THE CIRCULATION DROPS WITH EVERY OBITUARY THEY PUBLISH

Foreign-language newspapers have always represented a problem for the United States, but it’s a problem that soon will be no more. America has always had a wealth of publications and each linguistic community has had its own distinct press with its distinct history: however, all languages went through a similar journey that matches more or less the history of the immigrant groups they represented. The rise and fall of foreign-language news media follows the various groups’ economic, cultural and political evolution; and, finally, their progressive integration into the nation’s mainstream. With each decade and each new school that is built; with each struggle that picks winners and losers after imposing on them the same trials, the number of readers of foreign-language publications decreases. The human material that descends from different races, traditions, cultures, religions and languages is bent, reshaped, restyled and ground up by societal forces and mandatory public education until it is assimilated and begins to circulate in the country’s vascular system. There are still some small benign cysts but they are dying of starvation.

With the exception of new arrivals from Puerto Rico and Canada, the foreign-language press today can acquire only a few thousand new readers every year.

The original purpose of old-style Italian-language dailies was to respond to the needs of a public of immigrants who did not know English well (or not at all) and sought information about the country they had just left. That audience is almost gone: each obituary printed in one of those newspapers means one fewer subscriber because their heirs in the new generation don’t read Italian and don’t really seek news from and about Italy anymore. Today’s immigrants, Italians included, have no reason to buy locally-published newspapers since they can get original dailies by air mail from Europe in twenty four hours.

The only reason for the existence of an ethnic press in the United States is to serve minorities that have not yet been fully absorbed into society. For them, the purpose is not to get news from the Old Country, which is getting fainter by the day both in interest and memories, but to get news about their own new society, which speaks English and consists of community life based on social and sports events, on the parish or the temple and, in some cases, on the political club that sponsors the elections of descendants from the same roots who promise to defend the rights of the newer immigrants of the same origin.

Here are some data. In 1884, in the United States there were 525 periodicals in German including sixty seven daily newspapers. In the same year, the Italian diaspora supported seven periodicals, two of which were dailies. In 1930 the German language periodicals were down to 171, in 1950 to seventy, in 1959 to sixty four. It has been a constant decline, also accelerated by the wars against Germany. In comparison, Italian-language periodicals in 1900 reached thirty five, including three dailies. In 1939 there were eighty six periodicals with six dailies (twenty one periodicals were already in a mix of Italian and English.) The true history of Italian-language press in the United States—without resorting to clichés—would be very hard to reconstruct. One would have to delve deeply into an unpleasant, smelly reality, often sticky and hot like blacktop in the summer (a comparison that is both adequate and literal). I am not very familiar with the kind of press that is called colonial journalism: I have only heard about it and I will not venture an opinion.

The decline of the Italian press started after World War II: in 1959 the periodicals dropped to fifty two with five dailies. A few statistics will give an idea of the current situation. In 1930 in New York there were three Italian language dailies:[1] the Bollettino della Sera[2] with a circulation of 30,433 copies; the Progresso Italo-Americano with 99,391; and the Corriere d’America[3] with 55,515. In the entire country the circulation of Italian dailies was around 220,000 copies. Today only one newspaper is left, Fortune Pope’s[4] Progresso. It is impossible to know its circulation for the newspaper no longer publishes data, contrary to the practice of all serious periodicals in the United States. A generous estimate would guess about 50,000 copies. Between 1930 and 1960, despite the new post-WW II immigration and the population growth in New York, there was a net loss of 170,000 readers, more than three quarters from the peak years. Much could be said about the inadequate format and content of Italian-language periodicals; however, it is clear that the decreased circulation is due primarily to the larger picture of social and educational policies that apply pressure on all the organs of linguistic minorities in the United States.

For my Italian readers I just want to report an interesting fact: while Italian-language press is on the way out in the United States, waning in terms of relevance and circulation, a new kind of periodicals is emerging, produced by the new English-speaking generations of Italian Americans who communicate only in English and therefore need English language media. Normally these periodicals are weeklies rather than dailies, thus they function as complementary organs. It is also worth noting that several of these new publications in English are born in smaller urban centers, such as Philadelphia, Boston and Hartford, Connecticut, which in the past were very important hubs of Italian immigration. Thus far their circulation is limited to the local areas, however, some even ship a few copies to Italy where several thousands Italian Americans now live after having moved back to enjoy their savings and Social Security checks or pensions. These reverse immigrants want to maintain ties with the places where they worked, saved, raised a family; and where their children, grand children, relatives and friends still live. A nation-wide periodical of this kind, capable of penetrating the Italian communities from Seattle to San Francisco to New Orleans to Boston, does not exist yet. This might happen in the future but so far now no visionary mind has conceived it, nor are there entrepreneurs willing to take a chance. Most of all, what is missing is a coalition of local minorities with the intellighenzia [sic] and an educated Italian American community.

New York, May 21, 1961