It’s Not the End After All For the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The sale to the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism goes into effect May 4.
PHOTO BY VIRGINIA LINN
It was supposed to be the end of an era; instead, The Pittsburgh-Post Gazette is readying for the next chapter with a new owner.
Block Communications Inc. is selling the publication to Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a Baltimore-based nonprofit organization and publisher of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Baltimore Banner, which was founded in 2022.
The sale goes into effect May 4, which is a day after the Post-Gazette was slated to cease operations.
“We are committed to working with exceptional journalists, along with civic and business leaders across the region, to build a new future for local journalism in Western Pennsylvania,” Bob Cohn, CEO of the Venetoulis Institute, said in a press release. “We are clear-eyed about the task ahead. We have learned in Maryland that this work takes time, discipline and investment.”
Under the agreement, terms of which were not disclosed, the Post-Gazette will continue to serve Western Pennsylvania, with the newsroom and local business leadership based in Pittsburgh. Other functions, including technology and business operations, will be combined with Venetoulis Institute teams to support long-term sustainability across both organizations.
David Shribman, executive director of the Post-Gazette from 2003 to 2019, will join the Venetoulis board of directors. He previously served as assistant managing editor of the Boston Globe and politics correspondent at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
The Block family, which has owned Western Pennsylvania’s largest news organization since 1927, blamed the closure on ongoing financial losses totaling more than $350 million over the past two decades.
“We are excited to hand our treasured paper over to such a committed and creative organization. We trust in their integrity and care for our community,” Block Communications Chairperson Karen Johnese said in a press release.
Venetoulis Institute was named for Ted Venetoulis, a Maryland civic leader and publisher who believed local journalism is necessary to protect democracy.
The Post-Gazette isn’t the only BCI-owned media outlet to face closure and come out on the other side. In March, Pittsburgh City Paper, the alternative newspaper shuttered on New Year’s Eve after 34 years, announced its return to online journalism and monthly print editions under the new ownership of nonprofit organization LocalMatters.
The publication will be a for-profit endeavor.
