• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 16, 2025

Struggling print newspapers are facing a new existential threat: a possible 25% increase in tariffs on imports from Canada.  

It just so happens that 80% of the newsprint paper used in this country comes from Canada. And it is already expensive enough. 

“Newsprint for the majority of small, community newspapers like ours is the second largest expense, after human resource costs,” writes the Vicksburg Post. 

The Post adds, “Newsprint, which includes magazine paper, is covered under this agreement. Even still, some newspaper manufacturers are already increasing prices in preparation for the tariffs to be imposed.” 

On the positive side, the tariffs have been suspended until April 2. Yet the mere prospect of a 25% newsprint tariff contributed, at least in some small part, to the decision to close New York State’s Cortland Standard (see separate story). 

“A tariff would add a significant burden to publishers already struggling with high costs of production and thin margins, and analysts say the mere looming threat of one has complicated life for printers,” Columbia Journalism Review writes. 

Brett House, a professor of professional practice at the Columbia Business School, tells CJR: “There is no scenario under which this is cost-positive for the media industry. Almost anything that is done here is going to be increasing prices for newsprint.”  

If this goes through (which it still may not), you can expect more newspapers to kill or reduce the frequency of their print editions. They will go the way of the Star-Ledger, the New Jersey paper that published its final print edition last month.