Don’t be surprised if the Newton Tab or Needham Times doesn’t land on your lawn this week.

 

After decades of free delivery in both communities, the paper’s parent company Gannett is slashing circulation in both communities starting this week.

 

I know what some of you are thinking: “There hasn’t been much news in either paper in years, I won’t miss much.”

 

Sad. But true.

 

As some of you may know, I was once a publisher of both papers, along with 11 other pubs (including the Wellesley Townsman and Watertown Tab & Press). 

 

Back then, in 2010, the Newton Tab had a full-time staff of five feisty reporters and editors. The Times also had four FTEs. The Townsman had five full-time journalists and a funky office on Crest Road. The Watertown Tab had a talented two-person team. 

 

In addition we had five photographers who covered all of our communities, a fully staffed copy desk, high school sports reporters, an arts desk, an illustrator and a graphic designer.

 

All four papers were wildly profitable, made lots of waves, and won lots of awards.

 

Today Gannett's Newton, Needham, Wellesley papers have been whittled down to one FTE per community. Watertown has no dedicated staff. The photo staff, copy desk and all those other jobs were eliminated long ago.

 

Of course, the economics of news has changed dramatically nationwide. The ad market bottomed out. And by the time ownership decided to start charging to view their content online, most of the content was gone because there were so few reporters. Classic Catch 22.

 

 

Without local journalists we have no one watching to make sure our tax dollars are spent wisely. No one making sure our leaders are held accountable. Major decisions are made without any explanation. Elections are decided without candidates being asked tough questions.

 

And as one famous study found, without local news, government costs go up.

 

Wellesley and Watertown are fortunate to have independent, ad supported, sites – The Swellesley Report and the Watertown News – filling some of the gaps in those communities. 

 

But try as they do, those online sites can’t cover everything that needs covering.

 

There is one trend in local journalism that offers some encouragement. It’s the establishment of citizen-driven nonprofits dedicated to covering their community.

 

Some of these sites receive foundation grants and corporate donations. Typically they also rely on individual support similar to the public broadcasting model. (They even have their own association.)

 

We'd really benefit from citizens organizing something like that in our communities. Anyone out there ready to roll up their sleeves and start one?

 

Veteran journalist Marjorie Arons-Barron laments the loss of local journalism and the history of Newton's newspapers in a spot-on blog post here.

 

 

Norfolk County (which includes Needham and Wellesley) was added yesterday to the CDC’s list where indoor mask use is recommended even if you are vaccinated. Middlesex Country (including Newton and Watertown) and Suffolk County (Boston) were added earlier.

 

 

The Newton City Council is scheduled to vote Monday on a home rule petition that would require new buildings and major renovation projects to use electricity instead of fossil fuels for heating, cooling and hot water systems (See #294-20).  

 

Yesterday, I wrote to the council asking them to send the proposal back to committee for further deliberation.

 

We appreciate this proposal's good intentions. However, we do not believe the full impact of this specific measure, as written, has been fully vetted. The chamber has not yet determined if we support or oppose the item.

 

The chamber never received advance notice about the June 23 public hearing on the specific item. We also did not receive any advance notice from the mayor’s office, or the council, that this was under consideration as we typically would.

 

Many of our members and I first learned about this item last week in Mayor Fuller’s email newsletter when she wrote that the proposal had her full support. 

 

Like I said, it may be that this proposal is worthy of approval.

 

But it may also be that it creates consequences that could negatively impact our housing goals. It might also make it harder to attract new employers, or for existing business and nonprofits to renovate or expand.

 

We also need to consider if the technology is ready and affordable. Or if the grid can handle the increased demand. We need to know how it would impact our overall post-pandemic economic recovery -- or even if mandatory electrification is truly the best path forward to achieve net zero energy goals.

 

Ultimately, we might decide that the environmental benefits are worth all other sacrifices. But let's vet the tradeoffs first.

 

The Globe’s John Hilliard has more here.

 

 

 

MassHire is hosting a Massachusetts Virtual Job Fair, Aug. 16-20, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. It's free and open to all employers and jobseekers. See the event schedule to learn more

 

 

Over the last year, Massachusetts state government collected more than $5 billion more from residents, workers and businesses than it was expecting, writes Colin A. Young at State House News.

 

The surge in tax receipts should give lawmakers a massive surplus to spend at the same time that they are considering how to use $4.8 billion in American Rescue Plan Act money that needs to be allocated by 2024.

 

Gov. Charlie Baker had proposed to use $900 million of the expected surplus on a two-month sales tax holiday, but Democrats waved-off that idea within hours of when the governor presented it.

 

 

The state should use part of that surplus, or ARPA dollars, to reduce the unfair burden being placed on employers to cover $7 billion COVID unemployment claims.

 

“Unlike past recessions, the unemployment insurance claims from COVID were not the fault of employers,” Jon Hurst of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts wrote in a Globe oped this week.

 

“Small-business owners did not order the business closures or the workplace and commerce restriction; nor did they prompt school and daycare closures. Employers also didn’t trigger the extra emergency unemployment insurance benefits.”

 

Without relief, our businesses and nonprofits – including employers that never laid of a single worker during the pandemic and even businesses that haven't been created yet -- will be paying the cost of COVID claims for the next 20 years.

 

That’s not fair. And -- given the availability of federal funds designed to help to do things just like this -- it's not necessary either.

 

That’s today’s Need to Knows, unless you need to know who had the chutzpa to charge you $28.75 for a Sam Adams Summer Ale at LaGuardia, Kennedy or Newark airports.

 

I'll be back with some good news on Friday.

 

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