The Toledo Blade moved a step closer to the end on Friday, as owner Block Communications Inc. filed a formal WARN notice confirming the newspaper will cease publication on December 31, 2026, with 116 employees to lose their jobs in the wind-down.
According to the filing, affected employees will be terminated within a two-week window following the final date of publication, with no bumping or reemployment rights provided. The notice follows the company’s September 8 announcement that it would explore a sale of the Blade’s assets and would publish its final print and digital editions on December 31 if no buyer was found.
Block Communications President and Chief Operating Officer Jodi Miehls told employees in September that the financial losses the Blade has endured for years are simply not sustainable, and that the Block family’s continued investment to keep the paper open was no longer an option. The company did not disclose the extent of the losses at the time of that announcement.
The Blade, founded in 1835, is one of Ohio’s oldest newspapers and has long carried the motto ‘One of America’s Great Newspapers’ on its nameplate. If it closes on December 31, it will be 12 days after its 191st anniversary, ending a run that began two years before the city of Toledo was incorporated.
The shutdown announcement came less than two weeks after Toledo NewsGuild members rejected the company’s proposed two-year contract by a 46-25 vote on August 28, citing concerns about layoffs and language that could allow union jobs to be replaced by artificial intelligence, freelancers or other sources. The Guild later offered to resume negotiations, and Blade workers have said they would welcome new ownership committed to local news.
Blade employees vacated the paper’s longtime headquarters on North Superior Street earlier this year and have worked remotely since March. Block Communications also owns the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which is scheduled to end publication in May 2026, making the Blade the second historic newspaper in the company set to close within the year.
For Toledo readers and advertisers, the coming weeks will determine whether any buyer emerges before the December 31 deadline in the WARN filing. If none does, Northwest Ohio’s largest city will lose the newspaper that has covered it for nearly two centuries.
Photo: David Wilson, CC BY 2.0