Corriere dei Piccoli

Feeling that the quaint name was partly to blame, on 1 January 1972 the publisher renamed the bulk of the magazine Corriere dei Ragazzi, which hopefully would be more appealing to teenagers.

The name Corriere dei Piccoli survived as the title of a thin supplement of the publication, aimed at the younger readers, but after a few months it became an autonomous magazine again.

Throughout its history, the Corrierino published material in many genres: stories in comic strip format, illustrated tales and novels (usually in half-page to two-page weekly installments), educational material, feature columns, humor, news, reviews, readers' letters, puzzles, board games, and more.

Instead of text balloons (which were already used in the US, but were considered educationally regressive by the Italian editors), the narrative and dialogue were provided by octosyllabic rhymed couplets underneath each panel, e.g.: In time this format gave way to balloon-captioned comics, which, besides being the universal norm outside Italy, made for more lively action and dialogue, and gave more freedom to the artists in the choice of panel size and layout.

Nevertheless, strips in this "Italian format" continued to make sporadic appearances throughout the life of the magazine, generally aimed at younger readers.