Mussolini was a former editor; his Fascist regime (1922–1943) took full control of the media in 1925. Opposition Journalists were physically maltreated; two thirds of the dailies were shut down. An underground press was developed, using smuggled material. All the major papers had been mouthpieces for a political party; now all parties save one were abolished, and the newspapers all became its mouthpiece. In 1924, the fascists took control of Agenzia Stefani, and enlarged its scope and mission to make it their tool to control the news content in all of Italy's newspapers. By 1939, it operated 32 bureaus inside Italy and 16 abroad, with 261 correspondents in Italy and 65 abroad. Every day they processed over 1200 dispatches, from which Italian newspapers made up their news pages.