Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) is buying Genoese newspaper group Il Secolo XIX, which also includes shipping titles The MediTelegraph, L’Avvisatore Marittimo, Il Giornale del Ponente Ligure and TTM – Tecnologie Trasporti Mare.

Splash247.com says the move means the Gianluigi Aponte-founded company has followed in the footsteps of CMA CGM by getting into the media business.

Many Italian shipowners have investments in local media entities. The Grimaldis, for instance, who own The Grimaldi Group, one of the largest shipping passenger transport operators in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, have a stake in the monthly title Economy Magazine.

But Rodolphe Saadé, chairman of the CMA CGM Group, has been making even more sizeable investments in the media. After buying the French regional press group La Provence, the business news website La Tribune and launching La Tribune Dimanche, he is now at the helm of one of France's leading media groups, Altice Media, which he has entrusted to his wife, Véronique, to manage.

According to Le Monde, soaring sea freight prices during COVID-19, and a favorable tax regime gave the owner of the world's third-largest shipping company the means to build a media group at lightning speed.