The group of former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette workers who led a historic three-year strike have waded through a lot of adversity and uncertainty the past few years. Almost four years since the start of the now-finished strike, the group has officially started a new publication.
Though the start of a daunting new challenge, the milestone gave many a rare chance to breathe, says Erin Hébert, one of the former strikers and a founder of the new publication.
“Getting to the soft launch was, I think, the biggest relief a lot of us have felt in a very long time,” Hébert says. “It is a really big accomplishment to get to a point where we have a website, a social media presence, and, most importantly, we have the capacity, both financially and in terms of people involved, to push this forward.”
The Pittsburgh Progress, which promises an ambitious co-op model extending ownership to its workers and the community, debuted in late July with an initial taste of content to entice the public and shore up funding…