Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sold to nonprofit, no longer planning to shut down
Source: The Hill
04/14/26 2:11 PM ET
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was sold to a nonprofit publishing group on Tuesday and will no longer shut down next month. Block Communications Inc., the Post-Gazette’s parent company, sold the paper to the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism. The institute is financed by hotel magnate and former Maryland state Sen. Stewart W. Bainum Jr. (D). Bainum is the publisher of the Baltimore Banner, an award-winning publication that was founded in 2022.
The sale is effective May 4 and the paper will keep its name, Post-Gazette reporter Kris Mamula wrote. The newsroom and local business leadership will remain in the Steel City while other functions, including technology and business operations, will be combined with teams at the Venetoulis Institute.
“The Block family has worked to find the best possible source for responsible local journalism for the Pittsburgh region and we believe we have succeeded,” Karen Johnese, the chair of Block Communications, said in a release. “We are excited to hand our treasured paper over to such a committed and creative organization. “We trust in their integrity and care for our community.” Block Communications, in announcing the decision to cease operations at the Post-Gazette on May 3, said in January that it had lost more than $350 million operating the paper over the last two decades.
That announcement came after the Supreme Court rejected the company’s emergency appeal to block a lower-court order requiring it to restore employee health insurance coverage under an agreement with the paper’s union, the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh. Post-Gazette workers went on strike for three years until November over claims the publisher violated its collective bargaining agreement, while Block Communications argued that the contract, agreed to in 2014, imposed “outdated and inflexible operational practices.”
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5830778-nonprofit-group-buys-post-gazette/
REFERENCES
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143563157
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143571025
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143594495
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The Block family are notoriously ultra-conservative and pro-Trump. They've been unwelcome in BLUE and pro-Union Pittsburgh for as long as I can remember. The fact that they've sold the Post-Gazette to a liberal newspaper publisher is fantastic for all of us.
What's better is that it was sold to a non-profit, so you don't have that obsession to milk something dry to "chase (unrealistic) maximized profits" for skeptical shareholders.