City Pages staff writer Gregory Pratt's most recent cover story was this one, which ran July 4. Today was the last day for City Pages staff writer Gregory Pratt, said Kevin Hoffman, editor since 2007 of the Twin Cities alternative weekly, which is owned by Village Voice Media Holdings.

Pratt's departure leaves the paper with three full-time staff writers: Andy Mannix, Aaron Rupar and Erika Wolf.

Pratt, a 2010 graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, joined the paper in July 2011 and wrote news and cover stories for the paper's print edition. Like other staff writers, he was required to post to the paper's blog each day.

His previous journalism experience was as an award-winning editorial fellow at Phoenix New Times. His most recent City Pages cover story, "The Baby Buried in the Backyard," about an unsolved mystery in Crystal, Minn., ran on July 4. Pratt also reported on legal affairs, the food industry, immigration, politics and media.

The newspaper will seek to make up for the loss by spending more on freelance writing, Hoffman said. City Pages had five full-time writers until last November, when one writer was laid off.

Losing writers "is never easy," Hoffman said, "but we are in difficult times right now. We still have a strong staff, and we are getting great scoops online every day."

This cover story from October 2011, by staff writer Gregory Pratt, won an award for business reporting from the Minnesota Society for Professional Journalists.