About Il Globo

Il Globo

Il Globo is an Italian-language bi-weekly newspaper published in Melbourne, Australia, serving the Italian-Australian community across Victoria and the nation. Founded in 1959, it is Australia's leading Italian-language newspaper — a community institution that has chronicled Italian post-war migration, the making of an Italo-Australian identity, and six decades of life in the community it serves.

Overview

Il Globo is published bi-weekly, on Monday and Thursday, in tabloid format, in the Italian language. It is owned by the Italian Media Corporation and headquartered in Melbourne — historically in Brunswick, more recently in new purpose-built offices and studios at 35–37 Melville Road, Brunswick West, in Melbourne's inner north. Its Sydney counterpart is La Fiamma, the Italian-language paper of New South Wales.

The paper's claimed circulation of over 20,000 (as of 2005) made it one of the largest non-English-language publications in Australia. In November 2024, Il Globo celebrated its 65th anniversary — an event marked in the Federal Parliament, where Senator Raff Ciccone described longstanding mastheads like Il Globo as the glue holding multicultural communities together, and where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese toured the paper's new premises earlier in 2024.

History

Il Globo was established in Melbourne by Tarcisio Valmorbida and Ubaldo Larobina, and its first issue was published on 4 November 1959 as a weekly broadsheet. Few, at the time, expected the paper to achieve the longevity it has: as the fiftieth-anniversary history notes, at the time of its founding few expected it to endure for half a century — let alone the 65 years it has now reached.

The timing was the post-war migration boom. Between 1945 and 1951 more than 35,000 Italians migrated to Australia, and between 1951 and 1972 an estimated 338,624 — with the 1950s the peak decade of Italian migration, when as many as 193,791 Italians settled in Australia. The number of Italian-born residents grew from 33,632 in 1947 to 289,476 in 1971. A bilateral assisted-migration agreement signed between Italy and Australia in 1951 subsidised the voyage — the Australian government paying a quarter, the Italian government a quarter, the migrant borrowing the rest — while chain migration, as family members sponsored relatives and friends, concentrated Italians from particular towns and regions in particular suburbs: the Campani in Payneham and Campbelltown, the Calabresi in Seaton, in South Australia; and in Melbourne, in Carlton, Brunswick, and the inner north.

Il Globo was born into this migration — into a community that had been met, at times, with racism, and for which a community newspaper carried a symbolic function: signalling the ethnic community's intellectual and economic growth and its will to assert a unique identity. During its first years and until the internet became widespread, Il Globo served the same function as other ethnic media: it connected the Italian community to Italy, filling the gaps left by Australian mainstream media, and to their host country, helping readers fathom the major political, social, and economic events unfolding in Australia. It provided relief, a safe place, contributed to the shaping of an Italo-Australian identity, and kept the Italian community informed.

The paper's editorial voice in its decades of growth was shaped by figures such as Nino Randazzo, whose editorial commentary chronicled the heights and challenges of Italian post-war migration to Australia. In 2009, the paper's fiftieth anniversary was marked by the publication of Il Globo: Fifty Years of an Italian Newspaper in Australia (Bruno Mascitelli and Simone Battiston, Connor Court Publishing) — the scholarly record of a paper regarded as more than a newspaper: a leading community institution making its presence felt on Italian-related issues.

In November 2024, the paper celebrated 65 years. Senator Raff Ciccone, in a two-minute statement in the Senate, noted that Il Globo continued to serve a vital function for the Italian community not just in Victoria but across Australia — informing, entertaining, and supporting local events, promoting a harmonious and inclusive society. He recorded that earlier in 2024 he had joined the Prime Minister for a tour of Il Globo's new premises, learning how the organisation was embracing the digital age across its online platform, the Rete Italia radio network, and its online streaming service, Il Globo TV — an investment he credited to the vision of managing director Julius Larobina and project manager Nicoletta Larobina, carrying on the passion of their late father, co-founder Ubaldo Larobina.

In the Victorian Parliament, Anthony Cianflone, the member for Pascoe Vale, recorded that on 15 March 2024 he had welcomed the Prime Minister to the new Il Globo newspaper offices and studios at 35–37 Melville Road in Brunswick West — the iconic paper continuing to connect and inform the Italian-Australian community 65 years on, via newspaper, radio, online, and Il Globo TV, alongside editor Dario Nelli, senior journalist Riccardo Schirru, and the paper's staff.

Content

Il Globo reports on issues and news regarding Italy and Australia, and on matters relating to the local Italian-Australian community. The editorial mix covers Italian politics, business, and culture; Australian current affairs as they touch the community; and the community's own life — the associations, the festivals, the religious and cultural calendar.

A longstanding tradition is the paper's June 2 supplement: on Italy's National Day, Il Globo and La Fiamma prepare a special insert celebrating the anniversary of the foundation of the Italian Republic. The insert highlights important moments of Italian history and the achievements, milestones, and prominent individuals who have made their mark on Italian life — and carries the Australian Prime Minister's and the Italian Ambassador's messages to the Italian community.

The paper's journalism is that of the ethnic press at its most complete: the community's news, the homeland's news, and the host country's news, in the community's language.

Coverage and Audience

Il Globo is Melbourne-based but national in its reach: it reports on the local Italian-Australian communities of Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory, and Victoria. Its audience is the Italian-Australian community — the post-war migrants and their descendants, the Italo-Australian families of the inner north and the suburbs, and the newer Italian arrivals.

The community's scale is the paper's context: at the 2021 census, 1,108,364 Australian residents nominated Italian ancestry, representing 4.4 per cent of the population; 171,520 were born in Italy; and 228,042 spoke Italian or Italian dialects at home. Il Globo is the press of that community — the paper that has been, for 65 years, its record and its forum.

Ownership

Il Globo is owned by the Italian Media Corporation, and its management remains in the family of its co-founder: managing director Julius Larobina and project manager Nicoletta Larobina, the children of Ubaldo Larobina. The Larobina family's stewardship continues the founders' investment in the community's media. The paper's editor is Dario Nelli, with senior journalist Riccardo Schirru among its staff.

The Valmorbida family — the family of co-founder Tarcisio Valmorbida — went on to build the Conga Foods empire: the household brands Lavazza coffee, La Gina canned tomatoes, and Sirena Tuna, and Melbourne's landmark Italian deli, King & Godfree — the commercial as well as the journalistic fruit of the post-war migration.

Digital Presence

Il Globo operates online at ilglobonewspaper.com.au, its official website, carrying the paper's news and its supplements — including the digital editions of the Italian Republic anniversary inserts. The organisation has embraced the digital age across multiple platforms: the online newspaper, the Rete Italia radio network, and Il Globo TV, the online streaming service. From the weekly broadsheet of 4 November 1959 to the bi-weekly tabloid, radio, and streaming service of today, Il Globo is the community's media across every platform — the Italian voice of Australia, in print and on screen.

For Italian-Australia, Il Globo remains what it has been since 1959: the community's own paper — the weekly and now bi-weekly record of the migration, the identity, and the life of one of Australia's great communities.