The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will shrink to just under half its current size under its new owners, Post-Gazette employees told 90.5 WESA on Friday. And while the downsizing was no surprise, staffers expressed dismay at its magnitude — and some raised questions about whether union supporters had been targeted.
The Post-Gazette newsroom is said to have numbered around 100 people. But workers there confirmed that a sizable portion of them were not retained by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, the Maryland-based nonprofit nonprofit which acquired the publication. The photography and high school sports departments took significant hits.
“We don’t know the full extent just yet, but it’s becoming more and more clear that we are looking at somewhere around half the newsroom being slashed, essentially, in one day,” education reporter Andrew Goldstein said Friday morning.
In a statement late Friday, Venetoulis said “our commitment to providing trusted, independent news to the Pittsburgh region is fierce and unwavering. At the same time, we are a nonprofit news organization determined to put the publication, which was on the verge of shutdown, on solid financial footing. … [W]e are focused on bringing the P-G to sustainability and then adding to the newsroom as we become stronger and more resilient.”
Reporters were asked two weeks ago to reinterview for their jobs in 20-minute conversations. Some began to receive offer letters from the paper’s new owners Wednesday night. Reporters who were not retained did not hear back from Venetoulis until Thursday afternoon.
The new owners’ handling of the transition left some staffers cold.
Until the rejection letters went out, “ It was basically notification by omission. It was not being told that you weren’t hired, it was just not being told that you were hired,” said Scott Mervis, longtime pop music critic and weekend magazine editor at the Post-Gazette, on Friday.
“I found that a little bit hurtful, having worked for the paper for 41 years, and having been as devoted as I was to the Post-Gazette and its success.”
Steve Mellon, a union member who has worked as a photographer at the Post-Gazette since 1997, was also not offered a job. He lamented the cuts to the paper’s photo staff.
“Some of the best news photographers in the country worked at the Post Gazette,” he said. “It’s painful to me to see that legacy be diminished in this way.”
“Good pictures don’t just happen,” he said. “They’re the result of a photographer building relationships, paying attention, listening to people, watching what’s happening around them, knowing context and creating photographs that not only tell people what’s happening and show what’s happening, but they connect emotionally with readers. That’s what is gonna be difficult for the two photographers that are left.”
Mellon said union members were in the middle of a meeting Wednesday night when offers started arriving in some reporters’ inboxes. He described the process of sending out the offer and rejection letters as “disorganized,” and thought it was “ incredibly disrespectful to the journalists who had been putting the newspaper.”
Mellon acknowledged that the new owners had little time to close the acquisition: In the absence of a sale, the paper was slated to close next week. Still, he said, “I wish they would’ve communicated to us and told us a little bit more, gave us some clarity about how the process was working.”
In a rejection letter obtained by WESA, Venetoulis chief people officer Andre Jones reiterated to employees who were not retained that it is “a difficult time for local journalism, and the Post-Gazette has not been immune from the headwinds battering the industry.”
“The newsroom in the new iteration will be smaller at the outset, which has forced us to make very hard decisions,” Jones wrote. “Over the last few months we have learned about the resolve and ambition of the P-G newsroom, and we know we are fortunate to be inheritors of the journalistic tradition you helped to build.”
The Venetoulis Institute announced its acquisition of the paper from the Block family, its previous owners, last month. Cuts of some magnitude seemed almost inevitable: The Blocks complained of having endured losses of between $10 million and $20 million a year, and in statements of its own, Venetoulis indicated it would shrink the newsroom’s staff because the P-G’s current business model could not support the newsroom’s current size.
Some departing staffers said that despite the cuts, they were optimistic abut the P-G’s future under Venetoulis.
“ It still seems like a good organization,” said photographer Sebastian Foltz, who was not rehired. “I think we all wanted the Post-Gazette to sell to a nonprofit. We thought that that might be the best model. Maybe it still is.” He said that while “it’s cliche, but I’m still gonna support it. I’m gonna support my former colleagues.”
But while the cuts were not unexpected, there is already criticism that Venetoulis is targeting union activists on staff.
Anti-union discrimination?
In a letter sent out to supporters Friday morning, Goldstein, who leads the newsroom’s labor union, accused Venetoulis of seeking to bust the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh. The union undertook a more-than-three-year-long strike over an unfair labor practices dispute that ended last year, after a court decision ordered the owners to return to bargaining. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal brought by the Blocks of a lower court order to reinstate the workers’ health care.
Goldstein alleged that Venetoulis made cuts that disproportionately fell on the heads of workers who’d taken part in the labor stoppage. Of the 25 remaining reporters who went on strike, only 5 were retained, he said. Goldstein said only one of the union’s local leaders was retained.
Goldstein said Venetoulis’ hiring pattern was “ clearly an attempt to give as little power as possible to the people who are active Guild members and to continue to punish the rest of the Guild members who went on strike simply for standing up for their rights.”
“ We understood where our standing was. We understood that there were, of course, fewer strikers than not,” Goldstein told WESA. “However, the ratio of those who are being hired is just absurdly low, and I can’t really believe just how flagrantly they went about doing this.”
Labor lawyer Mike Healey said that Venetoulis is obligated to not discriminate on the basis of union activity, and that practices which would, say, exclude all union leaders, could be suspect under the law.
“ In terms of their hiring decisions, they’ve gotta do it on a non-discriminatory basis,” he said. “ They can consider seniority, qualifications, and things like that, but they can’t say ‘I’m not hiring this person because he was a union person and he gave us too much trouble.'”
It remains to be seen how union concerns play out in the public arena as well.
State Rep. Emily Kinkead, a Democrat from the North Side, was among roughly 20 local officials who wrote to the new owners this week, urging them to work with the union. “Any path forward that separates the future of the Post-Gazette from the dignity of its workers will misread this city entirely,” the letter said.
On Friday, Kinkead called the new owner’s approach “disappointing. I had hoped that a non-profit organization would have some respect for the fact that Pittsburgh is a union town. To have signed onto this letter and then have the first thing they do afterwards be in complete opposition to what we asked them to do is — I don’t know that you can print it.”
During the strike, many elected officials refused to speak to the paper at all, as a sign of solidarity. Kinkead said that might be “an option” going forward, though union leaders have not called for it.
Goldstein said the union was reviewing its options. And in a statement, Jon Schleuss, NewsGuild-CWA President, criticized Venetoulis’s decision.
“Pittsburghers sent a clear message to the new owners that they were coming to a union town. The Institute’s response is a clear act of discrimination against the brave union journalists,” he said. “We’ll continue to stand with ethical journalists who hold power to account, especially when it’s their employer.”
While he will not be employed at the paper, Goldstein says he still is the union’s president for the remainder of his term, which ends this fall. The union also remains the bargaining representative for the newsroom, and Venetoulis confirmed last week that it plans to recognize the union “in accordance with labor law.”
Goldstein says he still plans to be involved in negotiating a contract for the remaining employees.
“ We fully intend to fight for the best contract possible for everyone in that newsroom. That will not change,” he said. “I think every working person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect and have quality working conditions.”
What’s next
Social media announcements of reporters’ departures proliferated through Friday morning. And Mervis, for one, said he was “going through the phases of grieving.”
“ I’m in the anger phase right now. I’m also in the planning phase trying to figure out what I’m going to do,” he said.
Mervis, a music writer, was the paper’s last remaining culture critic. Back in the mid-80’s, he said, the paper had about 20 arts and entertainment writers.
“ I think the indication there is maybe that’s not being valued,” he said.
But he also said he was grateful to the Block family for having kept the paper open as long as they did. Mervis was among the reporters who did not go on strike.
“ They held this thing together while papers all over the country of this size were closing,” he said. “ I just wanna express my gratitude for all the years of employment from them.”
Several sources in the newsroom said only two photographers will be retained. Foltz, who was not one of them, started at the paper in 2023, and said it wasn’t exactly unexpected to see photographers on the chopping block.
“ The move to have reporters shoot photos has happened at other places,” he noted. “ I’m surprised in a way, but not completely shocked. I think I’m just surprised at just how many.”
Goldstein was doubtful Venetoulis would be able to run a daily newspaper adequately with its reduced staffing.
“ I think it shows that Venetoulis has no idea what the hell they’re doing,” he said.
Even before the strike, he said, many stories went uncovered by the Post-Gazette. Now, he said, “ It’s gonna be so much worse.”
“ How can you not cover high school sports in Western Pennsylvania? That’s crazy to me. How can you cover a region the size of Pittsburgh with two photographers? That’s nuts,” he said. “ You can’t have half the staff and do what you did previously. You just can’t do it.”
Goldstein and his union colleagues are continuing their efforts to create a new outlet under the umbrella of the Pittsburgh Alliance for People Empowered Reporting (also called PAPER). They started the organization this past January after the initial closure announcement, to investigate possible approaches to continue reporting. The group has since raised money, held town hall meetings and researched alternative publication and ownership models like multi-stakeholder co-ops. It’s currently working on business planning.
Goldstein said news of the cuts might draw more public interest to the initiative.
“ Creating a media outlet at any time, let alone in this day and age, is very challenging,” Goldstein said. “But from the research I’ve seen, I think it’s quite possible.”
