Block Shuttering The Post-Gazette After Losing Union Court Fight
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Six weeks after Pittsburgh Post-Gazette union employees returned to work following a court win and a union vote Block Communications announced it will shut down the newspaper completely – print and digital.
From Pittsburgh’s Trib Live by Megan Trotter And Megan Swift:
Owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced Wednesday they would cease operations on May 3, shuttering one of the oldest metropolitan newspapers in the country.
Block Communications, which has owned the Post-Gazette since 1927, cited sustained financial losses, labor strife and the decline of the local news economy in explaining the move.
The announcement comes a week after Block Communications stated they planned to shutter their other Pittsburgh publication, Pittsburgh City Paper.
Kris B. Mamula for The Post-Gazette posted the story to the P-G’s website (or here):
Over the past 20 years, Block Communications Inc. has lost more than $350 million in cash operating the newspaper. Despite those efforts, the company said that the realities facing local journalism make “continued cash losses at this scale no longer sustainable.”
Recent court decisions would require the Post-Gazette to operate under a 2014 labor contract that imposes “outdated and inflexible operational practices,” making continued publication impossible.
Raquel Ciampi and Marcie Cipriani from WTAE-Pittsburgh report:
On Wednesday morning, the Post-Gazette’s publisher asked the court to freeze an order requiring the company to change its health insurance for union workers. Shortly after they were denied, the announcement came that the newspaper would close.
The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh released a statement about the Post-Gazette shutdown, saying in part, “Instead of simply following the law, the owners chose to punish local journalists and the city of Pittsburgh.”
Joshua Benton at NiemanLab notes:
One of the country’s oldest newspapers, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, says it’s shutting down in May. Not going digital-only — just disappearing. But the delayed closure could also spur some long-delayed action.
Pittsburgh is the 28th-largest metropolitan area in the United States. It has a proud history as a center of industry and has transitioned into a major hub for medicine, robotics, and academia. It’s home to 10 Fortune 500 companies — more than 38 states can claim — and its big three pro sports teams have won 18 championships.
And soon it’ll be the largest American city without a real daily newspaper [emphasis added].
Among the job losses will be freelance editorial cartoonist Tim Hartman who began contributing 3 years ago. We see another Tim Hartman cartoon as this post’s feature image.
The Post-Gazette prints only Thursday and Sunday editions but by the looks of it on newspapers.com the Sunday edition carries the six daily comic strip pages along with a Sunday Funnies supplement (can anyone confirm?)
The daily comics carried by the paper are: Peanuts, Mutts, Doonesbury, Zits, Baby Blues, Sally Forth, Blondie, Carpe Diem, Beetle Bailey, Curtis, Dustin, Pickles, Garfield, [The] Born Loser, For Better or For Worse, Hagar the Horrible, Rhymes With Orange, Pooch Cafe, Dennis the Menace, The Family Circus, Bizarro, and Non Sequitur. Jumble appears on the puzzles page.
The Sunday Funnies section runs the above minus Hagar the Horrible and Dennis the Menace but adds Macanudo, Sherman’s Lagoon, Slylock Fox, and Prince Valiant. Sadly Prince Valiant loses another paper.
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