Block Communications (also known as
Blade Communications) is an American privately held
holding company of various assets, mainly in the print and broadcast media, based in
Toledo, Ohio. The company was founded in 1900 in
New York City when
Paul Block, a German-Jewish immigrant who came to the United States
fifteen years prior, formed an ad representation firm for newspapers. Through the 1910s and 1920s, the Block empire grew to encompass many newspapers on the east coast of the US, however with the
Great Depression in the 1930s came the loss of all but three properties: the ad representation firm, the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Toledo
Blade (where Block eventually settled the company upon its purchase in 1927). After Block's death in 1941, his sons took over the company and later his grandchildren (one of whom, Allan Block, is company chairman).