Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Writer and lawyer Hugh Henry Brackenridge arranged for printers John Scull and Joseph Hall to bring a wooden press from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. On July 29, 1786, the Pittsburgh Gazette published its first issue, a four-page weekly and the first newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains.⁠[1]

Both founders were 21 at the time. Hall died of an unknown disease on November 10 of the same year.⁠[2]

Scull stepped down as publisher in 1816; Neville Craig took over in 1822 and made it Pittsburgh’s first daily.⁠[1]

In 1927 the paper merged with another and became the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette under Paul BlockPaul BlockPaul Block (died 1941) was an American newspaper publisher and advertising representative who founded a firm selling national advertising for newspapers in 1900, acquired The Blade of Toledo in 1926 and created the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 1927; his family business later became Block Communications.Open the full entry.⁠[3]

Reporter Raymond Sprigle won the paper a 1938 Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles, supported by photostats of the essential documents, exposing Justice Hugo L. Black’s one-time membership in the Ku Klux Klan.⁠[4]

In 1992 a plan that would have cut about 200 distribution jobs set off a strike at the Pittsburgh Press that lasted eight months; during it the Press put itself up for sale, and the Block family’s Blade CommunicationsBlock CommunicationsBlock Communications, Inc. (BCI) is a privately held family media holding company headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. Rooted in the newspaper advertising firm Paul Block founded in 1900, it long operated The Blade, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, several television stations and the Buckeye Broadband cable and internet business.Open the full entry bought it in a deal worth $100 million in cash and stock.⁠[5]

Photographer Martha Rial won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for her portraits of survivors of the conflicts in Rwanda and Burundi.⁠[6]

In June 2018 editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers, a Pulitzer Prize finalist who had worked at both the Pittsburgh Press and the Post-Gazette, was fired. The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh said that a number of his cartoons critical of President Trump and conservative positions had been killed, and that the editorial pages were shifting toward the “pro-Trump, pro-conservative orthodoxy” of the publisher and editorial director.⁠[7]

From August 2018 the paper stopped printing Tuesday and Saturday editions on the grounds of production costs and a digital focus; in October 2019 two more print days were cut, leaving three print editions a week.⁠[8]

The staff of the Post-Gazette won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.⁠[9]

In July 2019 a memo to staff indicated the paper would print only on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from September 30. That month, staffers present said publisher and editor-in-chief John Robinson Block subjected newsroom staff to a tirade and struck a union sign reading “Shame on the Blocks!”; Allan Block then issued a statement of regret that anyone might have misconstrued what occurred.⁠[10]

On June 12, 2020, the company presented the Guild with a final offer that included reduced health care; on July 27 it declared an impasse and unilaterally implemented its terms.⁠[11]

In a letter dated December 31 to the Guild, the company announced it would drop its Friday print edition from February 27, leaving only Thursday and Sunday editions, and said it had decided to deliver its news content exclusively online.⁠[8]

In September 2022, after the paper failed to pay health-care rate increases of $19 per employee per week under the 2014–2017 contract, the provider terminated coverage for craft-union members. On October 6 the four craft unions representing production, distribution and advertising workers struck, and newsroom staff represented by the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh joined them; the unions had been without a contract since March 31, 2017.⁠[12]

In January 2023 an NLRB administrative law judge ruled that the paper had bargained in bad faith with the Guild and unilaterally imposed working conditions after breaking off talks; the paper appealed to the full Board that March. The NLRB later authorized its Pittsburgh regional director to seek a temporary injunction in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.⁠[13]

The NLRB found that the paper violated Section 8(a)(5) and (1) of the National Labor Relations Act by unilaterally implementing portions of its final offer absent a lawful impasse, that it bargained in bad faith, and that it violated Section 8(a)(1) by creating the impression that union activity was under surveillance (373 NLRB No. 93).⁠[14]

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit panel of Judges Restrepo, Bibas and Chung denied the paper’s petition for review and enforced the NLRB’s September 20, 2024, order. The ruling is not precedential.⁠[11]

After Guild members voted to end the strike, journalists returned to the North Shore newsroom on November 24, 2025. The strike had begun with 60 journalists and ended with 26; the Pittsburgh Union Progress, the union’s publication, would close and be archived, and a new contract remained to be negotiated.⁠[15]

Block Communications announced that it would publish the final edition on May 3 and cease operations, saying it had lost more than $350 million operating the paper over two decades. The U.S. Supreme Court had denied the company’s application for a stay of the appeals court order, and the company called the 2014 contract’s terms “outdated and inflexible operational practices unsuited for today’s local journalism.”⁠[16]

Guild president Andrew Goldstein said the owners “chose to punish local journalists and the city of Pittsburgh.”⁠[16]

The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, the nonprofit publisher of The Baltimore Banner, signed an agreement with Block Communications to buy the paper’s assets for an undisclosed price, without assuming Block’s contracts; the paper would become a nonprofit. The closure announcement had drawn about 10 potential buyers, and Block said Venetoulis was not the highest bidder. The paper then had about 60,000 print and digital subscriptions and 100 journalists.⁠[3]

The sale was to take effect on May 4, the day after the scheduled final edition. The Post-Gazette name would stay the same, newsroom and local business leadership would remain in Pittsburgh, some functions would merge with the Venetoulis Institute, and the paper would remain subscription-based.⁠[17]

The new owner sent employment offers to about half of the reporters, editors and photographers; Tracey DeAngelo remained president and Stan Wischnowski executive editor, and the first edition under new ownership appeared on May 4.⁠[18]

Guild president Goldstein said at least a third of newsroom workers were losing their jobs, and the Guild alleged that 80% of former strikers were not retained; the Venetoulis Institute did not publicly address the claim.⁠[19]

After the Third Circuit denied rehearing on January 14, 2026, PG Publishing petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari on April 14; the NLRB and the Guild filed briefs in opposition, and the Court denied the petition on October 5.⁠[20]

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Official website: https://www.post-gazette.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[21]