Vatican daily strikes new distribution deal with Italian diocese

Vatican City, Feb 27, 2008 / 15:11 pm

The Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano has reached an agreement with the Italian Diocese of Bergamo, giving the newspaper a major boost in circulation in the country.

L’Osservatore Romano’s new director, Giovanni Maria Vian, explained that thanks to the recent overhaul of the newspaper, it can now be found in bars and restaurants—places where it was impossible to find it before.

The Pope’s daily “truly deserves to be more and more known and distributed,” Vian said.  To achieve this goal, Vian has secured a deal with one of the most important Catholic newspapers in Italy, the “Eco de Bergamo,” which has wide distribution throughout Italy.

Starting this Sunday, March 2, through the end of the year, the Sunday edition of the “Eco” will include the complete Sunday edition of L’Osservatore Romano, which will be printed outside the Vatican for the first time since 1929.

The deal means the Vatican newspaper will reach thousands of new readers with no subscription increase necessary. 

Vian said the deal was possible “thanks to the generosity of Bishop Roberto Amadei of Bergamo, who has put himself at the disposition of Benedict XVI on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the election of one of his great predecessors, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (Blessed John XXIII), who was from the land of Bergamo.”

Vian expressed the “humble confidence that, under the sign of Benedict and John, L’Osservatore Romano is increasingly being disseminated.”