In the fall of 2008, while working as a winter sport correspondent for Infront Media from their Milan office, Compatangelo began freelancing for Italian daily newspaper "Il Secolo XIX" covering events such as the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, the Mediterranean Games in Pescara and the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2009 in Val-d'Isère. His report "The Los Angeles Break Down" was a finalist at the Southern California Journalism Awards in Los Angeles in 2011.