Potential Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Buyer Emerges

PITTSBURGH, PA — A suitor has emerged for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the city's only daily metropolitan newspaper whose current owners have vowed to cease its operations in less than three months due to continuing losses.

Billionaire David Hoffman, chairman of the company that is poised to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins, has said the company also is in talks to buy the Post-Gazette. The news first was reported by the Pittsburgh Business Times.

The Florida-based Hoffman Family of Companies is a private equity and real estate company encompassing 125 global brands. In December, the company announced an agreement to buy the Penguins from the Fenway Sports Group for a reported $1.7 billion.

That move came shortly before Toledo-based Block Communications announced on Jan. 7 that the Post-Gazette will publish its last print and digital editions and go out of business on May 3. Block said the newspaper has lost more than $350 million over the last 20 years.

A Post-Gazette purchase would not be Hoffman's initial foray into the newspaper business.

Hoffman now owns 53 percent of Lee Enterprises, the company that owns the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St. Louis Business Journal reported Thursday.

According to the Business Journal, Hoffman also is examining a potential purchase of the St. Louis Cardinals, a National League Central Division rival of the Pirates.