Gianni Mazzocchi (18 November 1906 – 24 October 1984) was an Italian magazine editor-proprietor, originally from Marche, with an unusual degree of energy and entrepreneurial flair; he moved north to Milan and became a leading print-media magnate.

I had this crazy idea to come to Milan" [a][2] Very soon after arriving in Milan he met Father Giovanni Semeria who offered him, initially, work as a typist in connection with publishing and book trading work undertaken to support the "Opera nazionale per il Mezzogiorno d'Italia", a church-backed organisation devoted to running a network of orphanages and other institutions designed to alleviate the extreme poverty that was a feature of southern Italy.

[1] In his typing job he immediately drew attention to himself through his precision and accuracy, and he was soon offered a permanent position worth 600 lire a month: he was able to start paying off his debts.

[1] In the summer of 1929, learning that the original publishers of Domus were about to close down the magazine, Ponti invited Mazzocchi, whose administrative abilities he had come to admire, to take over responsibility for its publication.

A team of backers drawn from leading Milanese industrialists and cultural figures, including Ponti himself, was assembled: under the management of Gianni Mazzocchi a new company, "S.a. Editoriale Domus", was launched on 11 July 1929.

As a former director of L'Unione Sarda (a daily newspaper), a co-director of Sapere (a magazine) and a former associate of Giuseppe Ungaretti, he came with excellent connections in the Milanese media and publishing world, and his known political leanings were not disadvantageous to the business now that Italy had become a one-party dictatorship.

After January 1940, as sole owner of the business, Mazzocchi was able to undertake executive duties on his own, although Contu remained a member of the editorial management team along with Alfonso Gatto and Emilio Ceretti.

[1] In 1933 the company entered the market for women's magazines with the launch of "File" (literally, "Threads"), a monthly publication specialising in needlework directed by Emilia "Bebe" Kuster Rosselli and Emma Robbutti (the future Sra.

During the later 1930s and the war years that followed, the management structure of the "S.a. Editoriale Domus" remained a somewhat movable feast, but Mazzocchi's was the dominating presence throughout.

In 1934, continuing with themes devoted to discussion and dissemination of new ideas in domestic and industrial "home design", the group acquired "La Casa Bella" (literally, "The Beautiful House") in 1934.

)[1] Buoyed by the success of the monthly magazines, in November 1935 Mazzocchi began to publish a series of books written by leading literary figures of the time, but aimed at a mass market.

[1] Another was the young journalist Indro Montanelli who, inspired by Rudyard Kipling and his advocacy of the white man's civilising mission, had volunteered for military service in support of Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia.

Mazzocchi managed to get hold of diary pages and letters that the author had sent home to his father and, with virtually no need to adapt the resulting text, published these as a book.

In 1945 the respected journalist-politician Leo Valiani (whose own antifascist credentials were beyond impeccable) offered him the editorship of L'Italia libera, which had originated in 1943 as an illegal underground publication, but which was reinvented after the war, appearing on 26 April 1945 as a mainstream daily newspaper of the liberal centre-left.

During 1945-47 L'Italia libera had a somewhat rocky existence and Mazzocchi's experience as the editor of a major daily newspaper, although no doubt valuable, was relatively brief.

By the time L'Italia libera ceased to publish he had already become editor of L'Europeo, which he had designed with Arrigo Benedetti while Milan was still under American occupation, and which had been launched in November 1945 with an editorial by Bertrand Russell.

[1] Key to the success of L'Europeo was Mazzocchi's preparation: he assembled a number of journalists some of whom were already well-known and the rest of whom quickly made their mark.

[1] As Italy entered a period of rapid postwar economic recovery, L'Europeo succeeded with a growing readership among the intellectual elite.

[1] In 1956 Mazzocchi surrendered control of Il Mondo (without payment passing in either direction) to Nicolò Carandini and Adriano Olivetti, followinging disagreements apparently of a political nature with the editor.

[1] In 1954 Mazzocchi, who had never lost his close interest in industrial and consumer design founded "Stile industria", a magazine which under the direction of Alberto Rosselli (1921-1976) endured till 1963.

He argued powerfully and consistently for the construction of the Autostrada del Sole ("A1 highway/motorway") linking Milan to Naples via Bologna and Rome "which others considered impossible or useless".

[8] As cruising speeds increased he campaigned for an end to the widespread default design for main roads in Italy whereby most were constructed with three lanes, the outer two of which were reserved for cars travelling in a single direction, while between them the central lane was marked by the line painters to permit overtaking by vehicles travelling in either direction at the same time.

However, because of the need to fund the many consumer tests of items ranging from clothes and washing machines to pens, shirts and food, the publication was expensive to run.