"Founded in 1924 by Antonio Gramsci" as the title proudly reaffirms, the daily was a mouthpiece for the PCI until 1991 and remains solidly leftwing. Having started the fashion in Italy for supplementary cultural products (films, books etc.) sold with the paper, L'Unità struggled through a dark phase- it was declared bankrupt in 2000 and stopped publishing for 8 months. Since 2000, it is owned by Renato Soru, head of the internet provider Tiscali. In that year, the paper changed to tabloid format and relaunched its website.