Pittsburgh’s Tribune Review, one of the city’s most popular papers, plans to cancel its print edition and to keep the news solely online after Nov. 1. In doing so, The Trib will lay off 106 of its employees and will shift its main focus to sharing stories through the internet instead of through tangible printed copies.

This dramatic digital change first began in 2015, and according to www.postgazette.com, “has included employee buyouts, layoffs, closing some papers, selling others and cutting back delivery in Allegheny County.”

The company, in addition to these changes, plans to combine the newspaper editions of Greensburg and Tarentum, of which it will continue to make printed versions. This holds true for the Carnegie Signal-Item and the Cranberry Journal, as well, as they will be coming together with the North Journal and McKnight Journal to form one single paper.  

Ms. Jennifer Bertetto, who works as active president and chief executive of The Trib, spoke with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette in September on the matter at hand. She stated that “Our commitment to covering news in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County will not change.” The way the information is presented, however, will.

Why the big change? The answer stems from the history of the publisher and founder of the Tribune Review, the late Mr. Richard Scaife. Scaife was a man who, when losing the bid to purchase an old paper called the Pittsburgh Press in 1992, decided that he would bring into being his own paper, which he named the Tribune Review. 

Scaife worked for and with The Trib as owner and (a) publisher until he died on July 4, 2014. Shortly after his death, the company decided to make some changes, as this loss, according to www.postgazette.com, “prompted the board to undertake a strategic review.”

As well as that, paying to publish a print edition of the paper every week is a waning process that has more or less failed to bring in a sufficient amount of revenue for the company. Bertetto claimed, in an article published in the online version of the Wall Street Journal, that, “It’s a competitive market and the Pittsburgh edition always lost money and with the death of our owner, we can no longer afford to subsidize it.”

In conclusion, Pittsburgh’s Tribune Review will surely be undergoing some changes, but it can be assumed that, based on the information given, these changes are for the best.