Newton residents will soon have another way of staying up to date with all things Newton with the launch of The Newton Beacon, a nonprofit local news website.
“The Newton Beacon will be a new nonprofit digital news site committed to fair, nonpartisan and professional reporting of local news and issues,” its website reads. “The focus will be local – rooted in and devoted to the City of Newton.”
The Newton Beacon arose in response to a decline in local news in Newton, which, according to its site, has been proven to be linked to “a lessening in voter participation, a corrosion of fact-based decision making and a weakening of government accountability.”
The Newton News Foundation, a recently established nonprofit, will publish the site.
“Like many cities and towns across America, Newton has very little news coverage from traditional newspapers with the Newton Tab having recently ceased its long-standing print edition and the Boston Globe coverage being very limited,” said Matt Hills, a board member of the Newton News Foundation, in an email.
Professional newsrooms across the country have had a difficult decade. Before the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated newsroom closings and consolidations, Pew Research Center measured that newsroom employment in the United States declined by 23 percent between 2008 and 2019.
The Newton News Foundation’s board of directors—which is entirely made up of Newton residents—will have financial and operational responsibilities in regards to The Newton Beacon, according to the website. Paid professional journalists will make all decisions concerning coverage and content.
