191-year-old Ohio newspaper says it will shut down by year’s end without a buyer

The owners of The Blade, an 191-year-old Toledo newspaper, announced on Tuesday that they intend to cease publication by the end of the year if no buyer can be found. Block Communications, the current operator of the paper, cited financial losses as the reason for the potential shutdown. Notably, Block Communications had previously announced the closing of another newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, citing similar financial challenges in January.

However, just two weeks before the June 2021 deadline to shut down, Block Communications revealed that the nonprofit Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism had purchased the newspaper, preventing its demise. In an email to the Blade's staff, President and COO Jodi Miehls described the decision as "an extremely difficult one" and emphasized that the financial losses the paper has incurred over the years have become unsustainable.

The Blade's team of reporters have earned several accolades, including the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 2004 for their work on an Army platoon accused of killing unarmed Vietnamese civilians in 1967. The newspaper was founded in 1835, two years before Toledo was officially incorporated as a city, and is recognized as the city's oldest continuously operating business.

Paul Block Sr., a prominent newspaper mogul, took control of the Blade in August 1926. A tribute from Miehls in the email reflected on the 100-year history of the newspaper, stating that the publication of the article "will long be remembered by us as the beginning of a new era of good will in our association with the Toledo Blade."