By TAYLOR HARTZSTAFF WRITER Sitting around the kitchen table in their childhood home, Susan, Marta, and Robert Urillo browsed through a stack of black and white photos from the early days of The Southington Observer. The community weekly newspaper celebrated its anniversary in December, celebrating 40 years since the first Observer rolled off the Southington presses on Dec. 3, 1975 under the watchful gaze of Anthony L. Urillo with wife, Jennie, by his side. The three children recalled memories of what the paper meant to their parents and what it was like for the seven siblings—Stephanie, Mary, Susan, Marta, Anthony, Angela, and Robert—growing up in the newspaper industry in Southington. The process for starting The Observer was exactly what the original tag line read: “An independent newspaper – open to all parties – influenced by none,” said Robert, viewing a photo of himself at 11-years-old, proudly standing beside his father with the paper’s first issue. As the Urillo children have watched the news industry evolve over the past four decades, they agreed that their parents’ product still thrives because of its local angle. “It’s local news, and people want to know what’s going on,” said Marta. “People who went to high […]
By TAYLOR HARTZSTAFF WRITER Sitting around the kitchen table in their childhood home, Susan, Marta, and Robert Urillo browsed through a stack of black and white photos from the early days of The Southington Observer. The community weekly newspaper celebrated its anniversary in December, celebrating 40 years since the first Observer rolled off the Southington presses on Dec. 3, 1975 under the watchful gaze of Anthony L. Urillo with wife, Jennie, by his side. The three children recalled memories of what the paper meant to their parents and what it was like for the seven siblings—Stephanie, Mary, Susan, Marta, Anthony, Angela, and Robert—growing up in the newspaper industry in Southington. The process for starting The Observer was exactly what the original tag line read: “An independent newspaper – open to all parties – influenced by none,” said Robert, viewing a photo of himself at 11-years-old, proudly standing beside his father with the paper’s first issue. As the Urillo children have watched the news industry evolve over the past four decades, they agreed that their parents’ product still thrives because of its local angle. “It’s local news, and people want to know what’s going on,” said Marta. “People who went to high […]