LoR form managing editor at a daily newspaper?

[aprivit]

Hi everyone! I'm an Italian MA graduate in Literature and I want to try my canches in the US academic world: my goal is to get accepted in some Comparative Literature PhD program, hopefully in conjuction with Film Studies. Right now I'm struggling with my recommendation letters: it's been a year since I finished my MA program, but luckly I kept in touch with two professors who seem kind of strong references to me: one is my MA thesis supervisor from my home university and the other is a Ivy league alumnus whom I studied with during an European exchange program I attended.

Unfortunately, these are the only two professors who got to know me pretty well and who are willing to recommend me. My BA thesis supervisor was skeptical about the idea of reccomending me: this just because LoR are not that used for Italian PhD programs, and she thought that a letter of reccomendation could actually harm my application (!). I thought about asking it to other professors from my exchange program, but I fear my application would look weak by sending two reccomendation letters from my exchange program and only one from my Alma mater.

So, I am now considering an alternative for the third letter: in the past few months I worked as an intern for an Italian daily newspaper with national distribution. During my time there, I developed a good work relationship with former managing editor, who is now editor-in-chief in a local newspaper. He has a strong academic background in Medieval and Contemporary History, but of course he only knows me as a journalist, not as a student. So, what's your opinion on this: should I stick with my former managing editor or should I try to catch up with some former professor (either from my exchange program or my own university)?