from Tuesday to Sunday. The paper defined itself as a "newspaper-party" (giornale-partito) in its initial stage.

During the first two years, it built up a core-audience identified as members of the centre-left and the Italian Communist Party (PCI). In 1977, Scalfari decided to cater to the university student movement, so la Repubblica began its expansion. The strength of the newspaper lay particularly in the editorial comments section, which was