BELLUNO. Twenty-seven years, 27. And twenty-seven readers who wish the newspaper their best wishes, tell each other and entrust their messages: a numbers game to emphasize a plural reality. We are the Corriere delle Alpi. We who read it, review, post, comment, appreciate and criticize. We, the vast public that appears on newsstands every morning, Noi Corriere delle Alpi, the community that has rapidly grown around the digital edition, the website and the social networks. Not mere spectators, but interlocutors of a constant dialogue.
Between the Corriere and the territory – Belluno, Feltre, the valleys, the most beautiful mountains in the world – there is a strong bond that does not sink vertically over time, but has ramified and vital roots, nourished by professionalism and proximity. Of the newspaper – of this newspaper – it is said that it is close and accessible, it is said that there is no family about which he has not written. And, also, its authoritativeness is underlined, the result of convergent professionalism and sensitivity. A newspaper that is a meeting place and a mirror in which to look at each other every day, perhaps finding an extra wrinkle, but recognizing oneself deeply.
Twenty-seven years is energy. It is a happy age, in which light-hearted smiles and firm responsibility coexist: it suits us, we like it. And today we like to renew our commitment to scrape off the surface patina to tell the substance with curiosity and disenchantment, with passion. Without inveighing, without shouting, but with absolute rigor. A constant work in an attempt to solicit reflections and stimulate virtuous actions, because pointing the finger at what does not work has never been enough.
Happy birthday, Corriere delle Alpi.
From the memory of Vajont to the Vaia storm: always at the forefront
It was September 27, 1994 when five journalists, led by Toni Sirena, and a handful of collaborators scattered throughout the province put in black and white (it is appropriate to say) the first issue of Corriere delle Alpi. Just 27 years have passed. since that day and many news have passed through our hands and in our editorial offices.
We started with the idea of being the newspaper of the Belluno people, a square where to discuss the issues that were most dear to the citizens, taken out of the buildings of politics and economics. And the mission hasn’t changed over the years. It is difficult to recall in a few lines all the initiatives that have been implemented in almost three decades and the issues we have addressed. But some have had more weight. Starting with the recovery of the memory of the Vajont, a topic that had ended up in the attic too quickly and which suddenly became a great national theme with Marco Paolini’s civil prayer next to the Vajont dam. It was 1997. Years later, in 2013, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the tragedy, a memorial was created on the Corriere delle Alpi website which reconstructed the entire story from its origins and in the decades following 1963 and recounted the stories of the 1,910 victims.
Closely connected to the Vajont, the battle for water, “snatched” at very low costs for hydroelectric production or for irrigation of lowland agriculture, leaving the streams and rivers empty. Some victories and many defeats on this front for the people of Belluno, if we consider that in these days we are again debating on the lakes without water. And then the always open discussion on the specificity of the mountain that exists on paper but not yet in concrete implementation. Without forgetting health care and the many demonstrations that have brought tens of thousands of Belluno people to the streets and squares, arriving as far as Venice to defend the mountains. And depopulation, the difficulty of living in the Highlands, transport, the economy and much more.
Above all ours has been and still is an attempt to raise awareness of the problems of those who want to continue living in the mountains, which are completely different from those of those who live in the plains and to remind everyone that we are not just the Veneto amusement park. or just the vacation spot of many Italians.
The last few years have been very busy for our work. My thoughts turn to Vaia, the perfect storm, with half the province cut off from any kind of connection, without telephones, electricity, water. It was adventurous to tell about those days, with the paper newspaper once again being central to communication, a newspaper of stories and services, thanks also to the great work of the collaborators.
Exactly as happened two years later with Covid. The people of Belluno, like the rest of the Italians and citizens of many other parts of the world, found themselves locked in the house: everything stopped, everything blocked. Once again, it was about giving everyone a voice. And “alli ”is not a random word. We have collections of voices, faces, events, even tragedies, in this year and a half of pandemic.
What we have always considered a flagship of our work is precisely the relationship with the readers who have rewarded us over the course of 27 years making us quickly become the first newspaper in the province. We have kept this relationship lively, with initiatives such as the camper that moved from town to town to collect reports, problems, inconveniences and protests live. We fed it with the many competitions that involved readers, rewarding the most loved sportsmen, or bartenders or Belluno people in general. And in recent years the most beautiful photographs. And we have cultivated this relationship, giving space to personal stories, to the life of associations, to sports in all its facets, to the world of entertainment and culture. When the internet was for a few and social networks did not exist, it was a good idea to open the newspaper to find out about appointments and programs.
The world has changed, and a lot, in these 27 years. And even the newspaper has changed, it has become richer, now it is divided into different platforms, which start from the printed word and move among the most modern communication systems. Just think of the QRcode thanks to which in these days you can read one of our surveys on the internet, the one on the state of the woods after Vaia, in preview compared to the printed paper. Who would have thought it 27 years ago, when the connections with the printing house, which was in Bolzano, were suddenly interrupted and journalists turned into technicians to restart the computers, following the telephone instructions and the always valid “switch off and on again “.
The newspaper has also changed and grown in number of journalists and collaborators, moving from one location to another, from via Cipro to via Loreto and now piazza dei Martiri. It has been enriched with inserts, from sports to the economy, to service news, to leisure time and inquiries. At the base of everything there is always the passion for this job, which makes you forget the very long days, which makes you overcome some anger, which brings you back every day, between an interview and a press conference, the breaking latest news of a match or the story of a tragedy.
Our goal today is the same as it was 27 years ago: to tell, investigate, denounce and give voice to the people of Belluno.(photo Paolo Perona)