Il Sole 24 Ore
Italian center-right, pro-business
Background
Il Sole traces its origins to August 1865, when Milan textile and silk entrepreneurs launched it as a liberal economic newspaper. Confindustria's own postwar paper, 24 Ore, founded in 1946, merged with Il Sole in November 1965 to create the current title. Confindustria has remained the controlling owner ever since, anchoring the paper's consistent pro-employer, free-market editorial stance. In 2007 the parent company went public on Borsa Italiana, though Confindustria kept majority control. At its peak in the mid-2000s Il Sole 24 Ore was Italy's most-read daily and was ranked Europe's highest-circulation financial newspaper in 2006. A serious credibility crisis emerged in 2017 when editor Roberto Napoletano resigned after investigations revealed that print circulation figures had been inflated by up to 30% through bundled-sales practices, drawing scrutiny from Italy's antitrust regulator. Despite its employer-federation ownership, the paper has maintained a reputation for political independence—keeping critical distance from populist figures including Silvio Berlusconi—and for eight consecutive years through 2025 the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism ranked it Italy's most trusted news source. Today the Group is a multimedia operation encompassing the flagship newspaper, the Radio 24 station, professional databases, and the Radiocor news wire.
Sources
- Il Sole 24 Ore - Wikipedia
- Il Sole 24 Ore - Bias and Credibility - Media Bias/Fact Check
- History | Il Sole 24 ORE Group
- Il Sole 24 Ore as a Success Model - European Journalism Observatory
- Il Sole 24 Ore Group closes 2025 with profit of EUR 4M, revenue of EUR 213.9M
- Promoted voluntary total takeover bid on special shares of 'Il Sole 24 ore S.p.A.' | Confindustria
- 1865–2025: Il Sole 24 Ore celebrates its first 160 years | 24 Ore System
Profile compiled 2026-07-04; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.