Fifteen candles for FIRSTonline, the independent site of economics and finance Born on May 23, 2011. It seems like a century ago, and our site has come a long way. Fifteen years ago, no one even remotely imagined we'd be where we are today. This is evidenced by the numbers, which now record an aggregate average of 2.3 million readers per month, or between 70 and 80 thousand. visit every day, as it only happened when everyone was stuck at home during the darkest moments of the pandemic. But this is also evidenced by the growing international reach of our readers, who are no longer just Italian but follow us from all over Europe, America, and increasingly from China and the rest of Asia. This is the result of the technological breakthrough FIRSTonline made at the end of last summer when it launched a multilingual platform based onArtificial intelligence which allows the immediate and free translation of all texts published on the homepage into the most widely spoken languages in the world.
Good online journalism isn't just about fighting fake news.
All this fills us with joy and encourages us to continue the fight for free and competent information. But the numbers, as important and gratifying as they are, are only one aspect of FIRSTonline's work. In reality, the birth of our site, or rather our web journal—which offers readers a non-static product, constantly updated from dawn to dusk on the essential economic and financial news—began with a very challenging challenge: it is possible, even in the jungle of the Internet, to do something different. good journalism That is, free, competent, and engaging information? In other words, can we provide reliable, quality information in an environment rife with fake news, along with the perverse logic of copy-and-paste and the pursuit of the latest click, without any scrutiny of sources or news reliability? Yes, we can. Yes, it is possible to do good online journalism in the internet age, but we must always remember that information is not simply the aggregation of news; that beyond description, we must also be able to interpret reality, and that, ultimately, good journalism is that which has a strong and clear identity, that which is technically impeccable but also capable of speaking to non-experts. To put it in a nutshell, it is journalism with a soul.
FIRSTonline, identity in 5 values
In these 15 years FIRSTonline has tried to define its identity on the basis of a grid of five constitutive and identifying values which always inspire his writings: independence, reliability, competence, quality, and creativity. Providing information out of the core Without being needlessly eccentric but always reliable and never banal, it is the challenge that has accompanied us since birth and that continues to fascinate us.
Can we say we've won the challenge and are producing and continuing to produce good journalism online? It's up to readers to decide, but the growth in audiences and the trust we feel around us mean something. Of course, we shouldn't rest on our laurels. The challenges facing online journalism are immense, but the future is here, and FIRSTonline is there. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.
Congratulations on this milestone and this well-deserved success. Diligence and commitment are always rewarded! Best wishes for the next 15 years, and keep up the good work!