Rising newsprint prices hurt papers' role in local democracy

A press The Seattle Times shut down in 2020 (Photo by Mike Siegel)

The "local journalism crisis is exacerbated by a global plunge in newsprint production. That’s leading to soaring costs for remaining newspapers that are generally hanging on by a thread," writes Brier Dudley, editor of The Seattle Times. "Combined with high fuel prices and delivery labor shortages, this will lead to further cutbacks in distribution, the size of newspapers and potentially newsroom employment."

Dudley reports that newsprint prices have risen more than 30% in the last two years, and "A major factor is mills closing or converting production to packaging materials used by e-commerce companies such as Amazon." Francois Chastanet, director of graphic papers at Numera Analytics, a Montreal research firm affiliated with the Pulp and Paper Products Council, told Dudley, “Mills have been shutting down pretty much everywhere — it’s really a global situation that has been a bit worsened by the pandemic.” Chastanet said North America's newsprint production capacity declined 28% in 2020 and 18% last year, as demand fell 26% in 2020, 6.6% in 2021 and 5.3% in the first four months of 2022.

Noting many newspapers' cutbacks in the number of weekly print editions, Dudley reports on the situation in Washington: "Executives at the state’s largest independent dailies all told me newsprint prices may force cutbacks. Their price increases vary, as each negotiates separately and costs vary by factors such as volume and proximity to mills."

Newsprint prices were once an industry-insider subject, but now they are hurting the effectiveness of newspapers' role in local democracy, Dudley writes: "At a time when democracy is threatened from within and without, one of the last things America needs is to lose even more of its independent, local free press system. Congress has much to do this summer. But it must also recognize this crisis, agree that local journalism is a civic necessity and help the industry stabilize before it’s too late."