Nonprofit Buys Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Halts May 3 Closure

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one of America's oldest newspapers and the civic anchor of a major American city, has found a buyer — barely two weeks before it was set to go dark forever.

The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, the nonprofit organization behind the Baltimore Banner, agreed Tuesday to purchase the Post-Gazette's assets from owner Block Communications, averting a May 3 closure that would have left Pittsburgh — the nation's largest city without a city-based paper — without a daily news operation for the first time since 1786.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The sale carries direct resonance for Treasure Coast readers. The collapse of local newspapers is not a Pittsburgh problem or a Baltimore problem — it is a national condition that has reshaped civic life from western Pennsylvania to Stuart, Florida. Nationally, the newspaper industry has shed thousands of jobs and dozens of entire operations as digital platforms dismantled the advertising model that funded American journalism for a century. The forces that nearly extinguished a Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom in Pittsburgh are the same forces reshaping local news across Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties.

Under the deal, the Post-Gazette will continue printing physical editions on Thursdays and Sundays, with a website covering the remaining five days. Bob Cohn, CEO of the Venetoulis Institute, called the path ahead clear-eyed but achievable. "We have learned in Maryland that this work takes time, discipline and investment," Cohn said in a statement.

The institute, which launched the Banner in 2022, has grown that outlet to 79,500 paid subscribers and earned a Pulitzer Prize — a track record that gave nervous Post-Gazette staff reason for cautious optimism. Employees had feared the paper would be acquired by a hedge fund focused on stripping assets rather than sustaining journalism.

"I'm more hopeful now for the future of the Post-Gazette than I was yesterday," Steve Mellon, a longtime photographer at the paper, said while noting that questions about staffing levels and the institute's investment appetite remain unanswered.

Block Communications announced the pending closure in January, the same day the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear its appeal in a lawsuit over health benefits owed to formerly striking workers.

The Post-Gazette won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting. The new owners named David Shribman, the paper's executive editor from 2003 to 2019, to the Venetoulis Institute board of directors. No transition date beyond the averted May 3 deadline has been announced.

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