Message to immigrants has a language gap

By Elisabetta Povoledo International Herald Tribune

SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2006

MILAN Hoping to tap into Italy's growing immigrant population, the Rome daily La Repubblica this month came out with a weekly insert, Metropoli, which tackles both issues and practical questions - mostly bureaucratic - faced by newcomers.

 

With a print run of more than 450,000 copies, the Sunday insert used its first two issues to broach subjects like mixed marriages and the steep fees charged by international money-transfer services.

 

The editor of Repubblica, Ezio Mauro, wrote in the first issue that Metropoli was "an act of faith in dialogue and civil cohabitation." Gennaro Schettino, editor of the insert, said in an interview that it spoke to an important new market "that's part of the future of the country."

 

But some competitors say Repubblica is taking a risky gamble by publishing Metropoli in Italian rather than in one or more of the most widely spoken second languages here, which include Romanian, Polish and French.

 

Stephen Ogongo, editor of the English-language monthly Africa News, one of several periodicals owned by the publisher Stranieri in Italia, said he did not fear the new competition. Most immigrants, he said, do not speak Italian. "It's easier to pick up something in your own language. It makes you feel at home," he said.

 

Ethnic-minority media are widespread in countries with long histories of immigration, like France, Britain and the United States. A recent survey of Americans with immigrant backgrounds commissioned by New California Media, a U.S.-based association of more than 700 ethnic media organizations, found that a majority regularly used ethnic media, including radio and television along with newspapers and periodicals, and often preferred them to their mainstream counterparts.

 

The Ethnic Minority Media List maintained by the British Commission for Racial Equality lists dozens of titles in several languages, from Arabic to Urdu, including some owned by mainstream media groups. In France, many newspapers are tailored to the large African community, as well as Arab-speaking residents.

 

But in Italy, where large-scale immigration is a relatively recent phenomenon, Metropoli is the first major effort by a mainstream publisher to reach immigrant readers. Less ambitious attempts have been made by the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, which publishes a couple of pages on immigration issues each week, or Corriere della Sera, which has begun publishing a Chinese-language version on its Web site.

 

There are also numerous ethnic-minority newspapers in Italy, in several languages, whose circulation can vary from a few hundred to 20,000 copies a month. Stranieri in Italia has 15 such publications in Italy and runs Web sites in Italy, France and Spain.

 

These publications are sold at newsstands, but they are mostly given away in Western Union locations operated by the Angelo Costa agency, which controls Stranieri in Italia. Western Union bought a 30 percent stake in Angelo Costa in 2004. Stranieri in Italia also publishes six European editions available at Western Union offices throughout the European Union. It also makes money through a telephone help line, where experts help immigrants with bureaucratic problems at a cost of E1.31, or $1.60, a minute plus tax.

 

"We produce content," said Gianluca Luciano, chief executive of Stranieri in Italia. Metropoli, on the other hand, is not being produced with immigrants in mind but is aimed at "Italians sensitive to these issues," he said. "They're producing something folkloristic and multicultural, but I don't think it will work."

 

La Repubblica, however, is banking on the interest that Metropoli will have for second-generation immigrants as well as its regular readers.

 

"We're giving a voice to interesting stories, and letting Italians know who's living next door," said Schettino, the editor. "Usually, immigrants only get headlines when dramatic current events are involved."