Slow journalism gets traction in Italy’s Val Pellice
Italy’s L’Ora del Pellice believes its hyper-local business model fits its community with four magic words: quality, community, independence and respect. By Jacqui Park and Eden Vered
For L’Ora del Pellice, from the small Val Pellice valley in western Piedmont, Covid-19 was an opportunity to prove their business model works with an unusual product: a quarterly 200-page print magazine.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how a slow, precise, and accurate journalistic approach is the most valuable service we can provide our readers,” says editor-in-chief, Daniele Arghittu. “Investing in the community of readers and the territory pays off more than clicks and instantism.”
The magazine was founded in 2016 by Hari, a non-profit cultural association which continues to act as its publisher. Aiming to build a local network to empower citizens through information, L’Ora operates similarly to a co-op, currently with 160 members paying 50 euros, who participate in board elections and have an editorial vote.
“People who want to be members must subscribe to L’Ora del Pellice’s four magic words: quality, community, independence and respect,” says Arghittu.
With a team of 13 paid freelancers, L’Ora del Pellice produces credible, in-depth stories, often using historical analyses of the region to give readers perspective on current events involving democracy, public health, and migration. “Slow journalism,” is what Arghittu calls it.
Their latest issue analyses 50 years of voting in the valley’s different towns, providing insight across 40 pages into the development of democracy in the region. In another issue they “dedicated 50 pages to cover immigration,” says Arghittu, explaining how politicians mislead the public into thinking immigrants come to steal jobs. With a focus on the impact in their region, they “wanted to debunk that and explain thoroughly what the challenges these immigrants face when coming to Italy, and why their presence is not a problem for small towns like ours.”
The newsroom approached the pandemic with the same attention to context and detail: “Here in Italy, we were early to explain the connection between Covid-19 and the Spanish flu, because understanding the past can help us comprehend what’s happening,” he explains, attributing 2020’s high peaks in readership to their credible coverage of the unfolding crisis.
Growing the network
About 10 percent of the magazine’s revenue comes from native advertising, in the form of stories and profiles on local businesses. Advertisers must fit their commitment to quality and independence. The rest of their funding comes from subscriptions, memberships and sales of the print edition, and content production services to local organizations.
An annual membership costs €50, and according to Arghittu, all of this is enough to sustain L’Ora del Pellice’s operations in its current format:
“Our bet is that people who live here want to support us because we change their lives a little. This is our idea of journalism — we survive only if the people think we are useful.”
Arghittu admits the growing readership mostly keeps the wolf from the door, “but our work is paid for, and we know we won’t have to shut down,” which according to him, allows L’Ora del Pellice to keep serving its community with reliable journalism, which he sees as a public utility.
“Our idea is to replicate our experience — quality journalism in our small village — in other small countries or maybe worldwide,” he says, proposing to build a network of like-minded local outlets.
“Our approach to quality journalism at the hyper-local level is unique. Newspapers usually try to get more readers, to enlarge their community, but that’s not what we’re looking for,” he concludes. “If we are connected in a network with more similar magazines, we can help each other.
Eden Vered is an IPI contributor based in Vienna.
Jacqui Park is head of network strategy and innovation for IPI and a senior fellow at the Centre for Media Transition at the University of Technology, Sydney.
This story is part of the IPI global network report: Around the corner, around the world: How local news media around the world are rethinking everything
