In September 1880,
Carlo Barsotti, along with Vincenzo Polidori, founded
Il Progresso Italo-Americano in New York City – the first Italian-language daily newspaper in the United States. Its inaugural issue was published on September 29, 1880. The paper quickly grew to become the most widely circulated foreign-language newspaper in the city.
Il Progresso was established as a direct challenge to Giovanni Francesco Secchi de Casali’s weekly ''L'Eco d'Italia''. De Casali had dismissed Barsotti's reports on the efforts of an Italian American committee formed in response to the 1880 death sentence of
Pietro Balbo, convicted of murdering his wife. Frustrated that the only Italian newspaper in New York showed no concern for the fate of a compatriot facing execution, Barsotti resolved to create a more engaged and outspoken daily. In its earliest form, the newspaper was literally "run by hand." It began as a short, handwritten report in Italian on the Pietro Balbo trial, written with a fountain pen and posted outside Barsotti’s shop near Mulberry Street. So many people gathered to read it that Barsotti began producing multiple handwritten copies, which he sold to the growing audience. To manage the paper's operations, Barsotti hired
Adolfo Rossi, a recent immigrant from Italy with no prior experience in journalism. Despite his inexperience, Rossi proved highly capable and helped turn
Il Progresso into a thriving publication as its editor-in-chief. Rossi assumed the role of editor-in-chief on December 6, 1880. After a brief one-day interruption, the paper reappeared on December 23 with a new title,
Il Progresso Italo-Americano, along with a redesigned format and masthead. It would retain this name until 1988, when
America Oggi took up its legacy. At the time, New York’s Italian community numbered around 25,000, many of whom were illiterate. Nonetheless, the newspaper managed to survive, largely sustained by advertising revenue. Rossi, hired as a jack-of-all-trades, worked from 9 a.m. to midnight, serving as both editor and sole correspondent. He faced numerous challenges: a minimal staff, printers unfamiliar with Italian who introduced frequent errors, and the logistical hurdles of daily production. Rossi translated local news from English, adapted content from Italian sources, proofread each edition, and handled the layout. He later recounted these early, chaotic days in his 1892 memoir,
Un italiano in America (An Italian in America). The newspaper consisted of four pages: two were entirely devoted to advertisements, while the remaining two focused on news from Italy. The front page featured the latest transatlantic dispatches, translated from English, alongside a brief editorial and a summary of American news. ==Later years==