Guide
Overview
The Providence Journal, founded in 1829 and generally counted the oldest continuously published daily in the country, is Rhode Island's main paper for the State House and the courts. The Newport Daily News, the Westerly Sun, the Valley Breeze weeklies in the Blackstone Valley, the Warwick Beacon, the Cranston Herald, the Johnston Sun Rise, the Narragansett Times and the Block Island Times cover their towns, and the Boston Globe's Rhode Island edition and Rhode Island Current cover state government online.
Rhode Island newspapers carry the legal notices state law requires for foreclosures, probate and town actions, publish obituaries for the whole state, and hold court coverage that pairs with the Rhode Island Judiciary's public portal.
Official sources on this page were checked on September 25, 2026.
Guide
Rhode Island Newspapers
Find local and statewide newspaper publications for Rhode Island. Access news, sports, classified, entertainment, and archived articles.
Guide
Major Rhode Island newspapers and what they cover
The Journal covers Providence, state government, the Rhode Island Supreme Court and the federal court, with back issues from the 1820s onward in the digital archives. The Newport Daily News covers Aquidneck Island and the Navy, the Sun covers Westerly and the Connecticut border towns, and the Valley Breeze covers Cumberland, Lincoln, Pawtucket, North Providence and Woonsocket. Because Rhode Island has no county governments, the town weeklies carry the town council minutes, police logs and probate court notices that each of the 39 municipalities publishes.
Guide
Historic Rhode Island newspapers online
The Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence holds the state's largest newspaper collection and its Rhode Island Newspaper Project contributes titles to Chronicling America. The Providence Public Library provides free access to the Journal archive with a library card and holds a Providence Journal obituary and news index, and the Rhode Island State Archives holds early titles. Brown University's John Hay Library holds colonial Providence newspapers.
Guide
Legal notices, public notices and obituaries in Rhode Island
Rhode Island law requires mortgagee's sale notices for foreclosures, probate court notices, name changes, tax sales and town council hearings and ordinances to be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the town, and the Rhode Island Press Association collects them in a statewide search. Obituaries run in the Journal statewide and in the town weeklies, and the Providence Public Library's index covers older deaths. Court coverage pairs with the Rhode Island Judiciary's public portal for superior and district court cases.
Guide
Browse Newspapers by State
Straight answers
Rhode Island Newspaper Directory, questions
What is the main newspaper in Rhode Island?
The Providence Journal, founded in 1829 and generally counted the oldest continuously published daily in the country, followed by the Newport Daily News, the Westerly Sun and the town weeklies.
Where are historic Rhode Island newspapers online?
Chronicling America carries Rhode Island titles through the Rhode Island Newspaper Project, and the Rhode Island Historical Society holds the largest collection in the state.
Where are Rhode Island foreclosure notices published?
Mortgagee's sale notices run in a newspaper of general circulation in the town, collected in the Rhode Island Press Association's statewide public notice search.