and 1917. Making matters worse was an increasingly difficult task of sourcing paper at all for the next 5 years. Matters came to a head in 1920 when a number of newspapers nationwide simply couldn't source newsprint at all and had to publish extremely truncated editions. In 1940 the price of newsprint doubled again, reaching a level 4 times higher than the pre-war price. On 23 March the paper appeared with 86 news headlines on the front page and virtually no advertising except for customers under contract. The paper shortage was not caused by a decrease in nationwide production, which had been steadily rising, instead the strong post World War I economy and the attendant advertising boom caused an increase in demand which the paper mills could not meet. In 1921 the paper had a circulation of 56,857. Closure and liquidation The combination of rapidly rising costs and higher spending on new press technology led to a trend toward industry consolidation in the 1910s and 1920s. Multi-city newspaper syndicates, such as Scripps-Howard, bought up independent papers and either consolidated them or closed them to cut costs. The days of a large city having 5 or 10 local papers were drawing to a close. The Pittsburgh Dispatch published its last issue on 14 February 1923, its property, plant, and goodwill having been sold to the other Pittsburgh papers: the Pittsburgh Post, The Gazette Times and the Pittsburgh Press. The circulation of the paper was merged with the other papers, and the Rook Building at 1331-1335 Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh was sold. The paper's membership in the Associated Press was transferred to the Pittsburgh Sun. The papers taking over the Dispatch also took over the assets of the Pittsburgh Leader at around the same time. References External links Issues from 1849–1880 (intermittent coverage) from Historic Pittsburgh Issues from 1889–1892 available on Library of Congress' Chronicling of America Historic American Newspapers Defunct newspapers published in Pittsburgh Publications established in 1846 Publications disestablished in 1923 1846 establishments in Pennsylvania 1923 disestablishments in Pennsylvania