MW Pittsburgh's largest newspaper says it's shutting down just weeks after end of 3-year strike
By Lukas I. Alpert
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's owner, Block Communications, says a November court ruling ordering the paper to restore an earlier employee contract made continuing unsustainable
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's owners said they would shut the newspaper in May after nearly 240 years in business.
At the end of November, striking workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette returned to their desks after more than three years on the picket line. On Wednesday, they learned they would soon be out of work again, as the newspaper's owner announced the Post-Gazette will be shutting down later this year.
The publication's longtime owner, Block Communications Inc., said in a statement that the court ruling that ended the strike and ordered the restoration of terms from an older contract for the paper's employees had made it unsustainable to continue to operate.
"Over the past 20 years, Block Communications has lost more than $350 million in cash operating the Post-Gazette," the company said. "Despite those efforts, the realities facing local journalism make continued cash losses at this scale no longer sustainable."
The company said that the court ruling "imposes on the Post-Gazette outdated and inflexible operational practices unsuited for today's local journalism." It said the paper would cease operating entirely on May 3.
The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh said the company made the announcement to shut the nearly 240-year-old paper just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court had declined to issue a stay of the lower-court ruling ordering them to reinstate the earlier contract.
"Instead of simply following the law, the owners chose to punish local journalists and the city of Pittsburgh," said Andrew Goldstein, president of the newspaper guild. "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 issues that led to the strike at the Post-Gazette date back to 2017, when the last contract between the newspaper union and management expired. Journalists continued to work without a new contract for the next several years, but relations with management increasingly soured. In 2020, Block Communications unilaterally declared an impasse in negotiations and rescinded the existing contract, forcing employees to switch to a far more expensive health plan.
In 2022, 120 employees walked out and remained on strike for over three years, the longest work stoppage in the country in recent years. The matter made its way through court for years until the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the striking workers in November.
By that point, the number of workers who remained out on the picket line had dwindled to 28 from the original 120 who walked out at the beginning of the strike. Initially, the strike included workers from five unions, but after a series of settlements and buyouts, only members of the newspaper guild remained.
The number of striking guild members had also shrunk from about 60 when the walkout began, as many had to find other jobs under the financial strain of being out of work for so long.
The paper, which has been owned by the Block family for over 100 years, continued publishing, relying on a staff made up of about 30 employees who declined to go on strike back in October 2022, and an additional 30 or so reporters hired since then who crossed the picket line. The paper published a print edition just two days a week.
Tensions had risen in recent years among members of the Block family, who also own the Toledo Blade newspaper, a regional internet service and cable provider in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and a handful of local television stations.
In 2024, Allan Block filed a lawsuit against his twin brother John Block and several other Block family members after he had been pushed out as CEO and chairman. Allan said he had been forced out because he opposed a move by his brother to sell the entire company.
The suit was settled after just a few months, with Allan being reinstated as CEO, although the chairmanship was given to another relative.
In August, the company moved to sell its four local television stations in Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio to Gray Media Inc. $(GTN)$ for $80 million.
-Lukas I. Alpert
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January 07, 2026 15:59 ET (20:59 GMT)
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