Abstract

In January 2002 the Italian newspaper «Repubblica» started to sell a customised edition of classic books of the XX Century. A new book is issued every Wednesday, and can be purchased together with the newspaper of the day. The initiative has been very successful, and the reasons for such brilliant results are the subject matter of this article. Vaccari analyses the series' standards, the price's policy, and the communicative and distributive strategies. Then, the author reports the economic outcomes of the promotional initiative and, in conclusion, supposes its effects: an enlargement of the «readers' trade» or rather a stifling of the traditional distributive channels?