Agreement Italia News-Il Sole 24 ORE: the first online syndication with five million unique users per month

Milan, 22 April 2008 - Il Sole 24 ORE S.p.A. and Italia News S.r.l. signed an agreement today that will give life to the first Italian online syndication in the world of journalism.

Italia News was recently formed by Monrif Net (a subsidiary of Poligrafici Editoriale S.p.A., which uses quotidiano.net to incorporate the online versions of Il Resto del Carlino, La Nazione and Il Giorno), Editrice Il Tempo (iltempo.it), S.E.P (ilsecoloxix.it) and l’Unione Editoriale S.p.A. (unionesarda.it), conceived as a web-based alliance of regional and multi-regional information sites.

Il Sole 24 ORE has been operating in the online market since 1997 with the ilsole24ore.com website, the Italian pacesetter in professional, economic and financial information. The site has expanded with a gateway dedicated to issues that broaden and complement its information offer in wider and more personal areas of interest (travel, shopping, luxury goods and fashion, lifestyles, art and cinema).

This operation has resulted in one of the most important alliances for Italian Internet users, consolidating the audience generated by the individual companies belonging to the ILSOLE24ORE.COM domain from the first day of operation.

Added to this is the www.italianews.it website, which will link to the home pages of each online newspaper, present and future, of the syndication.

Advertising sales of this new joint initiative will be handled exclusively by WebSystem, the digital division of Il Sole 24 ORE’s advertising sales agency. WebSystem, with its vast advertising network, can now claim the first and only information project based on the "glocal" model, affording businesses new communications opportunities developed concurrently in both the important national and local directions.

Upcoming objectives of Italia News and Il Sole 24 ORE  will be to further expand the syndication to other publishers interested in joining the alliance, which attracts some 5 million unique users per month.