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Edizioni Hobby

The Milan publisher that brought Newsfield's Zzap! and The Games Machine to Italy

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Edizioni Hobby S.r.l. of Via della Spiga, Milan, published the Italian Zzap! from May 1986 and The Games Machine from September 1988, both under licence from Newsfield. It took Zzap! in-house in 1988, and in September 1991 both magazines appeared under the name Xenia Edizioni, which a former staff writer described as the same publishing house renamed.

Edizioni Hobby S.r.l., a publisher at Via della Spiga 20 in Milan, brought two of Newsfield’s magazines to Italy: Zzap! in May 1986 and The Games Machine in September 1988. It began by licensing a British Commodore 64 magazine and paying an outside studio to produce it. Within two years it was writing the magazine itself, and one of the two titles it launched is still published today.

Zzap! and Studio VIT

The first Italian Zzap! was dated May 1986. Its masthead named Edizioni Hobby as editore (publisher), Elisabetta Broli as direttore responsabile (the editor legally answerable for the magazine) and, under “Su licenza di:”, Newsfield’s NP logo with the words “A NEWSFIELD PUBLICATION”. Like The Games Machine two years later, it was still being registered with the Tribunale di Milano; by 1987 the masthead gave the registration as no. 251 of 10 May 1986.

The opening editorial promised that the Italian Zzap! would not be “una pedissequa edizione italiana” (a slavish Italian edition). The British magazine covered only the Commodore 64, so the Italian one would write its own articles and reviews for the other computers popular in Italy: the Spectrum, MSX machines and the Commodore 16. It admitted that the first issue was dominated by Commodore 64 games: it came out alongside the British ZZAP!64 of May 1986, carried the same material, and had been made to tight deadlines. Things would change from the next issue. It also set out the size of the market: “In Italia, secondo le ultime stime, vi sono almeno 1.200.000 home computer” (“In Italy, according to the latest estimates, there are at least 1,200,000 home computers”).

The magazine was produced for Edizioni Hobby by Studio VIT, a Milan editorial studio. By May 1987 the masthead listed Riccardo Albini as direttore and Benedetta Torrani as capo redattore (chief sub-editor), with the editorial office at Studio VIT’s address.

Bringing it in-house

The April 1988 issue opened with a farewell, “Arrivederci e grazie”. It was the last issue made by Studio VIT, “ovvero da Riccardo Albini, Alberto Rossetti e Benedetta Torrani” (“that is, by Riccardo Albini, Alberto Rossetti and Benedetta Torrani”), with their collaborators Marco Vecchi and Danilo Lamera. “Dal prossimo numero, la realizzazione di ZZAP! sarà curata internamente dall’editore stesso, le Edizioni Hobby” (“From the next issue, ZZAP! will be produced in-house by the publisher itself, Edizioni Hobby”). The departing team declined to give the reason: “Non spetta a noi spiegare le ragioni di questo cambiamento” (“It is not for us to explain the reasons for this change”). They signed off claiming that readers had made Zzap! Italy’s best-selling computer games magazine. A notice on the same page told readers to send their letters from then on to Edizioni Hobby, Casella Postale 853, Milan.

The May 1988 issue was the first from the “nuova redazione interna” (new in-house editorial team), with Bonaventura Di Bello as direttore. That PO box stayed the editorial address of both magazines for years afterwards.

The Games Machine

Four months later the same team launched the Italian The Games Machine, with Roberto Ferri as direttore responsabile and Di Bello as executive editor. Ferri’s first editorial thanked “gli amici della Newsfield che ancora una volta hanno creduto nelle nostre capacità” (“our friends at Newsfield, who once again believed in what we could do”), the “once again” pointing back to Zzap!.

The in-house operation was small. Fabio Rossi, who phoned the publisher in 1988 after reading about the new team, recalled in the final Italian Zzap! that “per più di un anno Zzap! e The Games Machine li scrivevamo solo in due” (“for more than a year just two of us wrote Zzap! and The Games Machine”), on a Mac, a Commodore 64 and an Atari ST running Macintosh emulation, with Di Bello also laying out the pages.

Becoming Xenia

The July 1991 issues were the last to name Edizioni Hobby. In September 1991, the month Newsfield went into voluntary liquidation, both magazines named Xenia Edizioni S.r.l. of Via Dell’Annunciata 31 as publisher, still “su licenza di Newsfield Publications”. From October the licence line was gone from both. Everything else stayed the same: the staff, the PO box, the editorial telephone number, the printer, the advertising agent and the distributor.

The colophons record the name change but not the business behind it. Rossi supplied one clue in December 1993, when he recalled phoning in 1988 “la casa editrice (che allora si chiamava ancora Edizioni Hobby)” (“the publishing house, which was then still called Edizioni Hobby”). On that account, Xenia Edizioni was the same publisher under a new name. The Italian Zzap! ran under Xenia until December 1993; The Games Machine is still published.

Fast facts

  • Address: Via della Spiga 20, Milan; editorial post to Casella Postale 853, Milan.
  • Titles: Zzap! (Italian edition, May 1986 to July 1991 under this name), The Games Machine (Italian edition, September 1988 to July 1991 under this name).
  • Licensor: Newsfield, Ludlow.
  • Printer: Rotolito Lombarda S.p.A., Cernusco sul Naviglio.
  • Distributor: Messaggerie Periodici for the first Zzap!; ME.PE. S.p.A., Via Famagosta 75, Milan, by 1987.
  • Advertising agent: Spazio 3, Piazzale Archinto 9, Milan.
  • Successor name: Xenia Edizioni, from September 1991.

Sources

  • Zzap! (Italy) issue 1, May 1986: p. 5, masthead; p. 9, “Prima pagina” editorial.
  • Zzap! (Italy) issue 12, May 1987: masthead (Riccardo Albini, Benedetta Torrani, Studio VIT, the registration no. 251, ME.PE. as distributor).
  • Zzap! (Italy) issue 22, April 1988: “Arrivederci e grazie” and the notice of the new address; issue 23, May 1988: masthead and “Prima pagina” on the new in-house team.
  • The Games Machine (Italy) issue 1, September 1988, p. 7: colophon and Roberto Ferri’s editorial.
  • Zzap! (Italy) issue 58, July 1991, issue 59, September 1991, and issue 60, October 1991; The Games Machine (Italy) issues 33, 34 and 35, July to October 1991: colophons.
  • Zzap! (Italy) issue 84, December 1993: “Game Over”, including Fabio Rossi’s recollections.
  • Wikipedia, “Newsfield” (web, secondary): voluntary liquidation in September 1991. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsfield

See also

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