On a mild April evening, journalists and community members alike swarmed to Black Box Theater. Parking was limited and the event, graciously hosted by Farooq Al-Said in 1Hood Media’s space, was standing room only. The room was fiery with the energy of people pissed off at Block Communications for deciding to close the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after losing a Supreme Court case against their striking workers.
“Your Community Covered: A Cooperative Pittsburgh News Town Hall” could best be summarized as a concept pitch and think tank focused on the future of Pittsburgh’s journalism landscape amid the Post-Gazette’s looming closure. On April 8, The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh showcased “PAPER.” Standing for “Pittsburgh Alliance for People Empowered Reporting,” PAPER positions itself as the first co-op news concept for the city, putting the ownership of the publication into the hands of the workers and the community members buying into it.
The event started with remarks from multimedia journalist Steve Mellon, who was on the picket line with the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh since staff first walked out. He, along with other community members like Tanisha Long, emphasized the importance of free and fair local news for a healthy neighborhood.
“We need reporting that not only represents us, but our neighbors correctly…. I’m not someone that believes news should be unbiased. I think it should be accurate,” Long said.
One sentiment shared at the PAPER town hall was disdain for the bloated corporate ownership that facilitates grossly biased reporting and, in some cases, censorship. Despite remarks from Block Communications citing financial difficulties running a daily print paper, the community has spoken. News is more than profit.
Allegheny County Councilmember At-Large Bethany Hallam reflects on the reality of a lot of born-and-raised yinzers. She grew up with the PG as a staple news outlet. “As with everything billionaires got their hands on… it's gone to shit.”
“It’s so much bigger than one family, one owner, one billionaire. It’s the whole structure,” she said. “There’s so many dope journalists, photographers… people in this room who made the Post-Gazette what it is, and then a bunch of scabs came in, followed a billionaire, and drove it into the ground.”
Print news isn’t profitable because that is not the purpose of news. The purpose of news is to inform. Regardless of profitability, billionaires have something to gain from owning news outlets: control of the narrative. Billionaires tell us fake news, yet they own the news. They sow distrust in your brain and demand you listen to what they say, even though they are throwing stones at glass houses. The billionaire owners and, by extension the elite at large, are trying to scramble us by conflating truths.
The Blocks are no exception to this rule. Many community members felt misrepresented by increasingly conservative-leaning coverage. Minority community members expressed PG reporting felt more and more hostile, especially towards black youth. Hallam spoke to her lived experience, compared to the crime-ridden “hellscape” daily news depicts.
“It’s a beautiful city. There's so much going on and you would never know that by reading the media. We deserve to have a paper that is accountable to us the same way our elected officials are accountable to us,” she said.
On Tuesday, April 14, The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism announced their acquisition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, saving the 240-year-old paper from shuttering. Many people were quick to celebrate. Their mission to “provide high-quality, independent journalism to communities using a sustainable business model that can be replicated in other cities across the country” already sounds more aligned with what people malaised with the PG asked for.
Venetoulis will turn the Post-Gazette into a nonprofit, meaning they can’t endorse political candidates- a gripe that many had with the Blocks using the paper to endorse President Trump and push right-leaning political stories. Venetoulis’ first nonprofit news outlet, the Baltimore Banner, has found success and continues to grow in size and credibility since opening in 2022.
The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh is celebrating the win for fair and free reporting, but acknowledged labor rights are still at risk. The Baltimore Banner reported Venetoulis is “buying only the assets of the paper. It is not required to assume the contracts of Block Communications.”
This does not bode well for union workers. The PG has a similar-sized newsroom to the Baltimore Banner, but Venetoulis founder and philanthropist Stewart W. Bainum Jr. told the Post-Gazette that “[the] current business model does not support the size of the current newsroom.”
Bainum and Venetoulis do provide a glimmer of hope for those who want to see a 240-year-old news outlet keep covering its communities with excellence. One of the other bidders, Alden Global Capital, would have been the final nail in the coffin for the PG. Infamously known as “The Grim Reaper of News,” Alden Global Capital is a hedge fund that would have likely gutted the newsroom and sold it for parts, leaving a skeleton crew behind.
While we can celebrate the win for free and fair reporting, we must keep the people who do the reporting in mind, too. Buying a paper is different from founding an online publication, butBainum and Venetoulis seem ready to navigate this challenge while keeping workers’ thoughts in mind, at least for now. Venetoulis announced they will integrate product development, subscription marketing, and business operations with The Banner, adding former PG executive editor David Shribman to their board of directors.
Ultimately, I see three pillars that we must build our future information landscape on: accurate reporting, fair treatment of workers, and economic sustainability. Both PAPER and Venetoulis are building their foundations on accurate reporting, but experience shortfalls in one of the other pillars. While Venetoulis has philanthropic contributions, PAPER has no monetary stability and must build it from the ground up. PAPER is a union-first, worker-led group, while Venetoulis has already expressed that they don’t have any obligation to bargain with current employees.
The future of the Pittsburgh journalism landscape is still rocky. While we can breathe a sigh of relief that we aren’t losing a legacy outlet, we must still champion the workers doing the reporting for us.
Tanisha Long put it best: “You cannot expect the people in power to put the power in the hands of the people. You have to take it.”
“Your Community Covered: A Cooperative Pittsburgh News Town Hall” could best be summarized as a concept pitch and think tank focused on the future of Pittsburgh’s journalism landscape amid the Post-Gazette’s looming closure. On April 8, The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh showcased “PAPER.” Standing for “Pittsburgh Alliance for People Empowered Reporting,” PAPER positions itself as the first co-op news concept for the city, putting the ownership of the publication into the hands of the workers and the community members buying into it.
The event started with remarks from multimedia journalist Steve Mellon, who was on the picket line with the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh since staff first walked out. He, along with other community members like Tanisha Long, emphasized the importance of free and fair local news for a healthy neighborhood.
“We need reporting that not only represents us, but our neighbors correctly…. I’m not someone that believes news should be unbiased. I think it should be accurate,” Long said.
One sentiment shared at the PAPER town hall was disdain for the bloated corporate ownership that facilitates grossly biased reporting and, in some cases, censorship. Despite remarks from Block Communications citing financial difficulties running a daily print paper, the community has spoken. News is more than profit.
Allegheny County Councilmember At-Large Bethany Hallam reflects on the reality of a lot of born-and-raised yinzers. She grew up with the PG as a staple news outlet. “As with everything billionaires got their hands on… it's gone to shit.”
“It’s so much bigger than one family, one owner, one billionaire. It’s the whole structure,” she said. “There’s so many dope journalists, photographers… people in this room who made the Post-Gazette what it is, and then a bunch of scabs came in, followed a billionaire, and drove it into the ground.”
Print news isn’t profitable because that is not the purpose of news. The purpose of news is to inform. Regardless of profitability, billionaires have something to gain from owning news outlets: control of the narrative. Billionaires tell us fake news, yet they own the news. They sow distrust in your brain and demand you listen to what they say, even though they are throwing stones at glass houses. The billionaire owners and, by extension the elite at large, are trying to scramble us by conflating truths.
The Blocks are no exception to this rule. Many community members felt misrepresented by increasingly conservative-leaning coverage. Minority community members expressed PG reporting felt more and more hostile, especially towards black youth. Hallam spoke to her lived experience, compared to the crime-ridden “hellscape” daily news depicts.
“It’s a beautiful city. There's so much going on and you would never know that by reading the media. We deserve to have a paper that is accountable to us the same way our elected officials are accountable to us,” she said.
On Tuesday, April 14, The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism announced their acquisition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, saving the 240-year-old paper from shuttering. Many people were quick to celebrate. Their mission to “provide high-quality, independent journalism to communities using a sustainable business model that can be replicated in other cities across the country” already sounds more aligned with what people malaised with the PG asked for.
Venetoulis will turn the Post-Gazette into a nonprofit, meaning they can’t endorse political candidates- a gripe that many had with the Blocks using the paper to endorse President Trump and push right-leaning political stories. Venetoulis’ first nonprofit news outlet, the Baltimore Banner, has found success and continues to grow in size and credibility since opening in 2022.
The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh is celebrating the win for fair and free reporting, but acknowledged labor rights are still at risk. The Baltimore Banner reported Venetoulis is “buying only the assets of the paper. It is not required to assume the contracts of Block Communications.”
This does not bode well for union workers. The PG has a similar-sized newsroom to the Baltimore Banner, but Venetoulis founder and philanthropist Stewart W. Bainum Jr. told the Post-Gazette that “[the] current business model does not support the size of the current newsroom.”
Bainum and Venetoulis do provide a glimmer of hope for those who want to see a 240-year-old news outlet keep covering its communities with excellence. One of the other bidders, Alden Global Capital, would have been the final nail in the coffin for the PG. Infamously known as “The Grim Reaper of News,” Alden Global Capital is a hedge fund that would have likely gutted the newsroom and sold it for parts, leaving a skeleton crew behind.
While we can celebrate the win for free and fair reporting, we must keep the people who do the reporting in mind, too. Buying a paper is different from founding an online publication, butBainum and Venetoulis seem ready to navigate this challenge while keeping workers’ thoughts in mind, at least for now. Venetoulis announced they will integrate product development, subscription marketing, and business operations with The Banner, adding former PG executive editor David Shribman to their board of directors.
Ultimately, I see three pillars that we must build our future information landscape on: accurate reporting, fair treatment of workers, and economic sustainability. Both PAPER and Venetoulis are building their foundations on accurate reporting, but experience shortfalls in one of the other pillars. While Venetoulis has philanthropic contributions, PAPER has no monetary stability and must build it from the ground up. PAPER is a union-first, worker-led group, while Venetoulis has already expressed that they don’t have any obligation to bargain with current employees.
The future of the Pittsburgh journalism landscape is still rocky. While we can breathe a sigh of relief that we aren’t losing a legacy outlet, we must still champion the workers doing the reporting for us.
Tanisha Long put it best: “You cannot expect the people in power to put the power in the hands of the people. You have to take it.”