Nevada Press Association The best in Nevada journalism since 1924
The U.S. Commerce Department’s decision last week to retain tariffs on newsprint from Canada was seen as something of a mixed bag, because the amount of the duties was reduced but they did remain in place.
Here’s the opinion of the News Media Alliance, which continues to fight the tariffs (as does the Nevada Press Association). Here also is a statement from the STOPP alliance of printers and newspapers in opposition to the decision.
Unfortunately, the damage already has been done. Newspapers such as the Nevada Appeal in Carson City already cut production days and laid off staff. A reduction in the tariffs isn’t likely to mean those jobs are coming back, and the readers who were lost already have turned to other sources for their news.
At a recent meeting of press association managers from across the country, we rallied — as we always do — behind the idea that newspapers can survive and even thrive if they are aggressive and put into practice some of the fundamental philosophies that we preach constantly. One of those is the importance of covering local news — the franchise no one can take away from community newspapers.
With that said, however, community newspapers are ceding their biggest advantage when they reduce editorial staffs so much that they simply no longer contain engaging, entertaining, informative community news. Simply running a bunch of press releases doesn’t cut it.
The tariffs are being blamed for a lot of damage to local newspapers, and rightly so. Bumping paper costs 20-30 percent hurts the bottom line directly. But the tariffs also are being used as an excuse by companies that weren’t putting forth an effort before the tariffs were imposed.
If the news on your web site is stale, lacks creativity and innovation, and fails to deliver the kind of information your community is craving — that can’t be blamed on newsprint tariffs.
