Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announces it has found a buyer to keep the newspaper open

NEW YORK (AP) – With just two weeks left to close, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said Tuesday it has found a last-minute buyer; it was a successful nonprofit journalism operation that agreed to keep the struggling newspaper open.

The resolution to months of concern about newspaper closures in Western Pennsylvania comes at a difficult time for the American newspaper industry, which lost jobs, resources and sometimes entire companies as the internet upended its traditional revenue model at the turn of this century.

The Post-Gazette’s origins date back to 1786, when it was the first newspaper to open west of the Allegheny Mountains, and its closure would make Pittsburgh the nation’s largest community without a city-based newspaper.

“For us to be a vibrant and strong city as we are now, it’s imperative that we have a newspaper that shows that,” said Jay Costa, the top Democrat in the Pennsylvania State Senate, whose district includes about half of Pittsburgh.

Block Communications, owners of the Post-Gazette, said it has agreed to purchase the assets of the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, which publishes the digital Baltimore Banner. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The Post-Gazette said: The new owners would continue to print the newspaper on two days, Thursday and Sunday, and operate a website on the other days.

The newspaper was supposed to close on May 3.

“We are committed to working with exceptional journalists, as well as civic and business leaders in the region, to build a new future for local journalism in Western Pennsylvania,” said Bob Cohn, CEO of the Venetoulis Institute. “We are clear-eyed about the task ahead. We learned at Maryland that this work takes time, discipline and investment.”

The institute, which opened the Banner in 2022, said it appointed David Shribman, editor-in-chief of the Post-Gazette from 2003 to 2019, to its board of directors.

The Post-Gazette won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for its coverage of the Shribman-run attack on the Tree of Life synagogue, but has been mired in labor struggles in recent years.

Block Communications announced in January that it would close the newspaper; The same day, the U.S. Supreme Court previously rejected an appeal in a case regarding health benefits provided to striking workers.

Banner also won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting, even though he was very young. During a difficult time for the news industry, Banner reached 79,500 paid subscribers.

Steve Mellon, who has been a photographer for the newspaper for a long time, said, “I am now more hopeful about the future of the Post-Gazette than I was yesterday.” Employees were concerned that the newspaper would be sold to a hedge fund that was exploiting the assets of media companies rather than a nonprofit organization dedicated to local journalism.

But he said there were still many questions, such as how many staff would remain under new ownership and how much Venetoulis would be willing to invest in a newspaper that was losing money. Mellon and some other journalists at the paper are exploring starting a joint news website, and he’s not sure what those plans will be.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a newspaper based in a suburb of Pittsburgh, was planning to add staff in Pittsburgh and begin publishing a weekend city edition the week after the Post-Gazette closed. Those plans will not change as a result of the sale of its rival, CEO Jennifer Bertetto said Tuesday.

Andrew Conte, a journalism professor at Point Park University in Pittsburgh who is active in promoting small news organizations in the community, said the sale poses a challenge for people in the area: To what extent will they support local journalism? “It’s really in their hands,” he said.

Sara Innamorato, executive of Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, called the newspaper a cornerstone of the area’s civic life for generations. Innamorato said in a written statement that “the transition to a nonprofit model represents an opportunity to strengthen independent, community-centered reporting and ensure residents continue to access the information they need to stay engaged and informed.”

He said a strong local news outlet is essential to a healthy democracy and “this must include supporting the journalists and workers who make that work possible with good-paying, family-sustaining jobs.”

Both Block and Venetoulis explained that their agreement reflects “a shared commitment to sustaining local journalism in Pittsburgh.”

Associated Press journalists Mark Scolforo and Rebecca Boone contributed.