In dit geval (als de tabellen niet gerelateerd zijn) moet je union gebruiken, geen join.
$books = DB::table('books')->select('title')->where('year', 1994);
$journals = DB::table('journals')->select('title')->where('year', 1994);
$titles = DB::table('newspapers')->select('title')->where('year', 1994)->union($books)->union($journals)->get();