Pittsburgh-area newspapers cut staff, suspend print editions as pandemic guts ad revenues

www.post-gazette.com ^ | Mar 23, 2020 2:03 PM | Joyce Gannon

[Red Badger]

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a harsh toll on news media in the Pittsburgh region including layoffs, suspension of print editions and, in at least one case, permanent closure.

All of the moves are tied to a significant loss of advertising revenues for publishing outlets in the last couple weeks as businesses were shuttered, and sports and cultural events came to a grinding halt.

Trib Total Media on Monday combined its two print editions — the Westmoreland edition based in Greensburg, and the Valley News Dispatch based in Tarentum — into one edition saying it is “confronting serious losses during the coronavirus pandemic.”

The publishing company also laid off staff on Friday.

[Red Badger]

See? There IS a bright side!.....................

[ClearCase_guy]

Print journalism is dying? Let’s blame the flu. Or whatever.

[Jim Robinson]

Newspapers spread the anti-America virus.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Every cloud......

[G Larry]

Birds saddened ...

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

What will bums use as blankets now????

[Paladin2]

Trump Curse.

[Codeflier]

Isn’t this similar to what happened right at the beginning of the Great Depression. I remember hearing a story, that the non investment class noticed that papers were closing or merging. That was the first big sign on Main Street - People were in breadlines a few weeks later.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Yes, we know newspapers have been in serious trouble long before this virus. Maybe it will be the final nail in the coffin for some.

[Red Badger]

Especially big NE ones.......................

[MayflowerMadam]

I don’t like the sound of that. People need butt wipe and there’s little to be found in the stores.

[Red Badger]

I thought the run on the banks was the sign.....................

[Red Badger]

LOL!.................Birds gotta poop too!............

[wally_bert]

I’d love to see print newspapers go away.

My top three to see go away are The Charlotte Observer, Rock Hill Herald, and the mind numbing State paper here in Columbia.

[Codeflier]

I still think that was for those primarily in the investment class. I just remember a documentary I watched as a child, and some old woman was talking about how her father no longer had a newspaper in some small town. Then they were soon getting handouts for food. It also turned into a huge FDR praisefest.

[MrEdd]

Silver lining ping.

[wally_bert]

Cue the Lou Grant open.

[kosciusko51]

Problem is the Trib-Review is the conservative paper, while the Post-Gazette is MSM.

[DoughtyOne]

I don't see their services as essential ones, what with the
Downer Debbie articles over recent weeks.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

“We don’t see the point of putting papers out that no one will see,” he said.

Why not? They put out papers that no one believed for years.