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Italian industry body Snag estimates that two-thirds of news kiosks in Italy have closed in the last two decades, leaving only around 12,000 in operation today.
Since 1948, Fabiano Pompei's family has owned a news kiosk near the imposing Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome. And Marco Volpini's family owned one near the Trevi Fountain for a century. Both used to be thriving businesses.
A few years ago, in the midst of the decline of the printed newspaper industry, many like them are condemned to having to close their doors.
The Italian Chamber of Commerce said in a report last January that 2,700 kiosks had closed in the last four years alone, a 16% drop nationally, while Rome recorded a 21% drop. Today only around 12,000 remain.
The fall in newspaper sales, which represent the majority of kiosks' income, has been identified as the culprit of the crisis. Yeah In 2004, around 9.54 million copies were sold every day, in 2014, that figure today is 950,000according to ADS, the company that tracks publishing sales.
Fabiano Pompei, 30, told Reuters that “you can make sacrifices to a certain extent, but if you earn little or even lose money, it is better to close down and do something else, even if it hurts inside.”
“Who still reads newspapers?” said Stefano di Persio, owner of a kiosk in the center of Rome, next to the offices of the city's most important newspaper, 'Il Messaggero'. Before it sold hundreds of copies every day, now it sells less than 50.
“It's a joke,” he told Reuters, without laughing.
The Italian Government is offering incentives this year worth up to 2,000 euros to try to stop the increasing closure of these businesses. However, its owners see it as a short-term balm that will do nothing to resolve a dying trend in the print newspaper industry.
With Reuters
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