For some reason I woke up early today.  What to do?  Why take the dog out, and grab a coffee at my local bar, of course.  I also managed to lay my hands on today’s edition of Il Fatto Quotidiano, which leads with a headline stating that Italy’s Justice Minister Angelino Alfano is under investigation for alleged abuse of office.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to give you a blow by blow account of what is in Italy’s recently launched independent newspaper, Il Fatto Quotidiano, today.  No, something else.

Il Fatto Quotidiano Not on Display

When I got to my local news-stand, I looked for Il Fatto Quotidiano, but could not see it amongst the usual crop of Italian dailies.  No, I had to ask for it.  I was told that twenty one copies of the newspaper had been supplied that morning, but I thought it odd that they were not on display.

I wonder if anyone else has come across this.  It does seem strange that this hot selling paper is not there for all to see.  Or perhaps someone is not too keen on people buying this paper?

Got to go near some other news-stands today, so I’ll have a look and see what the situation is elsewhere.  Out of curiosity.

From what I’ve been told by Italian reader Elisa, Italy’s last independent paper, Indro Montanelli’s La Voce, was forced to shut down its presses.  This does not bode well for Il Fatto Quotidiano.

Looking at the Italian Wikipedia entry on La Voce, it appears as though it’s demise was down to a fall in sales and revenues, but it is interesting that Elisa should comment that it was ‘forced’ to close down.