“Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts. Following this sage advice, the publishing industry can return to its former splendor, that is, as long as it does not abandon its rightful role of getting accurate news out to the public and if it embraces the courage to change that drives people to conquer fear with hope.” stated Andrea Ceccherini, President of the Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori.

“The key word of this edition is­­ “openness”- the only way to growth. Openness in a publishing world that must facilitate innovation and dialogue without building walls on one end of the spectrum or creating safe havens on the other. We are talking about openness between the hi-tech world and the publishing world. Bagnaia aims to bring about that openness which leads to dialogue. It is a dialogue with the goal of finding solutions in the interest of democracy even before the interest of the market”.

It is with these words that Andrea Ceccherini, President of the Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori introduced the key players of the 10th edition of “Growing between the lines” to be held in Borgo La Bagnaia on May 25-26. The meeting is a program rich in high international standing with the presence of recognized global leaders of the media and the journalism sectors. Once again, the numbers one of the most significant U.S. newspapers will share the stage: Dean Baquet, Executive Editor of The New York Times, Gerard Baker, Editor-in-Chief of The Wall Street Journal and Martin Baron, Executive Editor of The Washington Post. In addition, the meeting will include the news directors of the most important digital platforms in the world: Richard Gingras, Vice-President of Google News, Alex Hardiman, Facebook Director of News Products and Peter Greenberger, Twitter Global News Content Partnerships Director. The lineup of influential figures includes CEOs of the top U.S. media groups:  Mark Thompson, CEO of The New York Times, Robert Thomson CEO of NewsCorp, which also publishes The Wall Street Journal and Jeff Bewkes, CEO of the giant media conglomerate Time Warner that heads CNN. Also the  founder of the Palo Alto High School Media Arts Center Esther Wojcicki, one of the centers for excellence in the U.S. public school system, as well as Carlo d’Asaro Biondo, President of EMEA at Google will participate at the event. The program for this edition will be entirely devoted to the role of quality journalism in the digital era. The conference theme is based on words – words like Trust, Social Network, Fake-News and Media Literacy.

The distinguished guests of the Italian publishing sector include Urbano Cairo, President and CEO of Rcs MediaGroup, Marco De Benedetti, President of the GEDI Group, John Elkann, President and CEO of Exor NV and shareholder of The Economist, Andrea Riffeser Monti, CEO of Poligrafici Editoriale, Franco Moscetti, CEO of Il Sole 24 Ore and Maurizio Costa, President of the Italian Newspaper Publishers Federation (Fieg). The program will also include prominent Italian editors such as Luciano Fontana of the Corriere della Sera, Guido Gentili of Il Sole 24 Ore, Maurizio Molinari of La Stampa, Massimo Russo, Digital Division Director of the Gedi Group, Virman Cusenza of Il Messaggero and Paolo Giacomin of the Quotidiano Nazionale. Distinguished columnists include Ferruccio de Bortoli and Massimo Gaggi of the Corriere della Sera and Monica Maggioni, President of RAI, Italy’s national public broadcasting company. There will also civil society representatives in attendance: Giuseppe Guzzetti, President of Acri, Italian singer-songwriter Andrea Bocelli, Cesare Romiti, Chairman of the Italy-China Foundation and Marisa Monti Riffeser, President of the Cultural Association “Attilio Monti”.
The hosts of the two-day event on the Bagnaia stage are Stefania Pinna, Sky TG24 journalist and Sera Massimo Gramellini, Deputy Editor of the Corriere della Sera.