landscape.

Newspapers were invented to be read . Today is first and foremost a weekly to read. The compass that guides us has simple and essential instrumentation, centered on three coordinates, which are the three fundamental rights of a reader: not knowing, not understanding, not getting bored. The manifesto of this editorial adventure is summed up by the cover, which stands out from the others on the newsstand in terms of character choices, graphic style, type of title. Improve? Worse? Different.

I am here, we are here, and I ask you for your trust . We have believed in it from the very first moment and we will continue to do so, to improve ourselves, and so much, to try to surprise you, made even more determined by the fact that yes, the space for a weekly that didn't exist really does exist. There is indeed. Trying to win this challenge is obviously important for Oggi, but it is also important for the entire Italian periodical system. Winning it means that there is another possible outcome with respect to the weight loss imposed by the crisis and rising costs. The happy outcome, so to speak, passes through two verbs. The first is to change. The second is don't wait to do it.

Dear readers, we are happy to have you on board . Happy to share with you the journey that still awaits us. With Today we change. Think about it. Try it.

Source: oggi.it