PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will publish its last edition and cease operations May 3.
A Wednesday news release from Block Communications Inc. and the Block family announced the plan. The release was published on the Editor & Publisher website.
Block Communications also owns the Toledo Blade and television stations.
“Over the past 20 years, Block Communications has lost more than $350 million in cash operating the Post-Gazette,” the news release states. “Despite those efforts, the realities facing local journalism make continued cash losses at this scale no longer sustainable.”
It also references a court decision late last year. Journalists who had been on strike for three years returned to the newsroom in November after an appeals court ruled the company had bargained in bad faith, according to the Tribune Review.
Bloomberg Law reported the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to halt the lower court ruling.
“Recent court decisions would require the Post-Gazette to operate under a 2014 labor contract that imposes on the Post-Gazette outdated and inflexible operational practices unsuited for today’s local journalism,” according to the news release.
In 2019, the Post-Gazette won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill, Pa.
“We deeply regret the impact this decision will have on Pittsburgh and the surrounding region,” the news release states. “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.”