The owner of the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette-Mail, which won a Pulitzer Prize last year for its coverage of the state's opioid drug crisis, has warned its entire staff of pending layoffs and said it plans to file for chapter 11 protection and find a potential buyer, the Associated Press reported. The Gazette-Mail yesterday reported that its owner, Charleston Newspapers, issued the 60-day layoff notice to its 209 employees. The newspaper said that buyers are being sought and the highest current bidder was Wheeling, W.Va.-based Ogden Newspapers, which owns more than 40 daily newspapers nationwide, including several in West Virginia. The Charleston Gazette and Charleston Daily Mail combined newsrooms in 2015. Their business, circulation, advertising and production departments had been one unit since 1958. Last week a federal judge upheld an arbitrator's ruling that ordered Charleston Newspapers to pay nearly $3.8 million to MediaNews Group, the former owners of the Charleston Daily Mail. The figure represented the profit from the Charleston Newspapers' sale of the Daily Mail, including its internet address, and other fees and costs.