The Post-Gazette in Pittsburgh is going out of business. It began publishing in 1786. Ed Blazina, a reporter who has worked there for over 30 years, said simply, “Democracy doesn’t continue when there is no light shining on it.”
Another first-rate historic newspaper, The Atlantic Journal Constitution, smartly led by Andrew Morse, is fortunately on a brighter path into a new era for local, community-driven news in Georgia. “It will be the first major metropolitan newspaper to transform itself into an exclusive digital service,” said Morse. Amen, brother. (Full disclosure: Andrew and I have known each other and worked closely together for many years.) He now is front and center in the huge challenge of making local news profitable and journalistically exceptional. I’m on the nonprofit side with Deep South Today in Mississippi and Louisiana, headed for Arkansas and the Black Belt between Jackson and Montgomery.
We are both making our business models work. Sometimes it feels like the Lord’s work because you have to have religious conviction that journalism is a higher calling. The late, great Bill Moyers was the first person to tell me that as a young journalist. I thought at the time it sounded a little holier than thou, but the state of journalism will be tested in 2026 like no other year in my lifetime. I’m not sure how journalism and democracy will get through the current volatility.
As we approach the midterms, clear-eyed journalism at the local level will be under intense scrutiny. State-to-state election results in every corner of the country will be fought over in unprecedented ways. My fear is there will be political violence. We need to confront the prospect and reality of that with each other sooner rather than later.
For more on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jim Friedlich’s op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer is a must read: https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/pittsburgh-post-gazette-newspaper-closure-nonprofit-lenfest-institute-20260109.html
— Andy Lack