Watertown’s lone remaining print newspaper, the Watertown Tab, will cease printing newspapers, and leaves the City with no print newspaper for the first time since (at least) the late 1800s.
Subscribers to the Tab’s email news briefing received the following noticed Thursday morning.
“The Watertown Tab will cease publishing a print newspaper and will instead exclusively offer news online at www.wickedlocal.com/watertowntab, on social media, via digital newsletters and other platforms.”
The parent company, Gannett, made similar announcements about the Newton Tab and Needham Times.
The Watertown Tab & Press is the amalgamation of some of Watertown’s historic newspapers. The Watertown Press started publishing in 1870, and in 1997 it merged with the Watertown Sun (which dates back to 1921 according to the resources available at the Watertown Free Public Library).
I believe the Watertown Tab is the paper of record for posting legal notices to us including advance notices of our government meetings, bids for city work, notices for mortgage payment failures, name changes, assignments of people in charge of people’s personal issues and many other issues. Also it publishes recent real estate sales that help people see what is going on in our neighborhoods and city. How are people now going to be notified publicly of all these issues? Is it now going to be incumbent on Watertown residents to search elsewhere for this information? Some of our older residents don’t use computers or use them very infrequently. That doesn’t seem to be the best answer to disseminate this important information and have transparent communications.
The Tab has been getting thinner and thinner and not actually covering much Watertown news lately and has been disappointing in the last year especially. They even stopped publishing crime reports and notices of Beacon Hill bills being addressed. However, we need another alternative. Watertown News does fill the gap somewhat as it focuses on local news and crimes, but as it is an online publication many people don’t see it.
It is my understanding that local municipalities and the Mass. Court System, in areas serviced by the Gannett news organization, are actively reviewing options for the future publication of Public Notices, after local hard-copy printed newspapers cease. As noted in the article, many neighboring communities will be impacted.
On 12/01/2016, Public Notices Mass., launched a website that posts many of the notices that appear in local printed newspapers, inclusive of the Watertown Tab. The site can be viewed at: masspublicnotices.org
Angeline Maria B. Kounelis
Thanks for the info, Angie!