Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to Shutter This Year After Failed Union Effort, $350 Million in Losses
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will shutter its print and web operations on May 3, management announced Wednesday.
The historic, Pulitzer Prize-winning publication’s parent company Block Communications Inc. shared that the paper would close after years of being embroiled with staff over union ratification and what it cited as $350 million in losses.
“Over the past 20 years, Block Communications has lost more than $350 million in cash operating the Post-Gazette,” ownership’s statement on the closure read. “Despite those efforts, the realities facing local journalism make continued cash losses at this scale no longer sustainable.”
It continued: “We deeply regret the impact this decision will have on Pittsburgh and the surrounding region. The Block family is proud of the service the Post-Gazette has provided to Pittsburgh for nearly a century and will exit with their dignity intact.”
The union responded to the news Wednesday with a different message. In a statement of its own released online, they claimed the decision came “after years of wasting millions of dollars losing court battles in attempts to deny their workers’ basic rights” and a Supreme Court loss for the publisher’s decade-long attempt to bust the paper’s union.
“Instead of simply following the law, the owners chose to punish local journalists and the city of Pittsburgh,” Andrew Goldstein, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, said. “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 news was abrupt and shocking to the employees. One reportedly said they were given 45 minutes notice of an upcoming Zoom call only for them to be informed in a pre-recorded, one-minute message from corporate that the paper was folding later this year.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was originally founded in 1789. It took on its current name in 1927 following a merger of the Pittsburgh Gazette Times and The Pittsburgh Post.
In 2019, the publication won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting that happened in October 2018.
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