Creating the foundations for the future

By now you have hopefully become accustomed to the ongoing changes and improvements to L’Italo-Americano. All of these changes, both big and small have not only created a new and modernized look to the newspaper, but also have added to the readability of our newspaper. We have diversified our content to include something that will appeal to all generations and also added ways in which that content is dissiminated.  In doing so, we have begun this very thoughful and focused journey to sustainability, further aiding our effort to guarantee L’Italo-Americano‘s holds a future in this increasingly tech savvy society where current events and information is just a mouse click or tweet away.

 

Over the past year in particular, the challenges that L’Italo-Americano has faced and consequent decisions regarding the future direction of the paper, have not been easy. At times the challenges have seemed insurmountable, but we have overcome them by not just relying upon L’Italo-Americano established, but limited financial resources, but also by the continued support and patronage of all our readers.  Sponsorship and support can take many forms such as advertising support, subscriptions & renewals, sharing local community news, participation in our facebook community, website comments on our articles, retweeting our tweets, adding calendar events to the calendar section and passing on the paper to a relative or a friend when you are done reading it.

 

If you haven’t already noticed, you should know that our digital edition makes subscribing to L’Italo-Americano easier than ever. Moreover, each subscription includes a complete archive of back issues, all available at your fingertips. The Digital Replica Edition is an exact replica of the print edition that’s delivered to homes and retail outlets, but in an environmentally friendly and form that can be viewed from your home computer tablet or smart phone.  You can “pinch and zoom” to enlarge stories and photos. You can also touch the “Pages” button on the top navigation bar to view a carousel of all available pages. The top navigation bar also has a “archive” button to view a list all currently available editions.  We live in a moment of unprecedented social and technological transformation that demands new ideas to keep pace with these times, and modern technology is giving us more ways to tell stories with pictures, audio, video and interactive graphics. L’Italo-Americano will deliver them all.

 

I am pleasantly surprised by the amount of requests we receive every day from new contributors, driven by the same values and passion for the Italian culture that drove L’Italo-Americano for the past 105 years. We always welcome new contributors, please send us an email at info@italoamericano.com if you are interested in becoming part of our team.

 

One of our most recent additionn is the return of the San Diego section. We are proud to, once again, provide the San Diego Italian-American community local residents with news and events, advertising coverage, and to celebrate the accomplishments of individuals and organizations within the community. Benvenuta San Diego.

 

Another important addition to our initiatives is our Annual Golf Tournament. We started this project last year with the help of our friends Vito and Pasquale Roberto, with the double intent to create a social event and to raise funds for L’Italo-Americano. The response was so enthusiastic and encouraging that we decided to make the tournament a yearly event.

 

Our Second Golf Tournament just took place at Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge, with an even better outcome than the previous one. About 90 players, 30 big sponsors, and an energetic group of volunteers made this a great event. Thanks to all of them and to the donations received from our readers and supporters, L’Italo-Americano annual Golf Tournament officially became one of our main fundraising events as well as one of our most exciting public events. We have already started to work on the next year’s edition, but in the meantime you can read more about the 2013 event on pages 12 of this issue.

 

Despite these uncertain times, L’Italo-Americano is still growing strong, continues to deliver each and every week, the most compelling stories as well as covering events that affect the Italian community.  Above all and more than ever, our small team is committed and determined to fulfill our mission to promote and preserve Italian heritage, language and culture passed down through generations to come.  All this and more we do for posterity so the values of our rich heritage that makes us unique in the world are never forgotten or dismissed as something of the past.  L’Italo-Americano in it’s longevity and continued appeal to different generations over this 105 years is something to be extremely proud of.