Italian media scout Philly before Pope Francis visit

The new boss of Italy's state-owned RAI World media network, which targets expat Italians, Italian descendants and Italy-lovers abroad, was at La Colombe opposite City Hall this morning, fueling for a whirlwind tour of Italian America, and guided on this leg by the energetic Philadelphia-based Italian Consul Andrea Canepari, who is laboring mightily to stitch together a coalition of business and academic friends of Italian trade and culture.

RAI World CEO Piero A. Corsini (intense, dark-eyed, silver hair clipped short; espresso) says his nation's new centrist government has "invested a great deal of money" in programming, some visible at www.RAItalia.it, more on the network's three pay stations, carried by most Comcast, Verizon and DirecTV affiliates. He was joined by RAI World marketing-distribution-sales chief Giovanni Celsi (avuncular; cappucinio). They acclaimed Colombe's dark strong coffee; they passed on the piled pastries under the counter.

What's their most popular program? "Soccer, for Italians abroad," and other fans of Italy's top leagues, said Corsini. Also, the election of charismatic Pope Francis has boosted interest in RAI's broadcasts of religious programming, including Vatican Masses. (He personally expects severe Pope Benedict will be well-judged by history, "because he was an intellectual.")  RAI expects to be in Philadelphia to cover the Pope's visit to World Family Day next year, and Canepari has been shepherding the media guys to meet prominent locals who will be part of that program. "The Italian community here is preparing a lot of welcoming," Canepari says.

Has Italy's investment in media abroad paid off? Viewership "is stable," but they want to boost it, Celsi said. New York and Toronto are big markets; so are Italian expats in Brazil and Spanish America. He's just returned from Boston, where he found an "island" of Italians, bifurcated between aging immigrants and youthful Harvard-MIT-college students, professors, doctors.

It's more complicated in Canepari's district, which stretches from South Jersey to North Carolina. Canepari sees multiple levels of Italians here: young people in the food business; students and professionals; aging immigrants of the post-World War II generation, who keep Italian churches and high-school classes and hometown societies and Knights of Columbus parades alive; successful, assimilated Americans whose Italian forebearers came here generations ago and who retain sentimental interest. And those who do business: "Italy has more trade with my district than with all of India," Canepari said, raising Corsini's eyebrows.

RAIWorld has its work cut out. The network is still debating basic questions such as whether to add subtitles in Italian -- or in English, Spanish and Portugese. There are arguments both ways, says Corsini: "The Romans said it: where you have two Italians, you have three opinions."