By Rodger Morrow, Beaver County Business Editor & Publisher
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The Golden Age of Local News
Fifty years ago, Southwestern Pennsylvania had more newspapers than Sheetz has coffee lids. In Beaver County, you could start your day with The Beaver Falls News-Tribune, pick up the Aliquippa Gazette after lunch, and end the evening with the Ambridge Daily Citizen—all before tuning in to KDKA to hear about the Steelers’ latest injuries. Every valley had its own headline and its own opinion about how many bridges the county really needed.
The Long Slide Toward Consolidation
Then came consolidation—a word that sounds tidy and businesslike until you realize it means fewer reporters, fewer presses, and fewer reasons to read. In Pittsburgh, the unraveling began in 1992, when a labor strike shuttered The Pittsburgh Press. The Post-Gazette absorbed its rival, and overnight, a two-newspaper town became a one-paper city. Over the years, the paper shrank until by 2021 it was printing only twice a week, with journalists striking since 2022.
The Rise and Retreat of The Tribune-Review
Richard Scaife’s Tribune-Review launched a full Pittsburgh edition in the 1990s, briefly reviving competition. But by 2016, print economics forced the paper to go digital-only in Pittsburgh, keeping its presses rolling for Westmoreland County and the Alle-Kiski Valley.
The Fate of the Local Dailies
Small-town dailies were sold off one by one. The Beaver County Times—born from mergers of The Beaver Falls News-Tribune, The Aliquippa Gazette, and The Ambridge Daily Citizen—moved from family ownership to Calkins Media, then to GateHouse, and finally to Gannett. Other regional papers met similar fates, while only The Butler Eagle remains family-owned—a rare independent survivor.
From Press Corps to Corporate Chains
What was once a bustling press corps has been distilled into a few chain-owned dailies, scattered weeklies, and civic blogs like The Beaver Countian. The result: efficiency without soul. The same templates and wire copy stretch from Maine to Missouri—a journalism of fast food: familiar, filling, and flavorless.
Why Beaver County Still Needs Its Own Voice
Beaver County’s comeback story—of data centers, switchgear manufacturing, and global energy investment—deserves to be told by people who know the place. Beaver County Business exists to put the local back in local journalism, proving that community reporting still matters, even if the presses have been replaced by podcasts and platforms like BeeHiiv.
Ink Fades, Deadlines Don’t
Economies recover when people start believing in themselves again—and that belief begins with seeing their own stories told. Whether it’s an investment in Aliquippa, a small-business success in Beaver Falls, or Seamus the dog covering “hooman interest” stories in Bridgewater, it’s worth recording. Beaver County will always need its own paper—and its own voice.
This Is It
Ink fades. Deadlines don’t. So long as there’s one factory reopening, one bridge repainting, or one café serving the news with the coffee, Beaver County will have a story worth telling. This is it.
