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The ''Pittsburgh Tribune-Review'', also known as "the Trib", is the second-largest daily
newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...
serving the
Greater Pittsburgh Greater Pittsburgh is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania, United States. The region includes Allegheny County, Pittsburgh's urban core county and economic hub, and seven adjacent Pennsylvania cou ...
metropolitan area of
Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the Unite ...
. It transitioned to an all-digital format on December 1, 2016, but remains the second-largest daily in
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, with nearly one million unique page views monthly. Founded on August 22, 1811, as the ''Greensburg Gazette'' and consolidated with several papers into the ''Greensburg Tribune-Review'' in 1889, the paper circulated only in the eastern suburban counties of Westmoreland and parts of
Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
and Fayette until May 1992, when it began serving all of the
Greater Pittsburgh Greater Pittsburgh is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania, United States. The region includes Allegheny County, Pittsburgh's urban core county and economic hub, and seven adjacent Pennsylvania cou ...
metropolitan area after a strike at the two Pittsburgh dailies, the ''
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving Greater Pittsburgh, metropolitan Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the fi ...
'' and ''
The Pittsburgh Press ''The Pittsburgh Press'', formerly ''The Pittsburg Press'' and originally ''The Evening Penny Press'', was a major afternoon daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for over a century, from 1884 to 1992. At the height of its popul ...
'', deprived the city of a newspaper for several months. The Tribune-Review Publishing Company was owned by
Richard Mellon Scaife Richard Mellon Scaife (; July 3, 1932 – July 4, 2014) was an American billionaire, a principal heir to the Mellon family, Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, and the owner and publisher of the ''Pittsburgh Tribune-Review''. In 2005 ...
, an heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, until his death in July 2014. Scaife was a major funder of conservative organizations, including the
Arkansas Project The Arkansas Project was a series of investigative press reports, funded primarily by conservative businessman Richard Mellon Scaife, that focused on criticism of then-President Bill Clinton and his administration. Scaife spent nearly $2 million on ...
. Accordingly, the ''Tribune-Review'' has maintained a conservative editorial stance, contrasting with the then-more liberal ''Post-Gazette'' before that paper's own editorial shift in 2018. In addition to its flagship paper, the company publishes 17 weekly community newspapers, the ''Pittsburgh Pennysaver'', TribLive.com, and TribTotalMedia.com.


History


19th century

The paper began as the ''Gazette'' on August 22, 1811. After a series of name changes and mergers it became the ''Greensburg Daily Tribune'' in 1889.


20th century

In 1924, it and the ''Greensburg Morning Review'', launched by David J. Berry in 1903, consolidated their interests under a single ownership. Both papers continued separate publication until 1955, when they merged to form the ''Greensburg Tribune-Review''. Scaife acquired the ''Tribune-Review'' in 1970, a decades after trying to acquire the ''Post-Gazette''. From 1981 to 1982, he managed a short-lived eastern suburban newspaper, ''The Daily-Sunday Tribune''.


Kent State and the Pulitzer

The Tribune-Review owns several satellite papers that insert or surround the regional publication with neighborhood-specific stories. The ''Valley News Dispatch'', of Pittsburgh suburbs Tarentum and
New Kensington New Kensington (known locally as New Ken) is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 12,170 at the 2020 census. It is situated along the Allegheny River northeast of Pittsburgh and is part of the Pittsb ...
is one such satellite. Local journalism student
John Filo John Paul Filo (; born August 21, 1948) is an American photographer whose picture of 14-year-old runaway Mary Ann Vecchio screaming while kneeling over the dead body of 20-year-old Jeffrey Miller, one of the victims of the Kent State shootings ...
worked for the publication while attending nearby
Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a Public university, public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Kent State University at Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Kent State ...
and served as the ''Valley News Dispatch''s correspondent of the
Kent State shootings The Kent State shootings (also known as the Kent State massacre or May 4 massacre"These would be the first of many probes into what soon became known as the Kent State Massacre. Like the Boston Massacre almost exactly two hundred years before (Ma ...
. His photography that day has ascended to iconic status and won the newspaper its only
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
. During a newspaper strike that temporarily shut down the ''Post-Gazette'' and ultimately closed the ''Pittsburgh Press'', Scaife launched the ''Pittsburgh Tribune-Review'', an edition of the Greensburg-based ''Tribune-Review'' covering Allegheny County and Pittsburgh. Over time, it became a stand-alone newspaper headquartered on Pittsburgh's North Side. In 1997, Scaife added to his small collection of newspapers by purchasing ''The Daily Courier'' of Connellsville, the ''Leader Times'' of Kittanning and ''The Valley Independent'' of
Monessen Monessen is a city in southwestern Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States, located along the Monongahela River. The population was 6,876 at the 2020 census. Steel-making was a prominent industry in Monessen, and it became a third-class ...
from Thomson Newspapers. In late 1997, Scaife's NewsWorks facility opened in the North Hills. In December 1997, the Tribune-Review company purchased the ''North Hills News Record'', even though four months earlier, then-Trib president Ed Harrell told the ''Pittsburgh Business Times'' that the company was not interested in the ''News Record''. Nine months after purchasing the ''North Hills News Record'' from
Gannett Company Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as severa ...
, Tribune-Review Publishing Co. announced the paper would be merged with the ''Pittsburgh Trib''. ''The News Record'' was most successful during the newspaper strike of the early 1990s. At its demise, the ''North Hills News Record'' had a daily circulation of more than 16,000, nearly 1,000 less than its circulation before the Trib bought it. In early 2000, the Trib announced the "News Record" name would retire after more than two years of a combined "Tribune-Review/North Hills News Record" banner. North Hills coverage would be wrapped into the Trib's neighborhoods section.


21st century

In 2000, the Trib announced it would convert its
Irwin Irwin may refer to: Places ;United States * Irwin, California * Irwin, Idaho * Irwin, Illinois * Irwin, Iowa * Irwin, Nebraska * Irwin, Ohio * Irwin, Pennsylvania * Irwin, South Carolina * Irwin County, Georgia * Irwin Township, Venango Co ...
-based paper, the daily (except Sunday) ''Standard Observer'', into a twice-weekly regional section of the Greensburg ''Tribune-Review''. Citing a "sagging economy", the Trib laid off more than four percent of its workforce in 2003, including
freelance writer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...
s. More shakeups continued in 2005 as circulation numbers dropped and a top official left. An online message board featured back and forth fights between Pittsburgh and Greensburg employees. Edward Harrell, then-president of the Tribune-Review Publishing Company, announced in January 2005 that most of the regional editions of the paper would have their newsroom, management, and circulation departments merged, and staff reductions would follow. The merged papers include the ''Tribune-Review'' of Greensburg, the ''Valley News Dispatch'' of Tarentum, ''The Leader-Times'' of Kittanning, ''The Daily Courier'' of Connellsville and the ''Blairsville Dispatch''. ''The Valley Independent'', the only paper with a unionized newsroom and contract, was not affected. The company incorporated as Trib Total Media in the summer of 2005 and purchased Gateway Newspapers, a community publication group servicing approximately 22 communities, at the time, in and around Pittsburgh's Allegheny County. The company immediately laid off two managers. The exact number of proposed redundancies was not announced. In September 2005, Harrell announced his retirement as president of Tribune-Review Publishing Company, effective December 31, 2005. He had served as president since 1989. Several staff writers were laid off in December 2005 as two of Gateway's newspapers were discontinued. In May 2008, the ''Post-Gazette'' and the Trib reached a deal for one company to deliver both papers. The Post-Gazette would begin delivering the Trib to most of the area with some exceptions. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. On June 20, 2008, Trib Total Media publicly announced it was closing several weekly newspapers in the Gateway Newspapers chain. The papers affected include: ''Bridgeville Area News'', ''North Journal'', ''McKnight Journal'', ''Woodland Progress'', ''Penn Hills Progress'', ''Coraopolis-Moon Record'' and the ''Advance Leader''. Many of those papers were several decades old. The company also announced major changes to the remaining Gateway publications including a revamp of the Pennysaver in the communities that have Gateway newspapers. Several published reports say the remaining community newspapers would expand coverage to include areas no longer serviced by Gateway publications. Other Gateway newspapers will now serve the communities served by those titles. In November 2015, Trib Total Media announced that they would be cutting back on home delivery of printed newspapers and emphasize digital delivery. The restructuring included the sale of two dailies and six weeklies to West Penn Media. Two papers were closed, ''The Daily News'' in McKeesport, and ''The Valley Independent'' in Monessen. The remaining papers, in Pittsburgh, Greensburg, and Tarentum, became regional editions of a single title, the ''Tribune-Review''. Home delivery was reduced in some parts of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Trib Total Media laid off 153 full and part-time workers from its staff of approximately 1,100, another 68 had accepted buyouts in October. The Pittsburgh edition of the ''Tribune-Review'' went all-digital after publishing its last print edition on November 30, 2016. The Greensburg-based Westmoreland edition and the Tarentum-based Valley News Dispatch edition remained in print.


Investigations and Controversies

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, through reporter Chris Ruddy was heavily involved in spreading rumors about the death of
Vincent Foster Vincent Walker Foster Jr. (January 15, 1945 – July 20, 1993) was an American attorney who served as deputy White House counsel during the first six months of the Clinton administration. Foster had been a partner at Rose Law Firm in Littl ...
, an aid to the
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
administration. The Clinton White House had commissioned a report entitled the ''communication stream of conspiracy commerce'' which came to light in 2014. Carl Prine, an investigative reporter for the newspaper, conducted a probe with the
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
news magazine ''
60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...
'' that highlighted the lack of security at the nation's most dangerous chemical plants following the
September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
. The reporters, and a CBS camera operator, were charged with trespassing at a Neville Island plant during their investigation. They were later acquitted when the judge accepted that the story had been in the public interest. In 2007, Prine's further investigation into the subject was featured in the PBS documentary series Exposé: America's Investigative Reports, in a two-part episode titled "Think Like A Terrorist." One Tribune-Review flap went national when Colin McNickle, then editor of the newspaper's editorial page, attended a July 26, 2004 speech at the
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
State House given by Teresa Heinz Kerry, who had been the subject of two negative articles in the Tribune-Review's opinion pages. After the speech, there was a dispute between McNickle and Heinz Kerry over her use of the term "un-American activity."


Circulation

The daily ''Tribune-Review'' is published in three geographic editions: Pittsburgh, Westmoreland, and Valley News Dispatch. The ''Tribune-Review'' claimed to show the highest gains in readership over the past five years of any newspaper in America's top 48 markets, which were dominated by sinking readership. The growth can be attributed to purchases of other newspapers, which were then reclassified as editions of the ''Tribune-Review''. This idea was proposed to Scaife and Ralph Martin by David Horchak, the Circulation Director of The Valley News Dispatch. Taking advantage of ABC rules that allowed declaring newspapers to include all circulation of a newspaper to be declared editions of a main newspaper. This did not keep David Horchak on when the ''Tribune-Review'' decided to have just two circulation directors after personnel cuts. According to surveys by International Demographics Inc., an independent media research firm in Houston, the number of ''Tribune-Review'' readers jumped 17.8 percent from 2007 to 2012. As part of the Trib Total Media conglomerate, the ''Tribune-Review'' has a news exchange partnership with WPXI, Pittsburgh's NBC affiliate. Until 2013, it was a sister publication to Pittsburgh's second-largest news radio station, KQV. Trib Total Media is the Official Newspaper of the
Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...
and the
Pittsburgh Penguins The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. The Penguins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), E ...
(the latter of which Scaife was a co-founder in
1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...
). It has strong partnerships with many nonprofit and community businesses and organizations throughout Western Pennsylvania.


See also

*
Arkansas Project The Arkansas Project was a series of investigative press reports, funded primarily by conservative businessman Richard Mellon Scaife, that focused on criticism of then-President Bill Clinton and his administration. Scaife spent nearly $2 million on ...
* Brad Bumsted * Randy Bish * ''
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving Greater Pittsburgh, metropolitan Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the fi ...
''


Notes and references


External links

*
"Trials and Trib-ulations: An insider's look at Pittsburgh's second daily"
''
Pittsburgh City Paper The ''Pittsburgh City Paper'' is Pittsburgh's leading alternative weekly newspaper which focuses on local news, opinion, and arts and entertainment. It bought out ''In Pittsburgh Weekly'' in 2001. As of April 2015, ''City Paper'' is the 14th ...
'', September 1, 2005 {{Authority control 1889 establishments in Pennsylvania Conservative media in the United States Daily newspapers published in Pennsylvania Newspapers established in 1889 Newspapers published in Pittsburgh