Mentana and the non-competition clause with La7

Enrico Mentana can do anything, but he risks having to wait 18 months after his contract ends. Every publisher wants Mentana, but who is prepared to lose him? There is one issue to resolve, however: a non-competition clause – one of those clauses that publishers pay for over the years – which the editor-in-chief of Tg La7 signed when he joined La7. The working relationship between Director Mentana and Urbano Cairo ends on 30 December this year, and Mentana has decided to move on. Mentana himself revealed the reasons at the Dogliani Festival when he spoke of “La7 as the new Rai 3”, a television channel where a centre-right viewer feels out of place.

Italian television news is synonymous with Mentana, and there isn’t a single publisher who doesn’t think of Mentana when it comes to running television channels and daily newspapers. The publisher of La Repubblica, Theo Kyriakou, and the CEO, Mirja Cartia D’Asero, intend to launch an all-news channel, and Mentana is the most natural choice. The relationship between Cairo and Mentana has been a long-running success story. The non-competition clause would rule out him taking the helm of Italian newspapers, television channels and online publications, unless there is some flash of creativity – which is always possible. Mentana is also a publisher; he founded the Open website, and at 71 he is keen to continue producing great journalism. Regardless of the clauses.