The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains, the paper formed under its present title in 1927 from the consolidation of the ''Pittsburgh Gazette Times'' and ''The Pittsburgh Post''.

The ''Post-Gazette'' ended daily print publication in 2018 and has cut down to two print editions per week (Sunday and Thursday), going online-only the rest of the week.

In the 2010s, the editorial tone of the paper shifted from liberal to conservative, particularly after the editorial pages of the paper were consolidated in 2018 with '' The Blade'' of Toledo, Ohio. After the consolidation, Keith Burris, the pro-Trump editorial page editor of '' The Blade'', directed the editorial pages of both papers.

Early history

''Gazette''

The ''Post-Gazette'' began its history as a four-page weekly called ''The Pittsburgh Gazette'', first published on July 29, 1786, with the encouragement of Hugh Henry Brackenridge.Andrews, p. 1. It was the first newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains. Published by Joseph Hall and John Scull, the paper covered the start of the nation. As one of its first major articles, the ''Gazette'' published the newly adopted Constitution of the United States.

In 1820, under publishers Eichbaum and Johnston and editor Morgan Neville, the name changed to ''Pittsburgh Gazette and Manufacturing and Mercantile Advertiser''. David MacLean bought the paper in 1822, and later reverted to the former title.

Under editor Neville B. Craig, whose service lasted from 1829 to 1841, the ''Gazette'' championed the Anti-Masonic movement. Craig turned the ''Gazette'' into the city's first daily paper, issued every afternoon except Sunday starting on July 30, 1833.

In 1844, shortly after absorbing the ''Advocate'', the ''Gazette'' switched its daily issue time to morning. Its editorial stance at the time was conservative and strongly favoring the Whig Party. By the 1850s the Gazette was credited with helping to organize a local chapter of the new Republican Party, and with contributing to the election of Abraham Lincoln. The paper was one of the first to suggest tensions between North and South would erupt in war.

After consolidating with the ''Commercial'' in 1877, the paper was again renamed and was then known as the ''Commercial Gazette''.

In 1900, George T. Oliver acquired the paper, merging it six years later with ''The Pittsburg Times'' to form ''The Gazette Times''.

''Post''

The Pittsburgh ''Post'' first appeared on September 10, 1842, as the ''Daily Morning Post''. It had its origin in three pro- Democratic weeklies, the ''Mercury'', ''Allegheny Democrat'', and ''American Manufacturer'', which came together through a pair of mergers in the early 1840s. The three papers had for years engaged in bitter editorial battles with the ''Gazette''.

Like its predecessors, the ''Post'' advocated the policies of the Democratic Party. Its political opposition to the Whig and later Republican ''Gazette'' was so enduring that an eventual combination of the two rivals would have seemed unlikely.

Block-Hearst deal

The 1920s were a time of consolidation in the long-overcrowded Pittsburgh newspaper market. In 1923, local publishers banded together to acquire and kill off the ''Dispatch'' and ''Leader''. Four years later, William Randolph Hearst negotiated with the Olivers to purchase the morning ''Gazette Times'' and its evening sister, the ''Chronicle Telegraph'', while Paul Block

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