It’s another piece of old Cremona that is leaving. In fact, the old newsstand under the tunnel towards Corso Cavour, previously owned by Stefano Peplis, is being removed. The operation is expected to be completed by today. It had closed on December 31, 2023 together with that of Peace Square. At the end of the year Peplis had in fact already decided to enjoy his retirement (he had taken over Sergio Pirri’s business). Then in mid-January the closure of the other newsstand on the opposite side, towards Corso Campi and Via Guarneri del Gesù, owned by Ilaria Satta who had inherited it from her fatherwho in turn took over from a couple from Piacenza who had purchased it from Mrs. Battaglia-Gallini. Under the Gallery the newsstands were once positioned differently: the first to close was the one on the Piazza Roma side, near via Guarneri del Gesù which moved to the central part (with Pirri). Now the definitive go-ahead and the dismantling of Peplis’s newsagent who had hoped until the end to be able to sell the business. We remind you that for the two kiosks the owners of the newsstands had to continue to pay the IMU for the valuable areas and the condominium expenses.
In Piazza della Pace Manuela Carubelli has already had her kiosk removed last February and has already committed to restoring the bottom of the square for which she is in negotiations with the Municipality.
We would also like to remind you that on 2 October the only newsstand remaining in the Porta Venezia square closed.
However, it was a black mark for newsstands in the city. During the summer, the business in via dei Classici-via Navaroli also ceased, the owners chose to go and work in a supermarket but it seems that they intend to give in and remove the newsagent structure. In just a few years, a dozen newspaper outlets have closed in the city: under the porticoes of the Chamber of Commerce in via Baldesio, the newsstand in front of the church of Sant’Agata, the one near the Torrione in via Ghinaglia, the newsstand in Piazza Migliavacca in the Cascinetto district. And again that of Piazza Risorgimento (Porta Milano), via Castelleone, via degli Orti Romani, della Stazione, of Piazza San Paolo. The newsstand at Cremona 2 in Gadesco has also disappeared.
However, outlets for newspapers, periodicals and magazines continue to disappear throughout Italy. Between 2013 and 2023, the companies active in the sector went from 17,625 to 11,428, with a reduction of more than a third (-35.2%) of the network. Overall, 6,197 businesses have disappeared in ten years, over fifty every month.
Obviously, the crisis of paper newspapers, triggered by competition from online information, is weighing on newspaper retailers.
A long crisis that has undergone a clear acceleration during the pandemic: two thirds of the lost businesses will disappear between 2018 and 2023. And the bleeding shows no signs of slowing down: according to Fenagi (Confesercenti) estimates, only 7,716 businesses will remain by 2030 : one resale for every 7,500 inhabitants.
Cremona records a -22.9% in newsstand closures.
In the photos the dismantling work on the Peplis newsstand in progress this morning and the space freed from the newsstand in Piazza della Pace
