If you grew up in Northeast Ohio, you probably remember the thud. That heavy, ink-smelling stack of paper hitting the porch at 6:00 AM. For over 180 years, The Cleveland Plain Dealer was the undisputed voice of the North Coast. It was the paper that exposed corruption, championed the lakefront, and gave us the legendary Mary Strassmeyer’s gossip columns. But honestly? If you haven't looked at a physical copy in a few years, you might not even recognize the operation today. It’s been a wild, often messy ride from being a daily powerhouse to the digital-first hybrid it has become.
The story of the Plain Dealer isn't just about a newspaper dying. That’s too simple. It’s about a massive, structural divorce between the people who write the news and the people who print it.
The 2013 Split That Changed Everything
Most people in Cleveland still get confused about the difference between The Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com. You’ve probably seen the comments on Facebook or X (formerly Twitter) where people scream about "the PD" when they're actually looking at a digital post.
Here is the reality: in 2013, the Newhouse family (who own Advance Publications) did something radical. They split the company in two. They created Northeast Ohio Media Group (now Advance Local) to handle the website, Cleveland.com, and they kept the Plain Dealer as a separate, unionized entity.
It was a strategic move that felt like a betrayal to many longtime readers. Suddenly, the "daily" paper wasn't actually delivered to homes every day of the week. They cut home delivery to four days: Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. If you wanted the news on Tuesday, you had to go to a store or, more importantly, go online.
This created a weird, two-tiered system. You had veteran reporters at the Plain Dealer and a younger, hungrier, and non-unionized staff at Cleveland.com. They were technically competitors working in the same orbit. It was awkward. It was tense. And for a few years, it was one of the most watched experiments in American journalism.
Why the "Plain Dealer" Name Even Exists
Have you ever stopped to think about how weird the name is? The Plain Dealer. It sounds like someone selling you a used tractor in 1842.
Actually, that’s exactly where it came from. When Admiral J.W. Gray founded the paper in 1842, he wanted a name that suggested honesty. No frills. No fancy language. Just a "plain dealer" of facts. At the time, newspapers were intensely partisan—basically the 19th-century version of cable news shout-fests. Gray wanted something that felt stable.
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The paper survived the Civil War. It survived the Great Depression. It even survived the era when Cleveland had three or four major dailies competing for eyeballs. By the middle of the 20th century, it had swallowed up its rivals, including the Cleveland News, leaving only the Cleveland Press as its main competitor. When the Press folded in 1982, the Plain Dealer became the only game in town.
The Disappearing Newsroom
You can't talk about The Cleveland Plain Dealer without talking about the layoffs. It’s the elephant in the room. In its prime, the newsroom at 1801 Superior Avenue was a buzzing hive of hundreds of journalists. Pulitzers were won. Investigative teams spent months digging into the police department or the school board.
Then the internet happened. Then Craigslist killed the classified ads.
The decline wasn't a cliff; it was a long, painful slide. By 2020, the separation between the unionized Plain Dealer staff and the non-union Cleveland.com staff reached its breaking point. The remaining reporters at the Plain Dealer—the ones who had been there for decades—were mostly laid off or moved over to the digital side.
Today, the "Plain Dealer" brand is essentially a curated print product. The vast majority of the original reporting you see under that masthead is actually produced by the staff at Cleveland.com. It's a "ghost" of its former self in terms of physical presence, but the brand name still carries massive weight in Ohio politics.
The Content Shift: From Hard News to "Service" Journalism
If you pick up a copy today, you’ll notice the vibe is different. It’s less about "breaking news"—which happens too fast for a printing press anyway—and more about analysis, sports, and what we call "service journalism."
- Sports is still king: You can’t survive in Cleveland without the Browns. Terry Pluto is a household name for a reason. His columns often bridge the gap between the old-school print era and the new digital world.
- Politics: The paper (and the site) still leans heavily into Columbus. Because Ohio is a swing state (or at least used to be), the Plain Dealer’s endorsements and investigations still move the needle in the statehouse.
- Dining and Culture: There’s a massive focus on where to eat in Tremont or what’s happening at Playhouse Square. This is the "Discover" bait that keeps the lights on.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Paywall
"Information wants to be free." We've heard that for years. But the Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com have leaned hard into a subscription model. People complain about the paywall constantly.
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"Why should I pay for news I can find on Twitter?"
The answer is simple: Twitter doesn't have a reporter sitting in a city council meeting for four hours on a Monday night.
The transition to a subscription-based model was rocky. Initially, everything was free. Then, they tried a "metered" paywall. Now, it's pretty tight. If you want the deep-dive investigations into Cuyahoga County corruption, you have to pay. This has alienated some older readers who feel they already paid for the paper, but it’s the only reason the newsroom still exists in any form.
Is the "Plain Dealer" Still Influential?
Honestly, yes. But its influence has migrated.
When the Plain Dealer editorial board makes a statement, people in City Hall still sweat. When their investigative team looks into a local nonprofit, things change. The reach might be smaller in terms of "papers on porches," but the digital footprint is massive. Cleveland.com is consistently one of the most-visited local news sites in the country, often outperforming papers in much larger cities.
But something has been lost. The "Plain Dealer" used to be the common language of the city. Everyone read the same front page. Today, we’re all in our own little silos. You might see a sports story on your phone while your neighbor sees a political op-ed, and neither of you ever sees the "actual" newspaper.
How to Actually Support Local Journalism in Cleveland
If you care about the future of news in Northeast Ohio, just complaining about the paywall doesn't help. The landscape has changed, and the "good old days" of 500-page Sunday papers are gone forever.
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To stay informed and actually help the ecosystem, you have to be intentional.
Get the "Right" Access
Don't just rely on what bubbles up in your Facebook feed. If you value the legacy of the Plain Dealer, consider a digital subscription. It’s often cheaper than a cup of coffee per week. This funds the reporters who are still covering the Browns, the school board, and the suburbs.
Diversify Your Sources
The Plain Dealer isn't the only game in town anymore. Cleveland is seeing a rise in "non-profit" journalism. Organizations like Signal Cleveland are filling the gaps that the PD left behind when they cut staff. They focus on community-level news that the big corporate papers sometimes miss.
Use the Archives
The Cleveland Public Library has the entire history of the Plain Dealer on microfilm and in digital databases. If you are doing genealogy or local history research, it is an goldmine. You can see the city’s history unfold in real-time through the eyes of the reporters who lived it.
Engage With the Newsletters
The best way to consume the Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com content now isn't the home page—it’s the newsletters. They have specific ones for the Browns, for politics, and for "Today in Cleveland." It cuts through the digital noise and gives you a curated look at what matters.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer is a survivor. It has been sliced, diced, rebranded, and moved. It’s not the monolith it was in 1950, but it remains the primary record of life in Cleveland. Whether it lives for another 180 years depends entirely on whether the city still values a "plain dealer" of the truth in an era of loud opinions.
To make the most of the current landscape, start by signing up for the "Wake Up" newsletter. It’s a free way to see what the newsroom is prioritizing without hitting the paywall immediately. If you find yourself clicking more than three times a week, that’s your signal to subscribe. Support the journalists who live in your neighborhoods, shop at your stores, and hold your local officials accountable. That is how you keep a legacy alive.