Paolo Mieli was born in Milan on February 25th, 1949. He received a degree in Modern History in 1972 from La Sapienza University in Rome, and began his career in journalism writing for L’Espresso where he worked as a foreign correspondent, an Italian political commentator, head of the culture section and editor-in-chief.
In 1985 he moved to the Repubblica, where he wrote about Italian politics, foreign politics and culture. In September 1986 he went to work at La Stampa, where he became editor in May 1990. In September 1992 he assumed management of the Corriere della Sera. In May 1997 he became the editor of the Rizzoli Group Corriere della Sera.
In April 2003 he was appointed vice-president of the RCS MediaGroup. He continued his correspondence with the Corriere della Sera readership through the column, “Letters to the Corriere” from September 2001 to December 2004. He is a professor of contemporary history in the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Milan. In December 2004 he was appointed editor of the Corriere della Sera for the second time