From videotapes in Telecolor studios to Wall Street rooms, through the relaunch of local broadcasters in difficulty and the construction of an editorial group present in many Italian regions. The professional history of Simone Baronio is marked by the ability to cross different worlds without giving up a fundamental conviction: an enterprise is born from passion and grows through work, but it also needs that unpredictable component that he himself does not hesitate to call “luck”.
Speaking to the microphones of the podcast Ritratto de ilNewyorkese, Baronio told his family roots, the future of local information and the birth of Montenapoleone Profumi Milano, the new entrepreneurial bet that brought him to New York.
His journey began in the company founded by his parents Pierluigi and Antonella, who in 1984 gave life to Telecolor, a historical Lombard issuer still today led by the family. Baron does not hide from entering the world of very young work: «I came out of high school with classic 36 and a great passion for lime. After the military service, my father hired me to Telecolor and from that moment all my experience began in the world of local broadcasters. I was 19 years old, today I have forty: so let’s talk almost thirty years ago”.
An entrance from the lower step, without shortcuts: “I started on the technical side. In the morning I took care of the tapes, because at the time the televisions still worked with the videotapes. For five or six years I worked in the technical field of Telecolor».
He was able to learn from the inside every component of a television, from the technical side to the editorial staff, to the production and management of the company. “It happened my father moved me first into the journalistic part, where I had the opportunity to learn the craft and the art of journalism, and then in the productive and managerial part of the company. I have crossed virtually all sectors that make up a local issuer. It was a complete training, because it allowed me to know technical work, journalistic work, production and finally management”.
In those years Baronio also participated in important operations, such as the acquisition of Telereporter by the Profit group and its relaunch among the ten most followed local broadcasters in Italy.
The real professional emancipation from the family arrived about ten years ago, when Baronius decided to take on the responsibility of isTV, historical broadcaster of Emilia-Romagna: “At that moment I was the son who, as it is right, was still under the protective wing of his parents. I therefore chose to leave that dimension and to assume directly the responsibility of a company”. The initial situation was complex, with seventeen or eighteen employees, financial difficulties and the risk of dismissal: “Today the company is well, it continues to generate useful, it is the first to listen and is placed on the first LCN reserved for local televisions in Emilia-Romagna. It is a result that makes me very proud.”.
Even more difficult was the challenge of èTV Marche, almost unexpectedly entered the perimeter of the operation. The initial numbers seemed to leave little room for optimism: about 800 thousand euros of costs in front of just 200 thousand euros of turnover: “I told the boys that I would do everything I could to help them, but I also added that, observing those numbers, the enterprise seemed objectively impossible”. The result, however, was a complete relaunch: “Thanks to some skill and so much luck, we all managed together not only to save it, but also to bring it to regime”. The broadcaster has become the first to listen to the Marches, while the staff has passed from eight to sixteen units: “It is one of the professional experiences I am most proud of.”.
Just luck occupies a central place in Baronio’s entrepreneurial conception. Not as an alternative to work or decision-making, but as a necessary element for a project to really find its way: “A lucky entrepreneur, I think, is not going anywhere. Of course, we must work, take responsibility and make decisions, but there are moments in which events must also be framed in the right way”.
The editorial path is then merged into the Netweek project, built together with Marco and Giovanni Sciscione. On the basis of collaboration, even before corporate interests, there is a consolidated personal link over time: “Marco and Giovanni Sciscione, and Marco in particular, are first of all friends. Our relationships were born long before professional collaboration. In 2015 Marco was my wedding witness. When there is an authentic trust base it is easier to deal with complex operations together, although of course friendship and work must always be managed with great attention and responsibility”.
In the project Baronio has brought isTV Rete 7 and isTV Marche, entering the company listed Netweek S.p.A. alongside the two reference partners.
The model chosen by the group is defined “glocal”: a national network built not by erasing territorial identities, but by enhancing them: “Our goal, from which we are not far away, is to get to cover all Italy, however, starting from local editorials. We do not want to eliminate or weaken the local reality, because we strongly believe in its value. We want exactly the opposite: to build a national dimension through so many realities rooted in the territories”.
Italy, in its vision, cannot be told only through Rome and Milan: “The country is composed of territories, provinces, cities, administrators, enterprises and communities that need to be told with competence and continuity”.
According to Baronio, local information today enjoys better health than the past and has found centrality especially during the pandemic: “At that time it was understood that people wanted to know what was happening near them. They wanted to know the situation of the peasants in their own municipality, in their neighborhood or in their own province”. When news directly affects everyday life, the public seeks sources that can really know the territory and tell it with precision and responsibility”.
Digital growth does not necessarily pose a threat to traditional publishers. On the contrary, the amount of unchecked content could bring the value of professional journalism to the centre: “Today there is too much confusion on the web. Everything is found and the opposite of everything, they circulate many fake news and often it is difficult to distinguish an information verified by a simple opinion or a content built exclusively to get views. Traditional editors and professional journalists respect the rules: verify the sources, check that a news is true, listen to the different parts and assume the responsibility of what they publish”.
For Baronius, the space occupied by the so-called “fuffaguru” is destined to be reduced: “People are returning to want true, verified and recognizable news”.
After almost thirty years in publishing, Baron has chosen to confront a completely different sector: that of artistic perfumery. The idea was born of a personal experience lived during the Covid, when it completely lost the smell and taste: “I had never really understood how important smell and taste were. I ate anything without feeling anything and suddenly realized how much those senses were related to the quality of our lives.” The decisive moment came one evening on the couch, when he again felt the perfume of his wife. “It was a very intense moment. At that moment I understood automatically that the perfumes are not only a vezzo”.
From that experience a reflection was born on the relationship between fragrances, memories and emotions: “The perfume is something that binds you immediately to memory and emotions. Feeling the perfume of my wife I found together a smell, a person and all the sensations that that fragrance represented for me”.
The visit to an Italian manufacturer allowed him to know the entire supply chain and to understand the artisan and creative value of a Made in Italy fragrance. To encourage him was his wife: «I returned home and told for a few minutes where I had been and what I had discovered about the world of perfumes. After a second and a half he looked at me and said to me, “Do it.” To the question about why, the answer was immediate: “Because while you talk about it, you’re happy. Go ahead.”.
The new brand was called Montenapoleone Profumi Milano, a name chosen to evoke excellence, Italian luxury and the work discipline of the Lombard capital: “Milan is a city where work, design, creativity and organization live together. From this idea was born Montenapoleone Profumi Milano: the excellence represented by Via Montenapoleone, the discipline of Milanese in the work and the conception of fragrances as memory and emotion”.
The project was realized in 2025 through the definition of the production chain, the development of fragrances, the construction of the packaging and the positioning of the brand.
Since the beginning, the goal has not been limited to the Italian market. Thanks to the support of the ICE, Montenapoleone Profumi Milano has participated in international initiatives in Dubai and Belarus, and is then selected for an export route in the United States: “The course has helped us understand how to deal with the American market, what rules to respect, what strategies to adopt and how to properly present an Italian brand in the United States”. At the end of the program, the brand was chosen to represent Italy during the final event organized in New York.
The arrival in the Big Apple had for him a meaning that went beyond the simple commercial result: “I always promised that I would go to New York only for professional reasons. I wanted to reach her through my work and not just as a tourist. When they told us we were selected, I told everyone: “I have already won””.
Presenting in the city a product born from such a personal experience was the realization of a dream: “New York is New York: there is no need to explain it. It is a city that has a particular energy and, when you arrive to present your work, that feeling becomes even more intense”.
Baron has expressed words of particular appreciation for the support received by the ICE and the so-called Italian System: “The discovery of the ICE and the Italian Trade Agency was something surprising. I have found a structure really oriented to companies and entrepreneurs, consisting of very prepared people, available and able to create concrete results. They were not limited to organizing an event or offering us a space. They accompanied us, formed and put us in the conditions of understanding a complex market like the American one”.
A decisive support especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, which have quality and creativity but often do not have the relationships and skills necessary to enter the major international markets.
The next goal is to find the right partner to represent Montenapoleone Profumi Milano in the United States. The brand has already been selected among the finalists of a recognition dedicated to packaging and Baronio plans to return to New York twice by October.
“In my head the perfume is already there. It is not enough to enter the American market: it must be done with the correct partner, maintaining the positioning, quality and history of the product”. The perspective is ambitious, but the entrepreneur has no doubt: “I am convinced that we will arrive. Perhaps the next interview we will do it together directly from Central Park”.
Montenapoleone Profumi Milano is a new part of an entrepreneurial path built between territorial rooting and international openness: “The packaging is beauty and we Italians have the duty to bring beauty to the world. Made in Italy is not only a trademark to be applied on a packaging, but it is a chain, a method of work and a culture”.
After a life spent on television, the choice to enter an unknown sector inevitably entails new risks, but responds to the same thrust that led all its previous experiences: “I believe that doing business also means this: having the courage to follow an intuition and transform it into something concrete”.
L’articolo Simone Baronio, from television to perfumes: “Fare impresa means turning a passion into something concrete” comes from IlNewyorkese.
