After the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced its intended closure for May, journalists are envisioning an alternative that highlights underrepresented local communities.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 29<\/a>, members of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh<\/a>, along with local community representatives and labor leaders, announced the launch of the Pittsburgh Alliance for People-Empowered Reporting<\/a>, a coalition to research media alternatives to the Post-Gazette.\u00a0<\/p>\n The development of PAPER follows Block Communications<\/a>, the company which owned the Post-Gazette, announcing the newspaper\u2019s impending closure<\/a> slated for May 3. The Post-Gazette has lost over $350 million in the past two decades<\/a>. The closure comes shortly after the newspaper union won in court<\/a> after their three-year-long strike<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n When speaking about experiences that shaped PAPER\u2019s mission, Andrew Goldstein, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, recounted an incident while covering a George Floyd protest for the Post-Gazette where protesters told reporters they were unwelcome due to past controversies<\/a> within the newspaper.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a fear to talk to the Post-Gazette,\u201d Goldstein said. \u201cYou can talk to many people in different vulnerable communities around the city, whether it be people who are impoverished, or certain African American communities that have been ignored [by the Post-Gazette] or LGBT communities that have been ignored or even harmed by some of the reporting that the Post-Gazette has done.\u201d<\/p>\n Another founder of PAPER, photojournalist Steve Mellon, said his inspiration for forming the alliance was to \u201clessen the void\u201d for news coverage once the Post-Gazette closes in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mellon said specific plans for PAPER are not finalized, and organizers are \u201cseeing where things go\u201d for the project, including possibly working with the Post-Gazette, should the company find a buyer before May.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could be that somebody comes in, and an organization or a company or an individual buys the Post-Gazette or starts something new,\u201d Mellon said. \u201cOr we may do a nonprofit model. There\u2019s several different models out there that are possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While Goldstein said he is hopeful for a May 4 opening, he added that starting a business from the ground up can be challenging. PAPER is currently asking for donations<\/a> from community members.<\/p>\n \u201c[Opening by May 4] would be very difficult, because opening a business is not exactly an easy thing,\u201d Goldstein said. \u201cAnd certainly, opening a business when you don\u2019t know where the money is going to come from or who\u2019s going to be involved in it is also challenging.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Mellon also hopes that PAPER will help journalists who will lose their jobs at the Post-Gazette have additional employment opportunities.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Post-Gazette closing leaves a job void. We\u2019re going to lose a lot of journalism jobs, and we wanted to save as many journalism jobs as possible,\u201d Mellon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Goldstein said he hopes local marginalized communities like the Black community, LGBTQ+ groups and immigrants will feel included by PAPER in conversations about Pittsburgh events.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n