The owners of Pittsburgh’s largest newspaper say they will shut it down in May.
Block Communications, Inc. said Wednesday it plans to publish the final edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and cease operations on May 3.
The company said it has lost more than $350 million over the past two decades while operating the Post-Gazette.
In a statement, the Block family, which owns the company, said, “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 statement read.
The move comes after Block Communications lost a legal battle against the union that represents journalists at the paper.
Employees were told the paper was closing down “in a pre-recorded video played during an emergency meeting, via Zoom, at which no company representatives spoke live,” according to a statement issued Wednesday by the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, which represents Post-Gazette journalists.
Workers with the guild had been on strike for more than three years over disputes about unfair labor practices. In Nov. 2025, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Post-Gazette to restore the terms of a 2014-17 contract that the company threw out in July 2020.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the company’s application for a stay. With the stay denied, the company would have had to pay for healthcare and return to bargaining for a new union contract.
Block Communications said the 2014 contract would impose “outdated and inflexible operational practices unsuited for today’s local journalism.”
“Instead of simply following the law, the owners chose to punish local journalists and the city of Pittsburgh,” said guild president Andrew Goldstein. “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.”
Guild attorney Joseph J. Pass said now that the Blocks have been told by multiple courts that they have to honor the agreement they made in the previous contract, they’re choosing to go out of business instead.
“During our negotiations we had asked them more than once, ‘are you folks claiming you don't have the ability to pay?’” Pass said. He said the company’s response was, “‘Oh, no. We are not claiming that.’”
Had Block Communications claimed they could not pay for the union’s demands, the company would have had to open their books to the union.
“They could have settled that contract ten times over for what they're spending on lawyers,” Pass said.
County Executive Sara Innamorato called the decision to close “a major loss” for the area.
“I’m deeply worried about the public’s ability to access trustworthy and fact-checked information at a time when misinformation is running rampant online,” she said.
The announcement to shutter the Post-Gazette comes one week after the sudden closure of another Block Communications outfit, the Pittsburgh City Paper.
“It is unclear if Block Communications pursued other pathways for buyers or reimagining a downsized future for the papers, but destroying two legacy papers in a week leaves a gaping hole in our local news environment and I will be engaging local leaders to assess options for a more robust and sustainable local news ecosystem,” Innamorato said.
State Senator Lindsey Williams of Allegheny County said in a statement that the Block family “should be ashamed.” She said the family-owned company could have saved money if they had negotiated with the union in good faith.
“My heart goes out to the Post-Gazette workers who have been through so much and have never deserved how they were treated. They are the only ones leaving that building with their dignity intact,” Williams said.
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