Mario Calabresi, born in Milan in 1970, is an Italian journalist and writer. He started his career in 1998 as a parliamentary correspondent for ANSA and then in 1999 he began working at the Italian newspaper la Repubblica dealing with political issues.
In fact, he was first a specialist reporter and then became deputy editor-in-chief and consequently correspondent from New York. His brilliant career led him to be executive director of La Stampa from 2009 until 2015 and of la Repubblica between 2016 and 2019. In 2011, he was awarded the È giornalismo prize.
Calabresi studied history at the University of Milan and then attended the School of Journalism in Milan, where he started what became a 25-year-old career in journalism. While he was working for La Stampa in Rome, he focused on political and international issues and spent two months in New York reporting on the aftermath of 9/11. He would then continue to cover the United States when, after gaining the position of Deputy Managing Director at La Repubblica and in this capacity expanding and organizing partnerships with other international newspaper, he assumed the role of US correspondent covering the Obama presidential election.
His remarkable job and impressive abilities characterized his role as Editor in Chief both at La Stampa and La Repubblica. When he got this role in the first one, he was at the time the youngest person ever to hold such a position. He integrated digital and print materials and resources; established partnerships with European newspapers; worked with Google to create Digital News Initiative and AMP (accelerated mobile pages) standard. During the latter, Mario Calabresi introduced a new Sunday cultural magazine (Robinson), long form journalism, podcasts and documentaries.
As a matter of fact, since 2020 – the year in which he released his newsletter, called #altrestorie, which counts more than 50,000 subscribers – he is the Editor-in-Chief of Chora Media, the first Italian podcast company.
Mario Calabresi has written 6 books and his first one is a courageous and honest memoir recounting the very personal and tragic experience of his father’s death at the hands of a terroristic act, which was translated into French, English and German, reaching the number one bestseller position in Italy.
Furthermore, he was also on the board of the World Editorial Forum (WEF) for 5 years and he worked with the Trust Project since its foundation.
Mario Calabresi has characterized his books with inspiring, brave and extraordinary stories. He has talked about common people doing incredible deeds and undertaking deep and challenging personal journeys. He has always done so with clear honesty and passion.
La Fortuna non Esiste (Luck does not exist) was written in 2009. With this book, Calabresi dives into a journey throughout the United States, following one of the most exciting presidential campaigns, collecting people’s stories about their resilience, how they were able to find the strength to pick themselves back up again, carry on and move forward after a crisis, a loss, failure or economic hardships.
In this moving and inspiring book, Calabresi reports life stories of everyday people, real stories which shaped the life of the people he met during his journey. A journey in which he passionately chases one of life’s fundamental questions: what happens when you fall? And then, how do you get back up?
"Non importa quante volte cadi. Quello che conta è la velocità con cui ti rimetti in piedi." (It doesn't matter how many times you fall. What matters is how quickly you get back on your feet.)