Post-Gazette to close its Clinton printing facility

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is planning to close its printing facility in Allegheny County just 10 years after opening it, according to a letter obtained Wednesday by TribLive.

Management from the newspaper sent a letter on May 23 to the union representing journalists at the Post-Gazette, informing them that the newspaper will terminate its lease early at its printing facility in Clinton.

The letter states the Post-Gazette will inform the facility’s landlord of its plans at or around July 31. The company will have one year to remove the printing equipment and vacate the premises.

The news comes as the Post-Gazette has been trimming print publication days over the years, citing its decision to become a “digital news organization,” and is now down to just two publication days a week.

Post-Gazette journalists, mailers, production workers and advertising staff have been on strike since October 2022, in what is considered the longest media strike in the digital age.

Post-Gazette management did not immediately return a request for comment.

It’s unclear if the paper will continue to print after it closes its Clinton facility. The paper installed a new printing press at the 240,000-square-foot facility in 2014 and, according to its website, enabled “state-of-the-art” technology that produced smaller and more colorful papers.

Zack Tanner, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, received the letter and said the union also is unsure of the paper’s printing future, but noted the letter didn’t say that print publication will be eliminated.

He said he assumes the Post-Gazette will continue to print at the Butler Eagle’s printing press in Butler County.

The Eagle press started printing the Post-Gazette at the onset of the strike in October 2022 and took some criticism for doing so.

Officials at the Butler Eagle did not immediately return calls.

Tanner said the decision to close the Clinton facility is an example of bad business management by the paper’s owners, the Block family.

“It’s Block bad business 101 to invest a ton of money into a new printing press only to tear it down less than 10 years later entirely at the detriment of the workers,” he said.

The Post-Gazette’s parent company, Block Communications, is currently in turmoil as former CEO Allan Block was ousted after he accused his twin brother and Post-Gazette publisher, John Block, of wanting to sell the company.

In April, the National Labor Relations Board authorized a request this week to seek a temporary court injunction against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for allegedly violating its workers’ labor rights.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was formed in 1927 by Paul Block, the grandfather of John and Allan Block.