24 Ore Group and SKY Italia: Launch of partnership for cross-media development
The top managers of the 24 ORE Group and SKY Italia, with CEOs Giuseppe Cerbone and Andrea Zappia and Directors Fabio Tamburini and Giuseppe De Bellis, have signed an agreement to launch a partnership between the two groups hinged on cross-media development and the enhancement of their respective wealth of expertise in the areas of information, content production and other publishing activities, and on the identification of opportunities and models to develop together.
The partnership will kick off on 1 June 2019 and run for 5 years, and will see the launch of a series of projects on the financial and stock market information front, on the development of co-productions between Radio 24 and Sky, and the collaboration between Sky Sport and the platforms of the 24 ORE Group.
The agreement also envisions joint operations on the commercial front between the two advertising agencies, Sky Media and 24Ore System.
"From a publishing perspective, the 24 ORE Group needs to be ready to follow, and in some cases anticipate, market changes and readers’ needs: this explains the five-year agreement with Sky Italia, which is open to future developments. We intend to be present and prepared to change, even to make ligntning changes, to meet readers’ expectations, and we want to be ready to understand the evolutions taking place in the media and anticipate trends”, explained Giuseppe Cerbone, CEO of the 24 ORE Group during the presentation of the agreement, held on 30 May at the headquarters of Il Sole 24 Ore.
“Our journey together begins”, added Fabio Tamburini, editor-in-chief of II Sole 24 Ore and director of Radio 24 and Radiocor, spelling out the details of the partnership, which will primarily leverage on finance through the journalists of II Sole 24 Ore and Radiocor, taking the form of "three daily links with Sky to deliver a daily coverage of the financial world and the markets”, and also include Radio 24, which envisions “a path to understand which radio programmes can be successful on television and vice versa”.
At the unveiling of the partnership, Andrea Zappia, CEO of Sky Italia and Chief Executive Continental Europe of the Sky Group, spoke of "two leading groups that join forces”, stating that “leadership is a highly complex matter, especially in the domestic market, which also requires the need to look ahead and not just look at the fact of simply being big and sector leaders”, stressing that the direction for two leading groups is to "be able to capitalize on the strengths they have, combine them and work as a system".
Presenting the potentials of the agreement, the director of Sky TG24 Giuseppe De Bellis hinted at “a few cues for collaboration, such as the joint work on preparing investigations and reports”, and explained that the flow of content from Sky to Il Sole 24 Ore will be "dedicated mainly to Radio 24, as well as cooperation on sports content”.