Again this year, the exhibitors and meetings at the International Book Fair had a major echo in the numerous media outlets that followed the events.

There were 2728 accredited journalists from twenty different countries. The largest delegations were from France, Switzerland, Germany and the Russian Federation, but journalists from Ukrainian, Hungarian, Romanian, Australian and Brazilian media also followed the numerous appointments in Turin. Over 2,000 articles began appearing in national newspapers on 28 April, the day of the press conference for the presentation, while there were 327 radio and TV broadcasts that talked about the International Book Fair.

The silver wedding between the International Book Fair and the RAI is aproaching. Sixty or so events, workshops and shows with people from the RAi programmes most loved by the young, the books of Rai-Eri, the daily slot on Rai5’s Cool Tour with Carlo Massarini, the music of the National Symphony Orchestra, the live broadcast of Per un pugno di Libri with Neri Marcorè on Rai3, the information on the TGR Piemonte regional news service, on Rai News and the programmes of Radio Rai (including, Tramate con Noi, Caterpillar, Fahreneit) for a total of over fifty hours of broadcasting: success with the public – beyond all expectations – for the RAI stand, with hundreds of people who packed the 900 square metres of the pavilion every day, set up at Lingotto by the RAI TV Communication and External Relations Directorate and Production Centre of Turin.

Great interest, in particular, for the presentation of the Rai-Eri books Quel che passa il convento by Sister Stella Okadar, with a speech by Paolo Bonolis; Aldilà, presented by Roberto Giacobbo; Lettere dal Don. Alla ricerca degli ultimi testimoni della tragica Campagna di Russia by Pino Scaccia. And the success of the DVDs of Commissario Montalbano was confirmed. Classic & Light sextet of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra that on Saturday evening performed pieces by Bach, Mozart, Bizet, Verdi and Strauss was also popular with the public. A separate section was reserved for children. The workshops and shows of Rai Yoyo and Rai Gulp, of Albero Azzurro and Cartoon Flakes from Rai2, and it was all sold out for Ma che bel Castello with Oreste Castagna, Bigio Grigio and Artemisia; and for E’ domenica papà with Armando Traverso were very popular - and highly colourful and lively. All these programmes were produced by the RAI TV production centre of Turin.

There was also strong participation of Radio 24 at the International Book Fair, with over 30 hours live from Spazio Radio 24. On the stage 20 presenters alternated with 80 guests and more than 2,000 members of the public. Among the most popular programmes were La Zanzara (guests Mario Borghezio, Giampiero Mughini, Michele Coppola, Luca Telese, Peter Gomez), Focus Economia (guests Mario Deaglio, Marco Polillo and Cesare De Michelis), Storiacce (guest Piero Grasso), Essere e benessere (guests Erri De Luca and Paolo Mieli) and Melog 2.0 (guests Barbara Alberti and Lidia Ravera). 25 interviews with guests at the Fair were conducted in studio 2 by Radio24 journalists.

The other media partners which followed the Fair’s projects closely, with special coverage, were Radio GRP, Radio Veronica and the magazine CoolTo.

A very important role for communication was covered by the new media. The site www.salonelibro.it was visited in the last two weeks by over 230,000 users, with 2,043,088 page views; the site confirmed its role as an important virtual showcase, thanks to the photogallery, the videos and the news of the meetings written by the students of the journalism master of the University of Turin and the young people from Polimedia Web Tv.

Contacts on the official page of the International Book Fair on Facebook were in constant growth, now the third sources of access to the internet site. The Book Fair made an “experimental” debut but greatly satisfying debut on Twitter: the Fair, was, in fact, a trending topic on Twitter Italia for three successive days. There were several thousand tweets on the event – identified with #salonelibro. According to a prudent estimate, there were between 3,000 and 5,500 daily tweets on Saturday and Sunday, the days with most messages.