240-Year-Old Newspaper Gets a Last-Minute Buyer

Pittsburgh's 240-year-old newspaper just got pulled back from the brink. Weeks before the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was set to shut down, its owner, Block Communications, agreed to sell the paper's assets to the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, the nonprofit behind the Baltimore Banner, the newspaper reported Tuesday. The deal, effective May 4, ends nearly 100 years of Block family control but keeps the Post-Gazette name, its Pittsburgh-based newsroom and leaders, and its two print days, Thursday and Sunday.

Some operations, like tech and business functions, will be merged with the Venetoulis team in Baltimore, and new owner Stewart Bainum Jr. warned the current newsroom size of around 100 may not be sustainable. As a nonprofit, the Post-Gazette will continue covering elections but will no longer endorse candidates. Venetoulis executives say editorial control will remain local and independent. The move marks a high-profile bet on the nonprofit news model, which blends subscriptions, ads, events, and philanthropy, and comes amid a steady loss of US newspapers since 2005. The Post-Gazette is one of America's oldest newspapers and its closure would have made Pittsburgh the biggest US city without a city-based paper, the AP reports.

Bainum praised the Block family for their commitment to journalism. They "should be recognized for selling the Post-Gazette at a huge discount to the price they could've received," he said. "They care about local news and they're civic minded." Hallie Lauer, the Post-Gazette's city hall reporter, tells the Washington Post that there had been rumors of a buyer but staff weren't told about the deal until Tuesday morning. "People were smiling and shaking their heads. It felt like a collective sigh of relief," Lauer says. "It was this heartwarming moment for the greater Pittsburgh community, too."

• Longtime Post-Gazette columnist Jonathan D. Salant called the sale a "big victory for local journalism," the Post reports. "At a time when communities are losing their local news outlets, this ensures that the dominant one in Pittsburgh will continue to publish," he said. "And since the Pirates and Orioles are in different leagues, any friction should be kept to a minimum."