The History of Gruppo Editoriale Adnkronos

1963

July twenty-fourth. The Kronos news agency, founded by Pietro Nenni in 1951 and ADN, born in the same year on the initiative of Amintore Fanfani, both in cyclostile, merge, creating Adnkronos, a daily political and financial information agency. Its offices are in Via Flaminia 167, Rome. Director Felice Fulchignoni, Managing Director Andrea Cicala.

1966

The offices move first to Viale Bruno Buozzi and then to Piazza della Torretta. Felice Fulchignoni is the president and Sergio (Villani, Head Andrea Cicala), the director.

1968

January first. Adnkronos' news broadcasts are started using telex. The daily bulletin is still printed in offset and distributed in three daily launches: At 4 pm, at 7pm and at 9.30 pm. In this same year, the editorial staff open in Milan, first in Via Mario Pagani and then in Piazza Cavour, Palazzo della Stampa.

1970

Felice Fulchignoni exits the scene. The new editor of Adnkronos Spa is the pharmaceutical industrialist, Fulvio Bracco. The chairman of the board is Luigi De Silva, the Editorial Director, Giuseppe Marra, the political director, Sergio Milani and the Head, Andrea Cicala.

1972

Andrea Cicala leaves and Sergio Milani is appointed editor-in-chief on February 4th. Marra launches a strategy of international partnerships and makes the first agreement with The lps-Interpress Service, an agency known throughout Latin America, which was founded thanks to the collaboration of Eduardo Frei's Chilean Christian Democracy and led by Roberto Savio.

1978

Adnkronos Spa is purchased by Piemme Editoriale Finanziaria Srl, whose registered offices are in Via Principessa Clotilde 2, Rome. Members of Piemme include Giuseppe Marra and Vittorio Parrini, The director is Gianna Naccarelli.

1980

Adnkronos acquires exclusive rights for Italy of the Washington Post and Los Angeles times. Agreements are successively concluded with Xinhua/New China, with the German DPA, the Japanese JiJi Press and the Spanish Europa Press. The editor-in-chief is Umberto Cutolo.

1981

May thirteenth. Adnkronos is the first news agency in the world to announce the attack on Pope John Paul II and publish the photo of Ali Agca's gun, moments before the shooting. Giuseppe Marra, the former sole administrator of Adnkronos, also becomes editor-in-chief. Adnkronos Serviz, later called Adnkronos Comunicazione, is set up.

1989

November ninth. Adnkronos is the first Italian agency to announce the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the borders were reopened for the first time since the city was split in half.

1989

On their first trip to Italy, after the liberation from exile of Gorikij, Andrey and Yelena Bonner visit Adnkronos's editorial staff. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and his wife, human rights activists first in the Soviet Union and then in Russia, maintain intense relations with the agency through a Russian-naturalized Italian friend, Irina Alberti.

1990

Giuseppe Marra acquires 98% of the Group's holding company's stake and becomes its sole shareholder.

1991

For the first time, Adnkronos Libri, set up in 1982, publishes the best-seller The Book of Facts, the Italian edition of the World Almanac and Book of Facts, adapted for the Italian market.

1991

At 9.31 pm on January sixteenth, Adnkronos reports the imminent attack by the allied forces on Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Operation Desert Storm starts shortly after midnight.

1992

April. The third technological revolution begins: The first satellite receiving station is installed in Adnkronos' offices, which uses the Eutelsat satellite for its news broadcasts and to broadcast its video productions and magazine II Rotocalco to the 100 broadcasters of the connected television circuit.

1992

23 May. Adnkronos is the first agency to report on the attack and the death of the Judge, Giovanni Falcone. A few days previously, on his last public appearance at a conference on the fight against drugs organized by Adnkronos Conferences, the magistrate had found an anonymous threatening note under his bag.

1994

December first. Adnkronos falls victim to a cyber attack, the Falange Armata, a mysterious terrorist acronym, violates the agency's central system and blocks the terminals, preventing network transmissions. A threatening message from the Falange appears on video. The system is reactivated the following day.

1995

Adnkronos Salute is founded. The contents of Adnkronos' news is enriched by an agency specializing in medical and scientific information, which is transmitted to users by computer. In 2006 and 2009 it receives the Ischia Prize for Scientific Information.

1996

Adnkronos Servizi becomes Adnkronos Comunicazione: The professions contained therein are divided into specialist areas to meet with the new technological and communication challenges.

1996

Without abandoning its paper format, an electronic version of the Book of Facts is also released for the first time with a CD ROM edition.

1996

The Italy Global Nation Internet site, created in 1994 to network Italians around the world, is inaugurated. The project had previously been announced by the publisher Giuseppe Marra at the information conferences in New York (1994) and Berlin (1995). In spring, on the occasion of the political elections, the site secures its most important and successful test.

1997

Adnkronos Libri, in partnership with Bill Gates' Microsoft, creates the website Museionline, which wins several awards in Italy and around the world, including those of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and UNESCO. August. New Media is set up to manage and organize Adnkronos' multimedia activities.

1997

July. Piemme Editoriale, the Group holding, changes its name. It becomes known as GMC, Giuseppe Marra Communications. MAK - Multimedia Adnkronos is set up. The chairman is Giuseppe Marra and the Managing Director, Giuseppe Cossiga, who entrusts Giulio Castelli with the New Media Divisioni.

1999

The United Nations declare the International Year of Older Persons and Adnkronos Comunicazione is appointed by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers to manage the Conference, which will be attended by over 6,000 people.

2001

Labitalia is set up: Adnkronos news is enriched with the information produced by its new branch specializing in subjects relating to Work and Welfare.

2002

March, Adnkronos is the first press agency to report on the murder of Marco Biagi, the labor law expert and author of the White Paper on the labor market reform, killed in Bologna by the new Red Brigades.

2002

June. Andrea Pucci joins Giuseppe Marra and becomes co-director of the Adnkronos agency.

2002

Adnkronos receives the Ischia International Journalism Prize for the Press Agency section.

2003

A news flash by Adnkronos announces the death of Gianni Agnelli, Fiat's honorary President. The news of the disappearance of the Lawyer, an icon of Italian industry and style, goes worldwide.

2003

AkI - Adnkronos International is set up, an international multimedia agency broadcast in English and Arabic, with offices in Rome, Paris and Brussels. In its first year of operation, it was named by the Google search engine as the third most widely followed Arabic-language agency in the world.

2004

With the creation of DAK - Digital Adnkronos, all the agency's radio and television text productions become completely digitized. The dissemination of multimedia content produced by Adnkronos is extended to all existing platforms: Internet sites and portals, local and outdoor televisions, as well as TV webs, social networks, new media and the latest generation mobile platforms.

2004

January, Adnkronos Nord Est is set up for territorial communication in the strategic Triveneto area.

2004

May, the Spazio Mastai is opened in Rome - The exhibition of works competing for the new Tav station inaugurates Piazza Mastai's exhibition and conference space.

2004

Adnkronos Comunicazione joins periodic publishing with the publication of the monthly II Giornale del Golf, which becomes a point of reference in the world of Italian golf.

2006

On the occasion of the parliamentary elections in April, Adnkronos develops the "electoral comparisons" audiovisual format, the first political forum in Italy to be streamed and broadcast via agency, web, local TVs and mobile telephony.

2007

Adnkronos Comunicazione handles the national and international communication, which resultsd in Milan's Candidacy for the assignment of Expo 2015.

2009

In June, during the Italian Presidency of the EU, Adnkronos Comunicazione organizes the G8 Summit of Religious leaders (IV Summit of Religious Leaders) with all the world's religious leaders.

2009

Adnkronos Comunicazione is in charge of the press office for the Baseball World Cup due to take place in Italy for the first time.

2009

The World Swimming Championships in Rome - Adnkronos Comunicazione joins the Organizing Committee in managing on-line communication and the press office for the great international sporting event.

2009

February. The inauguration of Adnkronos' new offices in Palazzo dell'Informazione in Milan. Meneghina's offices are added to those in Bologna, Florence, Naples, Rome, Turin and Palermo.

2010

Adnkronos Digital Pr is Adnkronos' new communications division specializing in comunication via web, new media and social networks.

2010

Through AKI - Adnkronos International, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, the son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, appeals to the Pope, the Italian Government and the international community to stop his mother's execution in Iran. The appeal goes worldwide and marks the beginning of international mobilization for Sakineh, who is being held in Tabriz prison.

2010

Prometeo, the last editorial branch of the Adnkronos tree, is set up. The contents of an agency specializing in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability are added to the traditional news.

2010

August. Adnkronos reports the death of the Emeritus President, Francesco Cossiga, the protagonist of Italian politics and a man of great culture and irony. During his seven-year period, the agency, led by Pippo Marra, was a point of reference for the Quirinal Palace.

2010

Adnkronos Comunicazione is entrusted with the national and international coverage of the Shanghai Expo by the General Government Commissariat and the Municipality of Rome.

2011

May. The director and editor of Adnkronos, Giuseppe Marra, appoints the journalist Alessia Lautone to the agency's management. Adnkronos opens new television studios in Milan and Rome.

2011

A special mention of the International Biagio Agnes Prize is dedicated to the journalist, Syed Saleem Shahzad, AKI - Adnkronos International, correspondent in Paldstan, who was assassinated in May in the Punjab province.

2011

Adnkronos Comunicazione plans and produces the film, The Wizard of Esselunga, directed by Oscar-winning Giuseppe Tornatore, a short film in which the protagonists are the company's employees, working behind the scenes to prepare the counters of 150 Esse-Lunga shops.

2011

October. Doctor's Life by Adnkronos Salute, the first channel for doctors and medicine, airs on the 5k r platform. It is the first Italian television to provide a distance training service accredited to the System of Continuing Medical Education (CME).

2011

In March, a special edition of the Book of Facts is produced for the occasion of the 150 years of Italy's Unification. A month later, the first app of Adnkronos's best-seller is released.

2012

March. The Book of Facts is printed on certified FSC (Forest stewardship council) paper. May. The Book of Facts becomes multimedia and multi-channel with an on-line edition and with e-book and app versions. The 2012 Book of Facts is the most downloaded e-Book in Italy, with over 15,000 downloads.

2012

With Adnkronos News, the new application of the agency led by Giuseppe Marra, users receive free breaking news, thematic news, videos and picture galleries on their mobile phones and tablets. Adnkronos is also an editorial partner of Google Currents, the app that allows you to browse magazines and other on-line editorial content, on Android and iOS devices.

2013

April. Adnkronos announces the launch of the new www.adnkronos.com portal, which is even more interactive and multimedia. It includes thematic sections for each area of information and communication, in an avant-garde, easy-to-consult technological environment.

2013

July. The Adnkronos Agency celebrates its 50th-year anniversary and a photographic publication recounts the story for the occasion. In addition to the issue of a commemorative stamp by Poste Italiane, Maestro Plessi also pays tribute with various multimedia works created specifically, displayed in the Spazio Mastai, in an exhibition visited by institutions and numerous members of the public.

2013

On the occasion of Adnkronos' 50th anniversary, in a letter addressed to the editor, Giuseppe Marra, the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, expresses his best wishes "to an agency which has reported the news and represented the political and social reality over the years, while respecting the principles of freedom and pluralism of information enshrined within the Constitution, addressing the new challenges of communication and contributing to wider participation in democratic life."

2015

On the occasion of Milan - Expo 2015, Adnkronos Comunicazione takes care of communication for the President of Expo 2015 Sipa and the Commissioner of the Italian Pavilion.

2015

The city of Rome is awarded the 2022 Golf Ryder Cup, also thanks to the communication activities of the international candidacy by Adnkronos Comunicazione.

2016

General Michele Adinolfi is appointed to the chair of Adnkronos Comunicazione, the Group's company operating in the market of business communication and public relations.

2016

Adnkronos International signs a communications agreement with Azertac. The Adnkronos Group continues to strengthen its international presence.

2017

Mastai Spazio is completely renovated inside Palazzo dell'Informzione, the Adnkronos Group's offices. A place, which has been renowned for years for hosting and, in many cases, promoting important initiatives, from medical-scientific events and book presentations to exhibitions of contemporary artists, conferences and debates on important historical and political issues.

2018

Google co-finances Adnkronos's News Juice technology. Thanks to a semantic engine that reads, understands and summarizes news, journalists have a valid support for creating videonews, to report news to end users through all of Adnkronos' channels, as well as a dedicated YouTube channel.

2018

Adnkronos Comunicazione joins Pr Hub Assocom, the trade association that represents and promotes communication and public relations companies.

2018

The director and editor of Adnkronos, Giuseppe Marra, appoints the journalist Gian Marco Chiocci to the agency's management.

2019

Pietro Giovanni Zoroddu is appointed general manager of the Adnkronos Group and is responsible for implementing and coordinating the development and reorganization plans of all the publishing companies.

2019

Adnkronos-Europa Press Agreement. Agency news in real time, quality and evolution of information, digital communication services, a common European development project: these are the first objectives of a global strategic agreement between Spain's Europa Press and Adnkronos on signing a long-term cooperation agreement involving their respective structures at various levels and for different competences and professionalism.

2020

Adnkronos joins SocialTruth, a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary European project conceived and developed by an international consortium of 11 partners led by the Athens ICCS, whose motto is "Embedding veracity in social media and the web."

2020

Adnkronos-Emg agreement. From surveys to the latest news, from facts to analyses and vice versa: with the collaboration between Adnkronos and EMG Acqua, a new way of delivering information is born by means of facts and numbers in a combined mutual study between journalistic surveys and statistical surveys.

2020

Adnkronos takes part in Nessie (Next Generation System for Strategic Insights Exploitation), the Data Management Platform launched by UPA, an association bringing together the most important investors in advertising and communication in Italy.

2020

Roberto Luongo is appointed as the new Director of Administration, Finance and Control to oversee the operations and development of Adnkronos' companies, supporting their strategic planning and management of their technological and product innovation processes.

2021

The new adnkronos.com portal is set up. Technical tools and software change, there is a new mix of news, the editorial staff is increasingly trained on SEO techniques, and the level of user profiling allows questions to be known like never before. These are some of the features of the digital transformation that led to the birth of the new adnkronos.com portal, designed from the mobile experience to subsequently also allow computer access: It is a site "created in that moment" according to the surfing device used. Reading clarity and surfing speeds are greatly improved.

2021

Adnkronos and Media one together for information on the move. Adnkronos provides video/textual information for dissemination in OneTV's video communication systems, present in the most important railway stations.

2021

Adnkronos is the first news agency in Italy to join Google News Showcase. Adnkronos news becomes available to News Showcase users, thanks to a new partnership with Google.

2021

Globenewswire chooses Adnkronos for communication with its customers in Italy. Consequently, the Adnkronos Group joins the circuit of Intrado GlobeNewswire, one of the world's leading networks for the distribution of corporate and financial communications.

2021

Adnkronos is a Media Partner of the Milan Wine Week 2021. The agreement is signed by Milan Wine Week President, Federico Gordini and the Adnkronos Group's President, Giuseppe Marra.