Naval Support Activity La Maddalena’s biweekly base paper, The Anchor, has ceased publication and will be replaced by a weekly four-page insert in the Naples base newspaper.
The Anchor’s last issue ran May 19 and the new insert will start in the Naples paper, the Panorama, on June 23.
The Anchor, a self-supporting newspaper printed by a private publisher, sold advertising to offset its costs. A loss of ad revenues made it no longer profitable to continue.
Both the Panorama and The Anchor had the same publisher: the Naples-based Stampa Generale.
The Anchor Editor Jan Myers said the change will have some advantages for readers.
“One nice thing is it will be weekly,” Myers said. “These four pages will focus all on La Maddalena happenings: feature stories, spotlights [on local personnel], news specific to our command … school events and our own sports.”
Readers also will get more, and more timely, military news since they will be getting the Panorama as well.
Residents will get 1,000 copies of the Panorama with the La Maddalena insert each week.
This will be the first time that the Naples paper will be sent to the small base on northern Sardinia, said La Maddalena public affairs officer Lt. Matt Warke.
The switch is expected to result in distribution delays. Each Friday’s Panorama won’t make it to La Maddalena until the following Wednesday, Warke said.
“We’ll get it later than Naples,” he said. “We’ve always gotten the paper late. That’s the way it was before, even The Anchor had been that late.”
Myers said the online version of The Anchor will be retained and updated each week. “Everything that won’t fit in the Panorama will go online,” said Myers, who’s worked on The Anchor for four years.
Panorama Editor Alex vanFrank said she thinks the addition of the new section will benefit Naples readers, too.
“Bringing in La Maddalena’s readership will provide us a fresh and expanded view of Italy,” she said. “Having a newspaper … that covers both the mainland and [Sardinia] will be an advantage to readers who will now be able to take advantage of services in both areas.”
