Pittsburgh City Paper is closing after 34 years of operation.
Employees at the alt-weekly Pittsburgh City Paper publication posted on social media that the news outlet was closing.
Colin Williams, news editor at the City Paper, posted on Linkedin on Wednesday saying “It’s the end of an era — ownership is folding Pittsburgh City Paper. As I continue teaching and hopefully finishing up some stories I have in the hopper, I’ll be on the lookout for new roles.”
The Pittsburgh City Paper was purchased from the publisher of the Butler Eagle in 2023 by Cars Holding Inc., a subsidiary of Toledo, Ohio-based Block Communications Inc.
Block Communications also owns Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade.
“This is a loss for us, but it’s a bigger loss for Pittsburgh readers. This city deserves better,” Williams said on the Bluesky platform.
A phone call to Block Communications on Wednesday was not returned, but the company released a statement.
“Today, Block Communications announced the closure of the Pittsburgh City Paper, an entity that it has been proud to own and support for the past three years. This difficult decision is a result of the economic realities facing news organizations, not a reflection of the quality of the journalism or the dedication of the City Paper’s staff,” the statement said. “The City Paper business model has not reached a level of financial performance that allows Block Communications to continue operating it responsibly. The Pittsburgh City Paper’s last issue was published earlier this month, and its website will cease operations, effective immediately.”
In October, Executive Editor Ali Trachta in a letter posted to the paper’s website said it was cutting its weekly print edition and that the alternative newspaper would continue posting content online and would publish four print editions annually.
“Like many newspapers — especially the free alt-weeklies across the nation — for a while now, we’ve been battling hard times,” Trachta wrote at the time. “And it’s not because we lack the drive. We’re facing rising costs and less revenue, but also, misinformation, hostility towards media, a rough economy, and a loss of talent to more stable industries.”
The paper laid off five workers, Trachta told TribLive in October.
TribLive reached out to Pittsburgh City Paper on Wednesday, but did not receive immediate comment.
The first issue of City Paper was printed on Nov. 6, 1991, according to its website.
