the year of a graphical change as colour was introduced on the first page and in advertisements. In May 1996, after twenty years Eugenio Scalfari resigned as Editor in Chief, but remained an important contributor to the newspaper. He was succeeded by Ezio Mauro. The same year, the weekly women's supplement "D" (Donne) was launched. la Repubblica after Scalfari 1996–1999 On 5 April 1996 the paper launched its website as a collaborative effort with Digital and Interbusiness (a unit of Telecom Italia), as an on-line trial version of the newspaper, created for the election of 21 April. In August 1996, Mauro began a project Repubblica – lavori in corso (Repubblica – work in progress), with the objective of testing an on-line edition. The project was coordinated by Vittorio Zambardino, Gualtiero Pierce and Ernesto Assante, with technical direction by Alessandro Canepa. On 14 January 1997 the online version of the newspaper Repubblica.it was launched. It became the main Italian information website with over 10.6 million users in October 2007. In 2010 it was the tenth most visited website in the country being ahead of Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, YouTube and MSN. 2000–2007 In 2004, through a gradual process, the newspaper introduced colour in every page. This decision forced the whole Italian newspaper market to adopt similar measures. On 19 October 2007, the newspaper's graphics and layout were renovated. La Repubblica split in two newspapers: one dedicated to the news and the other (Called "R2") to analysis of current events. Political position The newspaper used to be regarded as on the moderate left wing of the political spectrum, with a very critical line towards the former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, especially criticizing his conflict of interest as both entrepreneur and politician. In August 2009, Berlusconi sued the newspaper after it published ten questions addressed to him (which he refused to answer). It also used to be known for its critical stand vis-à-vis the Catholic Church, but this position has drastically changed after the onset of the papacy of Pope Francis. On 20 November 2007, the newspaper revealed wiretapping transcripts between certain RAI and Mediaset directors, aimed at modifying some parts of the TV scheduling of 2005 (regarding the death of the Pope and the regional elections of 2005). Following the purchase of GEDI group by John Elkann, Carlo Verdelli was removed from his post as editor and replaced by Maurizio Molinari. Under his