Italy's Most Influential Newspaper Appoints Two Women as Co-Editors for the First Time in Its 150-Year HistoryIn a landmark shake-up at Italy's most widely read newspaper, the Corriere della Sera has appointed two women as co-editors simultaneously, a first in the paper's 150-year history. Fiorenza Sarzanini and Barbara Stefanelli have been named condirettrici under editor-in-chief Luciano Fontana, in a restructuring of the masthead that takes effect in mid-May.Stefanelli was already deputy editor and editor of Sette, the paper's Friday weekly supplement, while Sarzanini was deputy editor and one of the paper's most respected bylines on political and judicial affairs. The appointments represent the first time in over a century of the paper's existence that two co-editors have been named simultaneously.  The move carries symbolic weight at a paper that has shaped Italian public discourse since its first edition in 1876 and celebrated its 150th anniversary in March with a ceremony at La Scala attended by President Sergio Mattarella. That a reshuffle of this significance should place two women at the top of its editorial hierarchy is a statement that goes beyond internal reorganisation. A Newsroom Across Two Cities The appointments also reflect the paper's dual geographic identity: Sarzanini is based in Rome, Stefanelli in Milan. The restructuring extends further down the masthead, with deputy editor Venanzio Postiglione taking on the additional role of editor of Sette, while also remaining a columnist and coordinator of events connected to the paper's anniversary year. Davide Casati, currently head of digital at Via Solferino, is expected to be named deputy editor as part of the same reorganisation. Deputy editors Luciano Ferraro, Giampaolo Tucci and Daniele Manca remain confirmed in their roles.  Fontana's Decade and What Comes Next The reshuffle comes as Luciano Fontana enters his eleventh year at the helm of the Corriere, having passed the ten-year mark in May 2025, a tenure that made him the longest-serving consecutive editor of the paper since the postwar period. Under Fontana, the paper has navigated the digital transition, a change of ownership when Urbano Cairo's Cairo Communication took control of RCS MediaGroup in 2016, and a sustained effort to reposition the Corriere as a digital-first publication without sacrificing its authority in print. The appointment of two co-editors of this seniority suggests that Fontana, now in the later phase of a long and stable tenure, is building a succession structure around him, consolidating the senior layer of the masthead in a way that gives the paper both continuity and a clear sense of where editorial leadership might come from next. For Sarzanini and Stefanelli, the appointments crown careers spent almost entirely at Via Solferino. Sarzanini has been one of Italy's most authoritative journalists on crime, politics, and the Italian justice system for two decades. Stefanelli has combined editorial leadership with a sustained interest in culture, society, and the paper's broader identity as a cultural institution. The changes take effect in mid-May. For a newspaper that has survived fascism, P2, the digital revolution, and 150 years of Italian political turbulence, it is, by its own standards, a quiet revolution. But a real one.