After 156 years it raises the white flag. Hoepli goes into voluntary liquidation. The shareholders’ meeting of the historic Milanese publishing company has decided on the ‘voluntary dissolution of the company and its liquidation’, explaining in a note that the decision comes ‘as the result of a painful and in-depth reflection on the overall situation of the company’. This is the formula with which it closes, or at least abruptly suspends, a story that for Milan is not just a publishing brand. It is a cultural garrison, a city address, a piece of productive memory.
The company’s note does not leave much room for nuance. The ‘negative operating results correlated with the forecast trend of the publishing and book market’ and the ‘serious…