Block Communications buys Pittsburgh City Paper

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A subsidiary of Block Communications, which owns the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is buying the Pittsburgh City Paper. 

Cars Holding Inc. is acquiring the Pittsburgh City Paper from the Butler Eagle's publisher Eagle Media, Block Communications Inc. announced on Wednesday. 

The company said all employees will be retained and the alternative weekly paper will operate autonomously. 

The terms were not disclosed. Block Communications said the deal is expected to close this month. 

"We believe in the need for independent journalism and are happy to further our commitment to the city of Pittsburgh and, specifically, to support this well-established entertainment and alternative news publication," Block Communications chairman and CEO Allan Block said in a press release. 

Rod Vodenichar, the president and publisher of the Butler Eagle, said the Pittsburgh City Paper wasn't "a good fit" for their business and it was hard managing a Pittsburgh publication from a distance. Eagle Media had been operating the paper and its website since 2016.

Unions representing Pittsburgh Post-Gazette workers have been on strike since October. The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh said the Blocks illegally imposed new working conditions on journalists.