The Baltimore Banner’s parent organization will buy the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and turn it into a nonprofit news outlet under a deal intended to ensure the survival of one of the country’s oldest newspapers.

The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism announced Tuesday that it had signed an agreement to purchase the assets of the Post-Gazette from Block Communications Inc., the family-owned company that has operated the paper for nearly a century.

The deal prevents the permanent closure of the newspaper, which was expected to distribute its last edition on May 3. Under the purchase agreement, the Post-Gazette’s assets will transfer to the Venetoulis Institute on May 4.

“Venetoulis is committed to solving a national problem, to providing high-quality local journalism where it’s most needed,” said Bob Cohn, CEO of The Banner. “That is our civic mission. And here is an opportunity to do that in a market where the 240-year-old incumbent is going out of business or could be sold.”

The purchase price was not disclosed.

Stewart Bainum Jr., a Maryland businessman and philanthropist, founded the Venetoulis Institute and The Banner with a $50 million commitment in 2022. The purchase of the Post-Gazette is part of an additional $30 million pledge Bainum intends to give to the institute over the next five years or until the organization breaks even, he said.

The Pittsburgh Gazette was the first newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains when it started in 1786. It merged with another newspaper in 1927 and became the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette under owner and founding publisher Paul Block.

Despite decades of award-winning journalism, including a 2019 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, the Post-Gazette has suffered a turbulent recent history.

In 2022, the newspaper’s unionized staff went on strike. It lasted three years — the longest strike in modern newspaper history. In November 2025, a court reinstated their contract, and the striking workers rejoined staffers who had remained on the job.

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal of the case, and Block Communications said it would close the newspaper after losing $350 million over 20 years.

That announcement drew about 10 potential buyers, several of whom were serious candidates, said Allan Block, CEO of Block Communications. One of them was Bainum, who flew to Toledo, Ohio, in a snowstorm to talk to Block over a long dinner. In the end, Block said, the family had to decide between the Venetoulis Institute and a newspaper chain he declined to name.

While some members of the family believed the newspaper chain offered the paper its best chance of survival, Block said the family ultimately chose the Venetoulis Institute, selling to the lower of the two final bidders.

“Venetoulis was not the highest bidder, by a significant percentage, but the Block family felt that money wasn’t the only criteria,” Block said. “There’s no doubt Mr. Bainum is a very high-quality, high-caliber individual of integrity, and I could see his deep belief in the importance of preserving honest local journalism in the public interest.”

Bainum said the purchase of the Post-Gazette is “a natural extension of our mission.”

From the beginning, the Venetoulis Institute’s goal was to provide high-quality, independent journalism to communities using a sustainable business model that can be replicated in other cities across the country, he said.

The Banner is now among the largest nonprofit news operations in the nation, with about 80,000 subscribers and a newsroom of 96 journalists. The Banner won a Pulitzer Prize in the local news category with The New York Times in May 2025. In the last seven months it has expanded its coverage to Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and added reporters to cover professional sports in Washington, D.C.

The Post-Gazette has combined print and digital subscriptions of 60,000 and a newsroom of 100 journalists. It produces a printed newspaper twice a week on Thursday and Sunday.

Because the Venetoulis Institute is buying only the assets of the paper, it is not required to assume the contracts of Block Communications. Venetoulis plans to integrate the product development, subscription marketing and business operations of the two news organizations. Becoming a nonprofit will open new opportunities for the Post-Gazette to solicit philanthropic donations.

“We want to try to solve a national problem. We believe that combining fixed costs in this business will make both The Banner and the Post-Gazette stronger,” Bainum said.

David Shribman, a former executive editor of the Post-Gazette, will join the Venetoulis board of directors. Shribman led the paper’s newsroom from 2003 to 2019 and has strong ties to the Pittsburgh community.

This isn’t Bainum’s first attempt to buy a newspaper. In 2020, he began discussing an ultimately unsuccessful bid to buy the Baltimore Sun Media Group. He then worked with a partner to purchase The Sun’s owner, Tribune Publishing Co. After Bainum’s partner backed out, Alden Global Capital, a New York-based hedge fund, purchased Tribune Publishing in May 2021.

Six months later, Bainum announced he would start The Banner, which launched in June 2022. He named the news outlet’s parent organization after Ted Venetoulis, a friend who played a key role in the initial effort to purchase The Baltimore Sun and then worked with Bainum to start what became The Banner. He died shortly before The Banner launched.

Block said his company had few options but to close the Post-Gazette after the unfavorable court rulings, which added $5 million in annual costs.

“We were struggling for survival. We hoped to find a way,” he said. “Our family is the kind of newspaper family that believed it wasn’t just about a business. It was about an affiliation with the community. It was about love for a community. It was about trying to do everything you humanly can to protect the community.”

Like many newspapers across the country, the Post-Gazette has struggled with declining revenue. Since 2005, the U.S. has lost 3,500 local newspapers and thousands of newspaper jobs, according to a recent study by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Despite those industry trends, all major U.S. cities have a daily newspaper. Atlanta is the only major city without one in print; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution went to an all-digital format last year. Had the Post-Gazette closed, Pittsburgh would have been the largest U.S. city without a daily newspaper in any form.

“Turning the Post-Gazette around won’t be quick or easy,” Bainum said. “But we are going to apply what we’ve learned in Maryland and work with our colleagues in Pittsburgh to build a culture like The Banner’s.”

Block said he wished Bainum luck. “We’re trusting that this is the way to preserve the Post-Gazette,” he said.