In November 1914 the entrepreneur Giuseppe Pontremoli, a 33rd degree Freemason of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, advanced 20,000 lire for the purchase of the rotary press with which the new newspaper was printed.

Il Popolo d'Italia, advocating militarism and irredentism, received financial backing from major companies including Ansaldo and others, especially from the sugar and electrical industries, who wished for Italy to join the war.

[7] In the paper's early period, during World War I, the masthead of the newspaper carried quotes from Louis Auguste Blanqui ("Whoever has steel has bread") and Napoleon Bonaparte ("The Revolution is an idea which has found bayonets!").

Today the documents found attest to the payment of contributions from Italian industrialists interested in increasing military expenses for Italy's desired entry into the war; among these stand out the names of Carlo Esterle (Edison company), Emilio Bruzzone (Società siderurgica di Savona and Italian Society for the Indigenous Sugar Industry, of which Eridania was the most important member), Giovanni Agnelli (Fiat), Pio Perrone (Ansaldo) and Emanuele Vittorio Parodi (Acciaierie Odero).

[10] During his time in power, Mussolini often wrote anonymously for Il Popolo d'Italia, such as when he mocked a proposal for an Italian copy of "Heil Hitler",[11] or to spread his ideas about Italy increasing its birth rate.