newton tab | Newton MA News and Politics BlogI can’t find it online yet, but there’s a column in this week’s TAB (which I assume  is running in all of the Wicked Local papers owned by GateHouse Media) that hints of big changes coming to the Newton TAB and the company’s hundreds of other publications.

Executive editor Lisa Strattan begins by reassuring us that GateHouse remains committed to story telling…

“through our award-winning prose and photography; through video and podcasts; with lists and blogs; and even on other platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook.” 

And Strattan adds:

“…our journalists will still be in the community, providing news and information that matters to you and helps to simplify and better your life.”

But then she adds:

“We just plan to go about it in a different way.”

Strattan’s column is less clear as to exactly what those changes will be (although this memo originally posted by media blogger Dan Kennedy, provides some hints). But here’s the part in her column in today’s TAB that raises the biggest concern for me:

If you’re someone who contacts the newspaper on a regular basis, be sure to check out our staff listing on next week’s Perspectives page to be certain you’ve got the right person for the job; the editor you’re accustomed to calling may now be in a new role.

Does that mean Andy Levin will no longer be the Newton TAB’s editor?  Or that perhaps that the TAB will no longer have an editor? 

It’s not clear. But Strattan does write:

“Guaranteed, the changes in store for us will be more dramatic for us than for our audiences

Hopefully so.

But not having a dedicated editor at the Newton TAB would be pretty dramatic in a city that’s become used to our paper of record being led by a strong editorial voice since 1979.

UPDATE: Here’s Strattan’s column