On January 7, 2026, a seismic announcement reverberated through Pittsburgh’s media landscape: the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the city’s 240-year-old newspaper of record, will cease publication on May 3, 2026. The closure, confirmed by Block Communications Inc., the family-owned company that has steered the paper for nearly a century, marks the end of an era not only for Pittsburgh but also for American journalism.
The news arrived abruptly for staff. According to Axios, employees learned of the closure via a pre-recorded video played during an emergency Zoom meeting—no live company representatives, just the message. Jodi Miehls, president and COO of Block Communications, delivered the somber news: “Today I am sharing extremely difficult news. On May 3, 2026, after nearly two centuries of operating, the Post-Gazette plans to publish its final edition.” She cited ongoing financial losses and the “realities facing local journalism” as the driving forces behind the decision.
For many, the shock was palpable. Ed Blazina, News Guild vice president and a longtime reporter, described the newsroom’s reaction as “pretty much dead silence.” He reflected on the many times management had threatened closure during his tenure, but this time, the threat was real. “If I had a nickel for every time they threatened to close the place, I could have retired 10 years ago,” he told PublicSource.
The Post-Gazette’s demise did not occur in a vacuum. The publication has been hemorrhaging money for decades. Block Communications, operated by twin brothers John and Allan Block, revealed that the paper has lost more than $350 million over the past 20 years. In a statement, the company said continued cash losses at this scale were “no longer sustainable.” The Block family expressed deep regret over the impact on Pittsburgh and its surrounding region, stating, “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.”
But the financial woes are only part of the story. The closure follows a tumultuous period of labor unrest and legal battles. In July 2020, the company unilaterally scrapped the collective bargaining agreement with the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, imposing new work rules that worsened health care coverage and other benefits for employees. Workers went on strike in October 2022, demanding a restoration of their contract terms and fair health care. The strike lasted more than three years, a rare and bitter episode in modern American journalism.
Throughout the ordeal, the company racked up millions in legal fees—money that, as union representatives repeatedly pointed out, could have funded the workers’ proposals several times over. The company steadfastly denied that its refusal to meet union demands was due to an inability to pay, yet it also refused to open its books to the unions for scrutiny.
The legal saga reached a crescendo in 2025. In January of that year, an administrative law judge ruled that the company must reinstate the previous contract terms while bargaining a new agreement. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) upheld and expanded this ruling in September 2024. Then, in March 2025, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Post-Gazette to restore the health care terms it had illegally discarded. On November 10, 2025, the same court enforced the NLRB decision, requiring the company to restore all requested terms of the collective bargaining agreement and pay back employees for costs illegally passed onto them.
Block Communications appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking a stay of the health care injunction. The U.S. Solicitor General joined the union and the NLRB in arguing against the company’s request. Less than two days after the union and government filings, the Supreme Court denied the company’s stay request, sealing the newspaper’s fate.
Andrew Goldstein, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, minced no words in his reaction: “Instead of simply following the law, the owners chose to punish local journalists and the city of Pittsburgh. 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.” He added that closing the paper does not absolve the Blocks of their legal obligations: the liability to pay back employees for the illegally passed costs remains, even after the presses fall silent.
Block Communications, for its part, attributed the closure in part to the court’s insistence that the paper operate under a 2014 labor contract. The company argued that these “outdated and inflexible operational practices” were unsuited to the current realities of local journalism. However, union representatives and many staffers disputed this narrative, arguing that the crisis could have been averted with genuine negotiation and transparency. “For me, the big thing is it didn’t have to happen and for them to try to blame the labor situation for it is just preposterous,” Blazina told PublicSource. “They could have settled this for probably $2 million and given us handsome raises, and saved money.”
The ripple effects of the closure are already being felt. The loss of the Post-Gazette will cost hundreds of jobs—about 150 in the newsroom and likely hundreds more in other departments. Non-union staff were told they would receive severance packages if they worked through the final edition, while union staff were told separation packages would be negotiated with their representatives. The closure comes just days after Block Communications shuttered its alternative weekly, the Pittsburgh City Paper, further shrinking the city’s print media landscape.
For the city of Pittsburgh, the loss is profound. The Post-Gazette has chronicled the city’s triumphs and tribulations since 1786, winning Pulitzer Prizes and shaping civic discourse. Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato called the announcement “devastating,” voicing concern about the public’s ability to access trustworthy, fact-checked information at a time when misinformation is rampant online. “I’m shocked that a generational Pittsburgh institution will cease to exist,” she said. Penn State communications professor Zack Furness told Axios that the long-term impact “is immeasurable and won’t be fully realized for years to come.”
With the Post-Gazette gone, Pittsburgh will be left with just one daily publication: the Tribune-Review, which primarily covers city news online and does not distribute a print edition in Pittsburgh. National journalism experts, like Dan Kennedy of Northeastern University, say it is “incredibly unusual for a city the size of Pittsburgh to lose what is essentially its only daily newspaper.” The civic consequences, Kennedy warns, could be dire: “Voting in elections goes down, fewer people run for office, corruption goes up. Those are all the ill effects of not having that journalistic watchdog role.”
As the city faces this uncertain future, the legacy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette—its reporting, its role as a civic watchdog, and its place in the city’s identity—will not be easily replaced. For now, Pittsburghers must brace for life without the newspaper that has been their chronicler for nearly two and a half centuries.
