The Trump-loving media heirs who own Pittsburgh’s most storied newspaper are shuttering publication of its Pulitzer Prize–winning newsroom.
Block Communications Inc., a Toledo-based media company that reportedly generated $1.1 billion in revenue last year, announced Wednesday that it will shutter the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the region’s largest newspaper, on May 3. The paper has roughly 83,000 paid subscribers and a history tracing back over 125 years.
Post-Gazette publisher and editor-in-chief John R. Block and his twin brother, Allan Block—the CEO of Block Communications Inc.—both 71, are notorious throughout the region for their steadfast support of President Donald Trump and have donated thousands of dollars to Republican candidates, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Allan Block owns a 25 percent stake in BCI, as does his brother, John Block, the Post-Gazette has reported. Family trusts—whose beneficiaries are members of the Block family—collectively own the remaining 50 percent of the company.
In 2016, John Block sparked accusations of media bias after he was photographed aboard Trump’s private plane following a campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio.
Two years later, the Post-Gazette made national headlines for “shifting right” after John Block fired the Post-Gazette’s veteran cartoonist, Rob Rogers, over cartoons critical of Trump.
During the president’s 2020 campaign, John Block ordered the editorial board to endorse Trump—despite previously granting its request not to endorse a candidate—an insider at the publication told the Daily Beast. The board was forced to scrap its planned editorial just an hour before the print deadline and hastily write a new piece backing Trump, much to the staffers’ dismay.
On Wednesday, the brothers delivered the stunning news to staff via a brief, pre-recorded video, Post-Gazette reporters told the Daily Beast—despite owning multiple properties within short driving distance of the newsroom, including John Block’s sprawling Squirrel Hill mansion worth over $1.5 million.
Instead, staffers received an email at 12:34 p.m. informing them of a mandatory online meeting scheduled for 1:15 p.m. The meeting turned out to be a pre-recorded message that reporters described as “dehumanizing.”
“There was a blank, black screen the first two minutes of the meeting,” one reporter recounted to the Daily Beast. “Then, this woman who I’ve never seen before came on the screen and told us the [Post-Gazette] was shuttering in May.”
“It definitely came as a shock to everyone, including the managers, who I don’t think were informed before us,” the reporter added.
Another staffer told the Daily Beast: “not to have the guts or decency to tell people in person and using a pre-recorded message is pretty insulting. If not dehumanizing. We deserved better.”
Perhaps the twins took inspiration from Trump himself, who is famously averse to firing people—despite his well-known catchphrase: “You’re fired.”
BCI was founded nearly 125 years ago by Allan and John Block’s grandfather, Paul Block, in New York City, according to court filings from one of several since-dropped lawsuits between the brothers, who have frequently clashed over the company’s portfolio.
The media company also owns and operates the Post-Gazette’s sister paper, the Toledo Blade, which served as loose inspiration for The Office reboot The Paper. Other assets include commercial telecommunications services, some of which were sold to Gray Media in August.
For years, the Post-Gazette has been mired in turmoil. Roughly two dozen Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh journalists returned to work in November after a more-than-three-year labor strike—the longest in U.S. history. Staffers hired during the strike were assured they would retain their positions if striking workers returned.
Tensions between ownership and union journalists reached a boiling point in 2019, when John Block reportedly stormed into the newsroom and threatened to “burn the place down.”
Several staffers believe the hotheaded Blocks are shutting down the outlet as punishment after a federal appeals court upheld a November ruling finding that the Post-Gazette illegally declared an impasse in union negotiations to impose its own terms.
“It’s not the biggest shock in the world,” one reporter said. “But still, it seems crazy that a city the size of Pittsburgh is losing its largest news outlet, and I can’t believe the company is shutting down instead of selling.”
Another added: “This is gonna leave such a huge gap in the media ecosystem of Pittsburgh.”
The Post-Gazette won Pulitzer Prizes in 1983, 1998, and 2019, including for its coverage of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting—the deadliest act of antisemitism in American history. A separate award-winning investigative series, reported in collaboration with ProPublica, exposed Philips Respironics’ efforts to continue marketing breathing machines despite knowing they posed serious risks to users, ultimately prompting the company to halt U.S. production last year.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Block Communications for comment.
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