SHUTTERING

Trumpy Owners Threaten to Close Iconic Newspaper

Billionaires who own The Toledo Blade have said it will shutter the outlet if they can’t find a buyer.

A historic Ohio newspaper is warning that its operations will soon cease to exist if its Trumpy parent company is unable to find a buyer by the end of the year.

The Toledo Blade, owned by Block Communications, wrote on Tuesday that its parent corporation was looking to sell The Blade’s assets, but if a sale is not made by Dec. 31, then the newspaper will shut its doors come Jan 1.

“Unfortunately, an extremely difficult decision has been made,” Jodi Miehls, president and chief operating officer of Block Communications said in an email to Blade staff on Tuesday. “The Block Family’s continued investment to keep the Blade open is no longer an option. The financial losses the Blade has endured for years are simply not sustainable.”

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“Block Communications has decided to begin exploring the possible sale of the Blade’s assets. Should those efforts fail, The Blade will publish its final edition on Thursday, December 31st, 2026. This will include both print and digital,” she wrote.

The newspaper was founded in 1835 and is the midsize city’s oldest continually operated business.

Paul Block, Sr., a newspaper mogul, took control of The Blade in 1926. He then brought his family, who have since become billionaires, into the business, and his grandson, John Block, is currently The Blade’s publisher and editor-in-chief.

The newspaper currently has 119 employees. The outlet is the inspiration for Peacock’s The Office spin-off The Paper, a sitcom about a struggling Midwestern newspaper.

If it were to close, it would leave Toledo without a primary newsroom.

Block Communications came under fire last year after it said its other major newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, would cease publication by mid-2026. It was eventually sold to the Vernoulis Institute for Local Journalism and avoided that devastation.

John and his twin brother Allan, who owns a 25 percent stake in Block Communications like his brother, have repeatedly feuded over the direction of their grandfather’s empire, according to court filings from one of their several lawsuits between the brothers.

But the Blocks have stirred controversy as they have been accused of media bias. John in particular came under fire after he was pictured on board Trump’s private plane after a campaign event in Toledo.

Just two years later, the Post-Gazette made national headlines for “shifting right” after John fired the Post-Gazette’s veteran cartoonist, Rob Rogers, over cartoons that were viewed as critical of Trump.

And during the 2020 presidential campaign, John ordered for the the Post-Gazette’s editorial board to endorse Trump, despite having previously requested the paper not endorse a candidate.

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