Why the New Vatican Insider Media Site Is A Rather Big Deal

GOING ON THE LINKS TODAY!! This is a project of a major Italian paper (which will be in English among other languages) that looks good. Here is their web site.

John Allen gave a overview here:


On Thursday, June 23, La Stampa will take a big step toward delivering on that promise with the launch of a new global service called “Vatican Insider,” offering content in English and Spanish as well as Italian. The idea is to provide news, editorials, interviews, and analysis concerning the Vatican and the Catholic Church, as well as broader religious, ethical and theological issues, including the relations and contrasts among different religions. It can be found online at www.vaticaninsider.com.

In terms of regular contributors, La Stampa has assembled an Italian dream team. In addition to Tornielli, they’ve got Giacomo Galeazzi, a superb Vatican beat writer, and veteran correspondent and commentator Marco Tosatti, known both for great sources and a balanced perspective.

Two veteran journalists, both of whom know the States well, direct the project. One is La Stampa’s managing editor, Marco Bardazzi, who served from 2000 to 2009 as the U.S. correspondent for the Italian news agency ANSA. Bardazzi is part of the Communion and Liberation movement, having served as spokesperson for the annual “Meeting” in Rimini and as co-founder of the movement’s “Crossroads” center in America. The other is Paolo Mastrolilli, a former U.S. correspondent for La Stampa. Mastrolillo likewise has strong Catholic credentials, having worked for both Vatican Radio and L’Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference.

“Vatican Insider” will mark the first time the work of Tornielli, Galeazzi and Tosatti is available in English on a regular basis, and that alone is worth the price of admission. The service will also feature occasional contributions from other Catholic writers around the world. I’ll have a piece for the June 23 launch, for instance, explaining why Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York is potentially key to the Catholic future.

“Vatican Insider” shapes up as an important new contribution to global Catholic conversation. Make a point of checking it out this Thursday.


Well it's Thursday and looks promising. At their link decribing what this is all about they say in part:


....La Stampa's new information channel directed by the newspaper's editor Mario Calabresi and managed by Paolo Mastrolilli and Marco Bardazzi will be available in Italian, English and Spanish and diffused across digital and social network platforms.



Readers will be able to get news and in-depth analysis updates and access videos and photo galleries and dedicated special sections, for free, seven days a week. A subscriber's section reserved for use by newspapers and editorial partners is also available, containing services for journalists, inquests, interviews and exclusive information packages.



After a 24/48 hour period, after the articles in the subscriber section have been made available exclusively to the VaticanInsider's editorial partners, these will be moved to the public homepage where they can be consulted by everyone .

That seems like a rather good deal!! These are heavy hitters in Catholic and Vatican reporting and it's good they shall be getting a world wide audience more.