National and regional (local) media markets are strictly intertwined. In particular, with regards to news media, it is quite hard to disentangle local and national levels. Many papers, for example, have local readership, but they also cover national news.
Several national editorial groups (such as Monrif, Gedi, or Caltagirone) in print media also play an important role at the local level. These are mainly groups that publish national newspapers as well as regional newspapers. In three regions, Tuscany, Piedmont, and Emilia-Romagna, the main source of local information for citizens is the daily newspaper. However, in all these cases, the newspaper identified as the main source of local information belongs to a national publisher, and the newspaper contains both national and local news. These are Monrif in Emilia-Romagna (Il Resto del Carlino) and Toscana (La Nazione) and Gedi in Piedmont (La Stampa) (Agcom, 2018a: 30). Local and regional television consists of approximately 400 companies, which focus primarily on the wealthier metropolitan markets, such as Piemonte, Lombardia, and Lazio.
With regards to television news, however, the third channel of the public broadcaster RAI is virtually in a monopoly position. Notwithstanding some regional or local television outlets that broadcast news in each region, the regional RAI newscast is in an undisputed position of strength thanks to the availability of resources and in terms of audience. In recent research carried out by Agcom (2018a), RAI emerged as the leading media outlet for local information in 14 of 21 regions. Although the public service company offers regional information content in specific and delimited time windows (after lunchtime and before prime time), the regional RAI newscast represents a primary reference point for most Italian citizens (Agcom, 2018a).
With regards to radio broadcasting, 2018 data show that at the local level, there are almost a thousand broadcasters (publishers) and almost 1,300 radio brands (radio). Unfortunately, figures about local news radio are not available, but we know the audience is highly fragmented, and therefore the weight of individual publishers is quite marginal.
Agcom (2018d) has evaluated the relevance of (national and local) media groups in each region, by estimating the Total News Audience Index, namely the percentage of the population reached for information purposes in a given region by any editorial title held by the companies in all information media (newspapers, television, and radio channels). Findings show that the regional market is composite, mainly driven by the regional RAI newscast that scores the higher level of audience (38%), even though national media groups (such as Gedi, 16%, and Monrif, 5%) play a relevant role at the regional level also.
