"When the email dropped in my inbox, I knew it was bad news, but like the ocean exposing tide pools just before a tsunami, I assumed the Post-Gazette was on an upward trajectory. It was 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 7, and I had just stepped into the shower when my phone dinged with a text from my coworker in a group chat. I drew back the curtain and opened my phone, pearls of water momentarily obscuring the screen."
"Squirting shampoo into my cupped hand, my mind began to race. What if they were shutting down the paper, like how they shut down the alt-weekly Pittsburgh City Paper a week prior with zero notice? I don't have much money saved up. I should have been more responsible. I shouldn't have dropped $70 on drinks last night. There's no way they'd shut us down, my friends reassured. We don't have enough information to assume that. They're probably restructuring or announcing a sale."
"We had just been told, via a prerecorded video of an unfamiliar woman in a gray suit, that the Post-Gazette would cease all operations May 3 due to mounting financial losses. We were encouraged to "respectfully consider the legacy of the Post-Gazette" and told that the paper's owners wanted "to exit with grace and dignity." Who was that woman? Jane-something? Was she AI?"
I received a last-minute mandatory meeting notice and joined the Zoom call while in the shower, expecting bad news despite earlier optimism about an upward trajectory. The Zoom initially showed a black screen and silence before a prerecorded video announced that the Post-Gazette would cease all operations on May 3 because of mounting financial losses. Employees were urged to respect the paper's legacy and informed that owners wished to exit with grace and dignity. Colleagues exchanged stunned messages. I shut my laptop and cried. The closure felt incongruous given a recent ten-year lease and plans to move at month's end.
Read at Poynter
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