On Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Image – Getty: Atalay Mert Kuskaya
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘We Need To React’
As Publishing Perspectives readers know, “culture vouchers” are government programs that provide young adults with funds to spend on books and other cultural offerings, usually when those citizens reach a certain age.
For several years considered by many to be a gold standard of these vouchers, Italy’s 18App (provided to citizens at age 18) was the first such culture voucher introduced in Europe, and with its €500 value (US$555) prompted similar cultural-development measures for teens and young adults in other markets including France, Spain, and, most recently, Germany.
But as Bruno Giancarli’s article of April made clear, Italy’s incoming Meloni government wanted to do away with the 18App’s format, which simply saw each 18-year-old Italian as a proper recipient of the funds. Instead, the program was split into two: a Carta Cultura for young people with a comparatively low “ISEE,” a metric of one’s economic situation that takes into account a family’s income, assets, and several household characteristics; and a Carta del Merito aimed at those who have obtained the highest marks in their last year of high school, 100 or 100 with honors.
Today (September 16), Frankfurter Buchmesse‘s Guest of Honor Italy is proving that even in a market’s big year at the trade show, a market’s efforts to establish better policy for reading and publishing must go on.
Seven premiere cultural organizations, including the Association of Italian Publishers (Associazione Italiana Editori, AIE) have issued a formal appeal to the new Italian minister of culture, Alessandro Giuli, calling for “urgent interventions to relaunch and support” the Italian culture voucher, changes “that take into account the competitive structure of the sector and its peculiarities.
The changes to the former 18App, these seven agencies say, have meant “€100 million lost” to the pertinent cultural industries (US$111.2 million).
“We need to react. And we need to do it together.”
‘A Response Among Young People Lower Than Expected’
The seven presidents of this coordinated request for a meeting with minister Giuli are:
- Innocenzo Cipolletta, president of the publishers’ association, AIE
- Andrea Palombi, president of the Association of Independent Publishers (ADEI)
- Paolo Ambrosini, president of the Association of Italian Booksellers Confcommercio (ALI)
- Antonio Terzi, president of the SIL, the Italian Union of Booksellers and Stationers Confesercenti
- Crispino Di Girolamo, president of the Union of Italian Catholic Publishers and Booksellers (UELCI)
- Medardo Montaguti, president of the National Federation of Stationers
- Laura Ballestra, president of the Italian Library Association (AIB)
What these presidents are going to ask the minister in the meeting they’re requesting is a new format, a relaunched culture voucher based in the country’s next budget.
“The lack of growth in the book market in this first part of the year in monetary terms,” they write in their messaging to the news media, “translates into a reduction in real terms, taking inflation into account.
“The publishing industry is a robust sector, but if we don’t address the fragilities in terms of weak reading rates in the country, especially in the south, the paucity of public investments in promoting reading—the right to study, and support for businesses—our ability to face new challenges, including the impact of artificial intelligence, will be greatly reduced.”
These industry leaders say that the bifurcated edition of the former 18App requires “immediate intervention in four areas.”
“Available data shows that the Carta Cultura and the Carta del Merito, “which replaced the 18app, have had a response among young people lower than expected, so much so that registered young people have only committed half of the allocated funds, equal to €190 million [US$211.1 million].”
And here is the plan they want to discuss with the minister of culture.
“For this reason, an extension of the deadline for the registration of new 18-year-olds is necessary,” although it expired on June 30, “to allow access until December 31 and the possibility of spending the money until April 30.
“An effective information and promotional campaign is also needed to encourage registrations.
“The Associations then ask to confirm the financial allocation at €190 million and restore universality, a characteristic that all similar measures in other European countries have in common, although safeguarding the greater favor for the less well-off, for example by allocating approximately 300 euros to every 18-year-old and reserving additional sums of 200 euros for families with an ISEE lower than 35 thousand euros and for graduates with top marks.
In Rome. Image – Getty: David Zanin
More from Publishing Perspectives on the Italian market and news from its publishers’ association is here, and more on Italy’s 18App program of cultural subsidy for young adults and its changed state in recent years is here. More on Guest of Honor at Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2024 is here.
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