SEIF‘s history began in April 2009, its shareholders founding a company with the objective of publishing a newspaper within just a few months: il Fatto Quotidiano.
An initiative of Antonio Padellaro, former director of l’Unità, the Fatto project was launched on the web in the summer of 2009 through the blog Antefatto.it and the Facebook and Twitter community, and was simultaneously presented at public meetings.
Together with a group of shareholders and entrepreneurs, from the start the initiative involved a group of journalists, including Marco Travaglio (appointed deputy editor in fall 2010 and editor in chief in February 2015), Peter Gomez (editor in chief of ilfattoquotidiano.it since June 2010), Marco Lillo and – on the managerial front – the current president and CEO Cinzia Monteverdi.
Issue number 1 hit newsstands on 23 September 2009. The newspaper has already collected 40,000 subscriptions before going to press.
The choice of the name is explained by Travaglio as a tribute to the journalist Enzo Biagi, presenter of the TV programme Il Fatto, while the logo of the child with the megaphone was inspired by Indro Montanelli’s La Voce.
The online news website ilfattoquotidiano.it, whose head office is located in Milan, debuted on 22 June 2010 and is now one of the most visited news sites in Italy, with 24.1 million unique users and a daily average of about 1.6 million (source: Censuario Audiweb – July 2018).
In November 2016, the newspaper’s publisher and editorial staff – until then based in the Prati district of Rome – moved to their new headquarters in Via di Sant’Erasmo, in the Celio district. 2016 also saw the start of diversification with the launch of a new business unit, Paper First, a publishing house specialised in texts on investigations, politics and current affairs distributed both at newsstands and bookstores.
SEIF’s diversification continued with the goal of providing various content and services to our community, but also to broaden the user base.
February 2017 saw the launch of Loft Produzioni, the new division dedicated to the production and distribution of television content and the organisation of events, and on November 3rd the launch of Loft, the subscription-based TV platform offering exclusive programmes available on the app and website. Television production is also aimed at selling shows to several major broadcasters. In December 2022, Loft became a limited liability company (Loft S.r.l.), fully owned by SEIF.
In May 2017 FQ Millennium was founded, the new monthly featuring investigations and long-form articles directed by Peter Gomez. FQ Millennium is an “open” monograph with a main subject that is analysed in all its facets. The name is a tribute to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium, the monthly that never existed and yet today is finally on newsstands.
In the following years, SEIF continued to expand its reach with new projects. In 2021, Fondazione Il Fatto Quotidiano was established with the mission of promoting humanitarian initiatives and supporting local associations. The Foundation primarily focuses on helping vulnerable social groups and responding to emergency situations.
In November 2022, Scuola del Fatto was founded, a physical and online campus conceived by professor Domenico De Masi with the goal of educating informed citizens through critical thinking. The school offers online courses on subjects such as sociology, politics, artificial intelligence, and journalism, featuring distinguished professors and collaborations with Italian universities
As part of its industrial plan to strengthen its digital community and foster user engagement, SEIF has launched significant innovation projects. In 2023, it introduced Io Scelgo, an online petition platform that enables users to bring public interest issues to widespread attention, encouraging democratic debate. In 2024, SEIF launched Il Fatto Quotidiano Web3 Community, an initiative that grants readers and subscribers access to exclusive digital experiences and advanced participatory tools.
At the same time, SEIF established a working group on artificial intelligence, a strategic research area for the company’s growth. Operating across all of SEIF’s products, the group is dedicated to developing innovative solutions for the publishing sector. Among its members is Giulio Deangeli, whose scientific expertise enhances SEIF’s research into AI applications within the digital landscape.
Today SEIF is no longer just a newspaper, but a data company that offers a range of products and services to its community and that is preparing to face the challenges of the digital revolution.