(by Massimiliano D'Elia) It would seem a provocation, but in fact it is not. The publishing crisis in Italy is now so well known that thousands of journalists have become precarious, or soon they will be. What is happening at Espresso is emblematic. The reason is simple and obvious, but no one in the industry wants to admit it. A vigorous shift needs to be made as public funding has fallen significantly and will soon end entirely. Those few funds allocated by successive governments are difficult to intercept, so many bureaucratic obstacles to overcome.
Print media, therefore, is undergoing an irreversible decline and is trying to reinvent itself in digital versions. Unfortunately, even in the digital sector, editors and editors want to translate the experience and the “modus operandi” of the paper's editorial activity.
“Impossible”, because digital is different. Digital is speed, synthesis, "scoop" and news at 360 °, "you must always stay on track" since digital is on the web, where users are not "only national ones", but can be billions from all over the world (considering the time zones there will always be users online). Then it is really mortifying to note that on weekends and public holidays the Italian online newspapers run at reduced gear.
The best example of digital publishing is provided by Reuters, CNN, BBC and so on. They embrace news and news from all over the world in a timely manner and above all with short summaries, such as agencies. They are always "on", they never slow down, because whoever stops is lost in the immaterial world, in the web.
Then there are editorial choices.
In Italy, for example, whole pages are filled with every “internal political” event, often the first ones, and for several days. A tam, tam from exhaustion that every newspaper "reworks" and bounces from hour to hour, often, with very long editorials. Beautiful, very beautiful that, however, I challenge anyone to prove that they have read in full.
The ideal would be to report a news in a maximum of 200 characters, giving the essence of the information. Flowery phrases no longer have any effect, they only serve to please the old-fashioned editor and chief editor. It is necessary to get out of the "Italian enclosure", outside the borders there is a world that is moving and not very interested in our political "quarrels", neighborhood gossip. It is necessary to bring Italians mentally outside the borders, only in this way public opinion can have a new "vision" no longer drugged by household chores. Italy is not at the center of the world, but it is part of it.
The way out
Now I don't have to prove a breakthrough attempt with facts, PRP Channel. It was an editorial bet born for fun. The founding members with international experience, having worked for long periods abroad, have decided to design a multilingual publishing platform (in all the languages of the world), relying on an advanced "plug in".
The translation of the texts is close to a human elaboration. This is the main fear of publishers who are wary and do not want to "make mistakes" with multilingual. They demand “professional”, “academic” translations: “impossible in a fast context like the web, there is no time”!
PRP Channel, therefore, dared and launched the experiment. The result after 15 months of life, 66 million contacts from 190 countries around the world, 600000 pages read per month, with France, the United States (Italy being third only), Germany, China and so on.
After the initial doubts, many messages of appreciation received in the editorial office and that is why a small group of willing journalists, their own editors, decided to go ahead.
To continue growing, you need as many willing colleagues. The dream is to continue growing in order to propose an Italian international newspaper like the BBC.
Dear colleague if you want to share the ambitious project write to redazione@prpchannel.com
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