Total Trib Media closing 2 Western Pennsylvania newspapers
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Total Trib Media is closing two of its Western Pennsylvania newspapers after failing to sell them, leaving 87 employees out of work.
The company says in a statement Wednesday that The Valley Independent in Monessen and The Daily News in McKeesport will shut down on December 31.
Jennifer Bertetto, the company’s president and CEO, says they’ve been trying to sell the papers since August but “nothing ever came to fruition.”
The sales are part of the company’s strategic growth plan.
Total Trib will instead publish three regional editions of its flagship newspaper, the Tribune-Review: Tribune-Review Westmoreland edition; Tribune-Review Pittsburgh edition and Tribune-Review Valley News Dispatch edition. Those changes will begin Jan. 1.
Fifty-one workers at the Daily News and 36 from The Valley Independent will be laid off.