Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to shut down after nearly 240 years, citing losses and labor rulings

Pittsburgh’s largest daily, The Post-Gazette, will shut down on May 3 after nearly 240 years of operation, the company announced Wednesday.

The Post-Gazette’s owner, Block Communications, blamed steep cash losses amounting to more than $350 million over the past 20 years. It also cited recent losses in court to the paper’s union, the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, which had recently ended a three-year strike.

“(T)he realities facing local journalism make continued cash losses at this scale no longer sustainable,” the announcement reads. “Recent court decisions would require the Post-Gazette to operate under a 2014 labor contract that imposes on the Post-Gazette outdated and inflexible operational practices unsuited for today’s local journalism.”