Edizioni Hobby
The Milanese publisher that licensed Newsfield's magazines for Italy
Edizioni Hobby s.r.l. of Via della Spiga, Milan, published Italian editions of Zzap! from May 1986 and The Games Machine from September 1988, both under licence from Newsfield of Ludlow. Both titles passed to Xenia Edizioni in September 1991, the year Newsfield collapsed.
Edizioni Hobby s.r.l. was a Milanese magazine publisher, of Via della Spiga 20, 20121 Milano, which held the Italian licences to two of Newsfield’s magazines.
It published Zzap! in Italy from May 1986 and The Games Machine from September 1988. Both carried the same line in the colophon — “Su licenza di NEWSFIELD PUBLICATION” — and both were registered at the Tribunale di Milano, Zzap! as no. 251 on 10 May 1986 and TGM as no. 587 on 19 September 1988.
A relationship, not a transaction
TGM’s first Italian editorial establishes that the second licence followed the first. Signed by Roberto Ferri, it credits “gli amici della Newsfield che ancora una volta hanno creduto nelle nostre capacità” — the friends at Newsfield who once again believed in our abilities. Two years of publishing Zzap! had earned the next title.
The Italian editions carried translated Newsfield material — Andrew Braybrook’s development diaries, Julian Rignall’s reportage, Gary Penn and Gary Liddon — set around Italian editorial staff and an Italian letters page. Readers wrote in to argue about Zzap!’s scores, in Italian, about British reviews.
The 1991 handover
Both titles moved to Xenia Edizioni in September 1991, the year Newsfield went into liquidation, and moved in the same month and the same manner: the September issue of each names Xenia as publisher while still printing the Newsfield licence line, and from October the licence line is gone from both. The tribunal registrations, printer, distributor and advertising agency continued unchanged.
⚠ What the colophons record is that the titles changed hands. Whether Edizioni Hobby was wound up, renamed, absorbed, or simply sold two magazines and carried on is not established here, and no Italian corporate record has been consulted.
Fast facts
- Address: Via della Spiga 20, 20121 Milano.
- Titles: Zzap! (Italian edition, from May 1986), The Games Machine (Italian edition, from September 1988).
- Licensor: Newsfield Publications, Ludlow.
- Printer: Rotolito Lombarda S.p.A., Cernusco sul Naviglio (MI).
- Distributor: ME.PE. S.p.A., Via Famagosta 75, Milano.
- Advertising: Spazio3, Piazzale Archinto 9, Milano.
- Last colophon here: July 1991.
See also
- Newsfield — the licensor
- Xenia Edizioni — took both titles in 1991
- The Games Machine (Italy)
- Zzap!64