Board members of the Newton News Foundation — Burton Glass, Aaron Goldman, Matt Hills, Joe Hunter, Rhanna Kidwell, Anne Larner, and Alan Schlesinger — announced on December 15 that the foundation’s online news service, Newton Beacon, will launch in mid-January — at first with limited scope focused on Mayor Fuller’s three proposed tax overrides until the March 14 override vote.
The Beacon‘s override coverage will include “events, interviews with key stakeholders, and analysis of arguments both for and against the proposal.” For this override coverage, the foundation has hired on an interim basis two professional journalists with extensive experience reporting on issues in Newton:
- Gail Spector, former editor of the Newton TAB from 2006 to 2012, covered Newton as a reporter for the Boston Globe and most recently taught beat reporting at Boston University.
- Dan Atkinson, who reported for the Newton TAB from 2005 to 2006 and 2008 to 2010, has since covered Boston City Hall for the Boston Herald and DigBoston, and currently teaches journalism at Lasell University.
Pending results of fundraising, the foundation expects to hire permanent professional journalists and begin full news coverage shortly after the override vote.