''The Pittsburgh Press'' (formerly ''The Pittsburg Press'' and originally ''The Evening Penny Press'') was a major afternoon daily newspaper published in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, from 1884 to 1992. At one time, the ''Press'' was the second largest newspaper in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, behind only ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
''. For four years starting in 2011, the brand was revived and applied to an afternoon
online edition of 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 All ...
''.
Early history
The history of the ''Press'' traces back to an effort by Thomas J. Keenan Jr. to buy ''
The Pittsburg Times
''The Pittsburg Times'' was a morning daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1880 to 1906. It was a predecessor of ''The Gazette Times'', which in turn was succeeded by the present-day ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette''.
History
T ...
'' newspaper, at which he was employed as city editor. Joining Keenan in his endeavor were reporter John S. Ritenour of the Pittsburgh
''Post'', Charles W. Houston of the city clerk's office, and U.S. Representative
Thomas M. Bayne.
After examining the ''Times'' and finding it in a poor state, the group changed course and decided to start a new
penny paper
Penny press newspapers were cheap, tabloid-style newspapers mass-produced in the United States from the 1830s onwards. Mass production of inexpensive newspapers became possible following the shift from hand-crafted to steam-powered printing. Fa ...
in hopes that it would flourish in a local market full of two- and three-cent dailies.
The first issue appeared on June 23, 1884. A corporation was formed, with Bayne as the largest shareholder.
[
Originally ''The Evening Penny Press'', the title changed to ''The Pittsburg Press'' on October 19, 1887.] The paper referred to the city as "Pittsburg" until August 1921, when the letter 'h' was added.
In 1901, Keenan, who had by then gained financial and editorial control of the paper, sold out to a syndicate led by Oliver S. Hershman. Hershman remained the controlling owner until selling to the Scripps-Howard
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
chain in 1923.
Joint operating agreement
In 1961, the ''Press'' entered into a Joint Operating Agreement
The Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 was an Act of the United States Congress, signed by President Richard Nixon, authorizing the formation of joint operating agreements among competing newspaper operations within the same media market area. It ...
(JOA) with the competing ''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 All ...
''. The ''Post-Gazette'' had previously purchased and merged with the Hearst Corporation
Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televis ...
's ''Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph
The ''Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph'' was an evening daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1927 to 1960. Part of the Hearst newspaper chain, it competed with ''The Pittsburgh Press'' and the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' until bein ...
'' leaving just itself and the much larger ''Pittsburgh Press''.
The JOA was to be managed by the ''Pittsburgh Press'' owners (E. W. Scripps Company
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
) as the ''Press'' had the more extensive circulation and was the stronger of the two papers.
Under the JOA, the ''Post-Gazette'' became a 6-day morning paper, and the ''Pittsburgh Press'' became a 6-day afternoon paper in addition to publishing the sole Sunday paper.
1992 strike, sale to the ''Post-Gazette''
On October 22, 1991, ''Press'' management announced significant changes, designed to modernize its distribution system, at the initial bargaining with the Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the ...
Local 211 union, as well as eight other unions. The unions' contracts with the ''Press'' expired on December 31. Negotiations continued into 1992 with no agreement on a new contract. The Teamsters employees finally walked off the job on May 17, effectively putting a halt to the publication of the ''Press'' and the ''Post-Gazette''. The Teamsters refused to drive the small delivery trucks more than half full. In the press room was a union featherbedding provision under which its members had to set up every ad that appeared in the newspaper, even if it ran years before; in the case of ads prepared by outside print shops, those ads were still set up in the type the Press had, a proof run, and then dismantled, the backlog of such ads could be several years long. With the increasing rise of electronic media, and more younger readers not reading newspapers, the Press could no longer sustain the union practices of the past. The unions would not budge and did not believe that the previous business model could no longer be sustained and afforded. A short sound bite on national TV by the then-mayor supporting the unions was the death knell, and Scripps-Howard consequently ended the newspaper. All the union jobs were lost, as were the jobs of over 100 non-union employees of the newspaper.
An attempt by both papers to resume distribution, with replacement drivers, began with the July 27 issues of both papers and lasted two days until they halted publication again due to resistance from the public and civic leaders. The second day, July 28, marked the final edition of the ''Press''.[
After months of failed negotiations, Scripps put the ''Pittsburgh Press'' up for sale on October 2, 1992. ]Block Communications
Block Communications Inc. (also known as Blade Communications) is an American privately held holding company of various assets, mainly in the print and broadcast media, based in Toledo, Ohio. The company was founded in 1900 in New York City when ...
, the owners of the much smaller JOA paper, the ''Post-Gazette'', agreed to purchase the paper, effective November 30, upon the settlement of the strike.[ The first issue of the newly combined ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', the first in nearly six months, was published on January 18, 1993, as a single combined newspaper incorporating many features and personnel from the ''Press'', which would no longer be published. The loss of the ''Pittsburgh Press'' came as a shock to many Pittsburghers, who expected the larger paper to survive the strike.
In return for the sale of the ''Press'', Scripps received '']The Monterey County Herald
''The Monterey County Herald'', sometimes referred to as the ''Monterey Herald'', is a daily newspaper published in Monterey, California that serves Monterey County.
In December, 2013, the Herald's parent company Media News Group merged to become ...
''. The sale required a ruling by the U.S. Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
as the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970
The Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 was an Act of the United States Congress, signed by President Richard Nixon, authorizing the formation of joint operating agreements among competing newspaper operations within the same media market area. It e ...
regulated the JOA.
Resurrection online
On November 14, 2011, Block Communications announced that it was bringing back the ''Press'' in an online
In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" or ...
-only edition for the afternoon, effective immediately. David Shribman, the executive editor of the ''Post-Gazette'', explained his paper's motivation for reviving the ''Press'' name, citing the fact that his newspaper still received letters to the editor
A letter to the editor (LTE) is a letter sent to a publication about an issue of concern to the reader. Usually, such letters are intended for publication. In many publications, letters to the editor may be sent either through conventional mai ...
addressed to the ''Press'' instead of the ''Post-Gazette'', and that despite nearly 20 years since its last publication Pittsburgh natives still talked about the ''Press'' regularly. Although published electronically, the new ''Press'' was formatted with a fixed layout replicating that of a traditional printed newspaper, and its font and layout were similar to the original print version of the ''Press''. The experiment ended with the issue of September 25, 2015.
See also
* List of defunct newspapers of the United States
This is a list of defunct newspapers of the United States. Only notable names among the thousands of such newspapers are listed, primarily major metropolitan dailies which published for ten years or more.
The list is sorted by distribution and st ...
* ''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 All ...
'', current owner of the "Press" name and present-day heir to its archives.
* ''''
References
External links
*
History of the ''Post-Gazette''
* ttps://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=djft3U1LymYC Google News Archive's microfilm archive 1888–1992
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pittsburgh Press, The
Defunct newspapers published in Pittsburgh
Publications established in 1884
Publications disestablished in 1992
1884 establishments in Pennsylvania
1992 disestablishments in Pennsylvania
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service winners