• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 15, 2025

Unlike states that support local journalism with tax incentives, Ohio is going in the opposite direction. The state is about to kill an exemption from the state sales tax that has been in place for newspapers since 1935, according to cleveland.com/The Cleveland Plain Dealer. 

Local newspapers, already operating on thin margins, would have to eat the 5.75% sales/use tax or pass the cost on to readers, the report states. Moreover, printing of some publications could be moved out of state. 

The budget must be finalized in House-Senate negotiations by July 1, the report continues. If it makes it into law, the sales tax change would take effect in January 1, 2026. 

What is not clear is whether the tax would apply to out-of-state publications that sell advertising and/or subscriptions in the state. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that companies do not have to have a physical presence in a state to be responsible for its sales tax, reversing an earlier decision  

At the risk of sounding paranoid, it is hard to imagine that there is not some political element to this. 

Indeed, these changes “appear to single out newspapers through applying the sales tax only to that industry,” said Monica Nieporte, president and executive director of the Ohio News Media Association, in recent testimony before the Ohio Senate finance Committee, according to cleveland.com.

Magazines would continue to receive the exemption. But newspapers would be hit.

Nieporte argued that “these tax increases could harm Ohio businesses by increasing their advertising costs.” 

But there is another side to the story. An article on the State Senate site condemns the “far-left” cleveland.com and Cleveland Plain Dealer for their perspective on the sales tax exemption. 

“Of course, the paper was very angry that the Senate repealed a long held tax expenditure that exempted newspapers from sales tax,” the Senate article alleged. “Publisher Chris Quinn, as usual, tried to make it personal against Senator (Jerry C.) Cirino." 

“Cirino, who hates us, and has criticized me by name in a City Club speech, seems like he’s getting some revenge by removing that exemption from the budget,” Quinn said, according to the article.  

Politics and personalities aside, removal of the tax exemption does seem to pose a threat to print newspapers. 

These changes “will harm your constituents by creating a new cost barrier, or rather, a ‘paywall’ for access to important community news,” Nieporte contends.  

That’s the real issue—not how the sales tax will hurt the Plain Dealer, but the smaller newspapers around the state. Surely, both sides can see this.