Pittsburgh Post-Gazette shutting down
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will distribute its last issue May 3 and close after 240 years of news coverage.
Block Communications, which owns the Post-Gazette and Toledo (Ohio) Blade, announced Wednesday, Jan. 7, it is closing the newspaper, citing mounting financial losses it said eclipsed $350 million in the last 20 years.
“Continued cash losses at this scale (is) no longer sustainable,” according to the Post-Gazette.
The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh criticized ownership’s decision to close the paper, saying it wasted millions of dollars in court battles over the past several years.
“Instead of simply following the law, the owners chose to punish local journalists and the city of Pittsburgh,” Andrew Goldstein, the guild’s president, said in a news release. “Post-Gazette journalists have done award-winning work for decades, and we’re going to pursue all options to make sure that Pittsburgh continues to have the caliber of journalism it deserves.”
The closure of the Post-Gazette will have far-ranging implications for Western Pennsylvania, said Andrew Conte, assistant vice president of the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University.
“This is a major blow. The Post-Gazette has been telling these stories since people first came across the Allegheny Mountains,” Conte said. “It’s a major part of the news ecosystem here. This will also have a major impact on the journalists. It’s a major blow for everyone in Western Pennsylvania, who will have less access to reliable info.”
The announcement came mere hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to overturn a lower court order in November requiring the company to return to the bargaining table after a three-year strike and negotiate a new contract with its union. The court decision required the Block family, which owns the paper, and union to operate under a 2014 labor contract, which had expired and later resulted in the newsroom strike, until a new collectively bargained contract could be signed.
Post-Gazette employees were previously on strike for over three years due to the contract dispute.
The decision comes a week after the Pittsburgh City Paper closed its doors after 34 years. The City Paper also is owned by Block Communications.
The Block family has owned the Post-Gazette since 1927, when Paul Block made a deal with William Randolph Hearst that led to Block getting the Pittsburgh Post and the Gazette Times to combine them into a morning paper called the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“The Post-Gazette, for over 200 years, has been telling stories of Pittsburghers from birth to death, and everything in between. It’s reported on government accountability, sports, features. It knits together our communities,” Conte said.
The Pittsburgh Gazette, a predecessor, first published in 1786.
The print copies of the Post-Gazette have been printed by Eagle Media since 2022.
Access to information and connections to the community come with local news, Conte said.
“Without the local news, people don’t know what information they can trust, and it undermines the ability to connect with neighbors, find out what’s happening at your schools, churches, across town,” Conte said.
There are newspapers and outlets around Western Pennsylvania, including over 30 with the Pittsburgh Media Partnership, that work to inform their communities. The loss of the Post-Gazette, Conte said, shows the importance of supporting organizations out in the field working to inform their communities.
“All of us who live here in Western Pennsylvania have to take this as a call to arms to support local news in any way you’re able to do it,” Conte said. “Buy a subscription. If you can’t afford one, share information in the most responsible ways. Do what you can to thank the people telling these stories. Contribute to the conversations in a positive way.”
