Home Why is “bouncing content” a challenge to cultural production in Europe? A Creative Capital Interview with Daniele Di Gennaro, founder of Minimum Fax

Since it was born, over thirty years ago, Minimum Fax has studied and interpreted the transformations of human expression and communication, by observing them from a transversal perspective:  over 1300 published books, from which, through Minimum Fax Media, we have produced high-quality documentaries, films, tv-series, and cultural formats for tv shows. Today Minimum Fax is famously known as an example of excellence of independent cultural production. We started with no capital, only with the power of our ideas. 

Alongside the innovators of literature, we publish authors who express the same revolutionary force in their respective artistic fields: for example, the Minimum Fax cinema and Minimum fax music series select the voices and stories of the musicians and directors who have marked the history of their fields, from Stanley Kubrick to David Lynch, from John Coltrane to Thelonious Monk.

Each time we can, we organize gatherings to interact with our readers: we are always there at cultural festivals and book fairs, and we often organize cultural shows based on the content of our books, and what we define book-parties: the ones that we dedicate to book launchings. 

The minimum lab courses express the desire to share the processes of our work, and we do so alongside professionals from other publishing houses. A permanent laboratory of cultural and professional training: in our headquarters, we share experiences around publishing, writing, audiovisual production, events, digital, fundraising, cultural planning. These experiences also continue in the dimension of tutoring and mentorship. Through this knowledge-sharing processes, we have encouraged the creation of new jobs and cultural projects.

This interview is part of the EIT Culture & Creativity series “Creative Capital” with European Thought Leaders about the challenges and opportunities their organisation and Europe faces.

What is your company’s strategy to navigate across the multiple crises currently afflicting Europe? How is your company leveraging innovation to do so ?

“We were born with an innovation before the internet: an independent literary magazine distributed by fax in 1992, then the publishing house (minimum fax) was born in 1994, in 2005 the audiovisual production that developed editorial content (minimum fax media). Each editorial idea has been adapted for the construction of theatrical events, live festivals, training courses (minimum lab), audiovisual productions. Ideas that give life to a content publishing, that has developed on several linguistic and therefore economic levels.

And thus the foundation of the start up minimum content, and the digital project U-Night that have the goal of sharing knowledge.”

How do you invest in innovation? (e.g. in incremental steps close to markets, in disruptive innovation with long term returns, or a mixture?) Are you investing more or less than before? Briefly describe your front runner innovation coming to market next year – and why it is likely to succeed.

“We’ve always invested in scouting. Next year’s project is the app U-Night, in which there is also a strong technological component to make multimedia content available in the most immediate way. The project stems from the great need for authoritativeness that after the covid experience has increased dramatically in cultural information, invaded by a strong background noise and low quality of reviews. The night hours are the ideal environment for users to get in touch with their cultural and deepening needs. U-Night is a global project, involving all countries, with the aim of expanding the pool of potential users.”

What is your outlook for the future of your market next year, and in 5 years?  Please specify market opportunities and challenges.

“To strengthen editorial projects that give rise to live events, training courses and professional masters, audiovisual productions and so that will make bounce their content on different ways of cultural enjoyment, creating in itself strong and incisive communication plans on the viral and economic outcome.”

Which policy agendas and legal frameworks would support your global competitiveness? Please specify policies or administrative bureaucracies which can be reduced – or even abolished – without neglecting the needs for a more sustainable economy.

“For the publishing market in Italy what we already have in the audiovisual market is missing: an internal tax credit, therefore a tax credit that can be invested on personnel costs. Unfortunately publishing houses are borning without an internal reasoning group, without employees. Cultural research under the laws of cost cutting and industrial tape loses the necessary condition of exchange of skills and ideas in a psychoaffective context of encounter and presence.”

What resource would most help your company to reach its financial or other performance targets next year, and/or in 5 years?

“The meeting with investors who support the project and protect the editorial independence of the brand: often independent publishing houses come out without initial capital are “eaten” by majors who own the entire chain of bookstores, of distribution, of promotion. The paradox is that independent publishing is in the hands only of already wealthy families. Editorial talent is democratic, but the, opportunities are not so. Our goal is to ensure that other talented young people can have the luck that we had doing this job,

and to express social and cultural demands different from those of the editorial upper class.”


About EIT Culture & Creativity

EIT Culture & Creativity is the ninth Innovation Community by the European Institute of Innovation and Technfology (EIT), a body of the European Union. It is designed to strengthen and transform Europe’s Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries (CCSI) by connecting creatives and organisations to Europe’s largest innovation network. It takes a holistic and open approach to innovation – from tech to artistic driven innovations, from business to citizen driven – and reinforces the appreciation and anchoring of European values and identities. EIT Culture & Creativity will unlock latent value from a multitude of small CCSI stakeholders through technology transfer, improved cross-sectoral collaboration and their effective integration in production value networks. EIT Culture & Creativity will support technology and business innovation; artistic innovation and social innovation. It will also harness the unique position of the CCSI to facilitate the Triple Transitions in Europe – green, digital and social.

About The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)

The EIT is Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem bringing together close to 3,000 partners from top business, research and education organisations across Europe in over 80 innovation hubs. The EIT strengthens Europe’s ability to innovate by powering solutions to pressing global challenges and by nurturing entrepreneurial talent to create sustainable growth and skilled jobs in Europe. The EIT is an EU body and an integral part of Horizon Europe, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. The Institute supports dynamic pan-European partnerships, EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities, composed of leading companies, research labs and universities each dedicated to solving a pressing global challenge, from climate change to health, to renewable energy.

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