JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
A pause in President Trump's tariffs on some products from Canada is set to expire next week. America's small newspapers are watching closely. They operate on very thin margins already, and most U.S. newsprint comes from Canada. Colorado Public Radio's Dan Boyce reports.
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DAN BOYCE, BYLINE: I'm in the newsroom of the World Journal newspaper in tiny Walsenburg, Colorado. Brian Orr owns the paper.
BRIAN ORR: It's a grandiose name for a very little paper that has just a very little footprint.
BOYCE: The World Journal actually covers about 10,000 square miles on the Colorado-New Mexico border, but only about 30,000 people live here.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: If they ever want to advertise...
BOYCE: And it's a family operation. Brian's wife his copublisher. His daughter does art direction. The rugged territory the World Journal covers has big gaps in reliable internet coverage and a readership that's not that into online news anyway.
ORR: Population and readership is older. Older readers like paper products. I do, too.
BOYCE: This month, the Trump administration put a 25% tariff on Canadian timber products. That includes newsprint. Not good, says Orr.
ORR: Just devastating to have to pay that much more in printing.
BOYCE: President Trump then suspended the tariff, but that suspension is supposed to expire April 2.
ORR: I'm just crossing my fingers, hoping that it doesn't come to that.
BOYCE: The industry trade group News/Media Alliance says 80% of newsprint used in America comes from Canada and predicts small rural papers will be hit hardest. Some could close.
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BOYCE: The Walsenburg World Journal is printed here, at the press of the Santa Fe New Mexican. Circulation manager Josh Harris says they print 75 publications for clients in several states.
JOSH HARRIS: We have made a lot of sacrifices over the years to make sure that we can keep printing people and make sure that they, you know, keep coming back and that their businesses remain viable. And you can't do that if you are charging people into the dirt.
BOYCE: Notably, this plant actually sources most of its newsprint from American suppliers. Nevertheless...
HARRIS: If everything else is going up 25%, then American suppliers are probably going to try to get 10 to 12 just because you can't get it anywhere else, right? It is capitalism.
GARY HUFBAUER: He's absolutely right. We've done a lot of studies of tariffs in the past.
BOYCE: Economist Gary Hufbauer with the Peterson Institute for International Economics has been studying trade policy for six decades.
HUFBAUER: And generally speaking, U.S. producers of similar products raise their prices.
BOYCE: The Trump administration says its tariffs will reinvigorate America's hollowed-out industries. Hufbauer says, yes, tariffs can help some domestic producers in those protected industries. For example, the U.S. Lumber Coalition has voiced strong support for Trump's move. Hufbauer says on the whole, though...
HUFBAUER: High tariffs have not historically been a path to a robust manufacturing sector.
BOYCE: In theory, he says tariffs on Canadian newsprint could stimulate more U.S. production, but...
HUFBAUER: It's going to take a while. And not easy to open a new newsprint factory in the U.S.
BOYCE: Paper mills are notorious local polluters. Communities are often reluctant to approve their construction. Brian Orr, Walsenburg World Journal publisher, says they're looking for ways to buy less paper.
ORR: If I can get someone to convert from being a physical paper reader to a digital reader.
BOYCE: He's pushing online subscriptions, maybe delivering fewer copies to newsstands. He says prices would have to rise if the tariffs on Canada stick, but...
ORR: There are a significant demographic of my population that just likes a newspaper, so that we will always print a newspaper.
BOYCE: For NPR News...
ORR: We will never give up on paper.
BOYCE: I'm Dan Boyce in Walsenburg, Colorado. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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