I woke up this morning to the news that Andrea Tempestini is dead. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, he was the deputy editor of Libero, one of Italy’s better-known daily papers. He was 40.
Here’s what has been reported so far. On Monday evening, 28 September, firefighters and carabinieri went to his home in the Maciachini area of Milan. His sister had called them. She’d been trying to reach him for about two days and couldn’t. Medics arrived, but it was too late. Police say there’s no sign anyone attacked him. Italian outlets add that a voluntary act hasn’t been ruled out, but the investigation is still open, so I won’t guess. Nobody should.
What I can talk about is his work, which says a lot about how newsrooms have changed.
Tempestini started at Libero in 2010, the same year he became a professional journalist. He’d studied communication in Milan and then went to the journalism school in Urbino. Before Libero there was time at Il Sole 24 Ore and at Rai Corporation. Fast forward a decade and a half, and he was deputy editor and the person running the paper’s online operation: the website, the SEO, the podcasts, the video and social side. Readers rarely think about that kind of job. They should. It’s the reason a newspaper founded in 2000 still reaches people on their phones.
Politicians noticed too. Senate President Ignazio La Russa said Tempestini stood out for his professionalism and passion. Galeazzo Bignami, who leads Brothers of Italy in the Chamber of Deputies, spoke of a void left in the journalistic world. Those are the formal words you’d expect. Behind them is a newsroom short one colleague, and a sister who made a call she’ll never forget.
Forty is young. That’s really all there is to say.
If this hits close to home, or you’re struggling yourself, please talk to someone you trust or contact a local support line today.