Gianni Granzotto

Gianni Granzotto (12 January 1914 - 8 March 1985)

Gianni Granzotto born Giovanni of the Friulana family in Padova, Italy on 12 January 1914 who became a journalist and writer.

Gianni spent his youth in Bologna, where he later graduated in literary arts in 1936 with a thesis on Italo Svevo, in the same year he volunteered in East Africa at the artillery regiment "Curtatone and Montanara". He then took his first steps in journalism as a correspondent for the newspaper 'Gazzetta del Popolo' in Turin, Italy.

He was later appointed director of 'L'Assalto di Bologna' (Onslaught of Bologna) followed by twenty-five years at the Genoa newspaper 'Il Lavoro'.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, to fulfill his military obligations, he worked as director of translations on the military newspaper, intended for the Albanian front (Italian colony), 'Tradotta d'Oltralpe', experience that later inspired the novel 'Vojussa, mia cara' published in 1985.

After the war he acting as envoy for Time following the Paris Peace Conference, and where he remained as correspondent of the Daily Roman as well as weekly L'Europeo until 1952.

Briefly In 1953 Gianni visits New York as a correspondent of RAI, when after two years he is recalled to Italy to participate in the development of an early television news reports, ensuring first review of foreign policy in the evening TV news - by 1960 launching the successful program Tribuna Elettorale.

In 1962 the Publishing House Rizzoli assigned him the task of preparing and then running a newspaper that would be called 'Oggi' (Today) - it never saw the light because after more than three years of work Rizzoli rejected the project.

So Gianni returns to the RAI in 1965 where they appointed him as CEO, however after the renewal of the first term, he is discharged in 1969 and returns to Italy as President of the daily paper 'Il Messaggero' (The Messenger).

In 1972 he becomes President of the Federation of Newspaper Publishers and two years later, with Indro Montanelli (1909–2001) and Guido Piovene (1907–1974) starts the newspaper 'Il Giornale' as Managing Director and then Chairman.

After Piovene's death Gianni begins to write prolifically for the editorial Mondadori publishing 'La battaglia di Lepanto' (The Battle of Lepanto) in 1975 followed by 'Carl Magno' (Charles the Great) three years later, then 'Hannibal' (1980), 'Maria Teresa, Maria Teresa' (1982), 'Cristoforo Columbus' (1984) later published as 'Christopher Columbus. The Dream and the Obsession: A Biography' (1985), and the aforementioned 'Vojussa, mia cara' (1985).

In 1976 he was appointed President of the Agency ANSA, a position he would retain until 1985.

By the end of his life he became incapacitated by an old disease that would lead to his eventual death in Lazio, Rome at the age of 71 - hepatitis - this he had contracted in Yugoslavia, where he had been sent to pursue the rift between Tito and Stalin.

1. Morto Granzotto, il giornalista che inventò la Tribuna Politica