PRINT isn’t dead. But the soaring cost of newsprint is contributing to the slow death of America’s newspapers.

A months-long spike in the price of paper, driven by federal tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Canadian suppliers, is slamming newspapers at a time when the news about the news industry wasn’t very good to begin with.

Newspapers, magazines and print advertisers have seen the cost of their most basic commodity rise at double-digit rates since the Commerce Department began imposing the tariffs in March on Canadian imports, by far the publishing industry’s dominant paper source.

The result has been a kind of slow-motion breakdown for newspapers, long beset by declining ad revenue and disappearing readers. Even in an increasingly digital world, old-fashioned ink-on-paper remains the lifeblood of most newspapers.

Newspapers have seen the cost of their most basic commodity rise at double-digit rates since the govt began imposing the tariffs on Canadian imports

Print ads and subscriptions account for 75 per cent or more of the revenue of an average daily newspaper. And so rising paper prices have fallen like an axe throughout the news business:

• The Tampa Bay Times in April cut 50 positions, or about seven per cent of its workforce, after projecting a $3 million increase in its newsprint budget, said chief executive Paul Tash. The paper also undertook economising measures, such as reducing publication of a free tabloid paper from five days to just one day a week.

• McClatchy Newspapers, publisher of the Miami Herald, Kansas City Star and more than two dozen other regional papers, on Tuesday laid off 3.5pc of its workforce, about 140 people. The company’s chief financial officer, Elaine Lintecum, said that a 13pc increase in McClatchy’s newsprint expenses in the second quarter was one of them.

• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this week cut its print edition from seven days a week to five. Editor David Shribman said the change was in the works for some time, saying: “We are emphasising digital because the market is going digital.” But he added, “These tariffs aren’t helping us.”

(The Washington Post said its newsprint costs have risen 25pc over the past year, but it has absorbed the costs without taking economising measures).

Smaller papers are feeling the bite, too. The twice-weekly Storm Lake Times in Iowa (circulation 3,000) has seen its newsprint and printing bills rise by about 13pc since the start of the year, according to Art Cullen, the paper’s editor.

The broader impact of the newsprint issue was laid out in a survey last month by the News Media Alliance, a trade group that is seeking to overturn the tariffs. Nearly half of the 272 newspaper publishers who responded t said they had lain off staff as a direct result of newsprint price increases; some 71pc said they had cut back the number of pages they published each day.

The organisation said the publishers reported an average annual newsprint cost increase of $176,818 - a sum that could easily fund three or more newsroom jobs at many publications.

For many publishers, the price increase has been a double whammy. Advertisers that get their messages out via “preprints” - free-standing ad circulars distributed by newspapers - have also cut back as their costs have risen, further hurting publishers.

The National Newspaper Association, a trade group whose membership is smaller dailies and weeklies, estimated last month that its members had seen a 20pc reduction in preprints this year.

The paper tariffs were imposed by the Commerce Department after the North Pacific Paper Co (NorPac) petitioned the agency for relief last summer. NorPac, based in Longview, Washington, argued that Canadian companies are subsidised by their government and injured American competitors by selling newsprint below cost, an unfair trading practice.

The tariffs have helped protect NorPac, which employs about 400 workers, but has set off widespread concern among publishers.

“We’re not seeking an advantage. We simply want a level playing field,” said David Richey, a NorPac spokesman. Newspaper publishers have pinned their hopes for relief on two tracks, one legislative and one bureaucratic.

Legislation supported by publishers has been introduced in the Senate by Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, and in the House by Representative Kristi L Noem that would suspend the tariffs pending a study of their effects on the American economy.

A more promising avenue, at least from Boyle’s perspective, may be the US International Trade Commission, an independent federal agency that has the authority to modify or overturn the tariffs, pending a showing of harm to American industry.

The commission’s four members will consider the issue on Aug 28.

The Washington Post

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, August 27th, 2018