What is La Gazzetta dello Sport?
La Gazzetta dello Sport is an Italian daily newspaper devoted to sport, published in Milan and printed on pink newsprint. It appears in the directory of titles audited by Accertamenti Diffusione Stampa, the body that certifies newspaper and magazine circulation in Italy, which records periodicity and publisher for each title it covers.[3]
The paper sits inside RCS MediaGroup. The clearest documentary trace of that relationship is the Giro d'Italia: the race's official site carries the credit “Copyright 2026 © RCS Sport Spa a socio unico”, describes RCS Sport as “Soggetta ad attività di direzione e coordinamento di RCS MediaGroup S.p.A.”, and shows the Gazzetta dello Sport logo in its footer.[5] Sky TG24's anniversary coverage of 3 April 2026 describes the paper as part of RCS MediaGroup, chaired by Urbano Cairo.[4]
Italy supports three separate national sports dailies — this one, Corriere dello Sport-Stadio in Rome and Tuttosport in Turin — published in three different cities. The circulation series below sets out the distance between them.
What does La Gazzetta dello Sport cover?
The paper is a general sports daily: association football dominates the news pages, with Serie A, the Italian national team and the European club competitions the recurring subjects, alongside cycling, motorsport, basketball, volleyball and Olympic sport.
Coverage of the summer transfer window is a measurable part of the business rather than an impression. Primaonline's analysis of the ADS returns for July 2026, published on 11 September 2026, attributes a “strong seasonal acceleration” in the three sports dailies' circulation to transfer-market activity, and records that the two smaller sports titles posted the largest percentage rises in the whole survey that month.[1]
Cycling coverage has an institutional form as well as an editorial one. Sky TG24's anniversary account dates the creation of the Giro d'Italia to 1909, under the paper's then director Armando Cougnet, and presents it as a response to competition from Corriere della Sera.[4] The race is today organised by RCS Sport Spa within the same group.[5] AGCOM, the Italian communications authority, adopted an updated list of events of particular relevance to society on 29 April 2026; the Giro d'Italia is on it, which means the race must be carried where at least 80 per cent of the Italian population can watch it without payment.[7]
How large is La Gazzetta dello Sport's audience?
Circulation in Italy is audited by Accertamenti Diffusione Stampa (ADS), which publishes monthly certified and declared averages by title.[3] Reporting those returns on 11 September 2026, Primaonline gave La Gazzetta dello Sport a combined print and digital circulation of 112,693 copies for July 2026, 0.2 per cent above June.[1]
An earlier point in the same series: Annuario Media Sport, reporting ADS data on 11 February 2026, recorded 120,873 copies for December 2025, a rise of 5.7 per cent.[2] The two readings are eight months apart and are quoted here as two dated observations, not as a trend the sources themselves assert.
Digital audience is measured separately. Audiweb and Audipress were consolidated into Audicom, described on its own pages as the reference point for the integrated research measuring digital, print and combined print-and-digital audiences, and no current brand-level digital audience figure for this title could be retrieved for this page.[6] The circulation figures above are therefore the only measured audience numbers stated here.
Since when has La Gazzetta dello Sport existed?
Sky TG24's anniversary coverage, published on 3 April 2026 to mark 130 years, dates the first issue to 3 April 1896 in Milan. The same account describes the title as the product of a merger between two existing papers, Il Ciclista and La Tripletta — the founding of those two papers and the merger that produced this one are different events, and only the merger date is given there.[4]
Three later dates in that account are worth keeping apart from the founding. The switch to pink paper is dated 2 January 1899, and is attributed to cost rather than design: pink newsprint was cheaper. Publication became genuinely daily in 1913. The Giro d'Italia was launched in 1909.[4]
That report also characterises the paper as the oldest sports daily in Europe. That is the characterisation of the anniversary coverage, carried here with its source rather than adopted; no independent instrument for the claim was retrieved.[4]
Why does La Gazzetta dello Sport matter in Italy's sport?
Two things can be documented rather than asserted. The first is scale relative to the other two national sports dailies: on the July 2026 ADS returns the three titles stood at 112,693, 34,852 and 20,784 copies respectively.[1] The second is that the paper's parent group runs an event on the Italian sporting calendar rather than only reporting it — RCS Sport Spa organises the Giro d'Italia, under the direction and coordination of RCS MediaGroup.[5]
That event has regulatory standing of its own. The AGCOM council decision of 29 April 2026 keeps the Giro d'Italia on the list of events that must reach at least 80 per cent of the population free to air, alongside Italy's national football team matches, the Six Nations with Italy, Formula One and MotoGP races held in Italy, and the decisive phases of the world championships in basketball, volleyball and water polo involving Italy.[7]
The paper is the oldest of the three Italian sports dailies by date of first issue, 1896 against 1924 for the Rome title and 1945 for the Turin one, and its parent group's event business, RCS Sport, organises the race the paper itself created.[4][5]
References
- Primaonline — Classifiche e trend diffusione quotidiani, ADS data for July 2026, 11 September 2026. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- Annuario Media Sport — Classifiche e trend diffusione quotidiani, ADS data for December 2025, 11 February 2026. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- ADS — Accertamenti Diffusione Stampa, directory of audited titles. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- Sky TG24 — Gazzetta dello Sport, 130 anni: una storia in rosa, dal 1896 a oggi, 3 April 2026. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- Giro d'Italia — official site, organiser credit for RCS Sport Spa. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- Audicom — Audiweb and Audipress integrated audience research. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- Calcio e Finanza — AGCOM updates the list of events to be shown free to air, 6 May 2026. Accessed 2026-09-19.