The co-publisher of the World Journal in Walsenburg admits it’s a “grandiose name for a very little paper.”
Still, the “world” for Brian Orr’s team of three staff reporters and a handful of freelancers spans more than 10,000 square miles. It consists of the contiguous Huerfano and Las Animas Counties as well as New Mexico’s Colfax County. This sparsely populated terrain is rugged, with gaps in reliable internet coverage.
“(My) readership is older. Older readers like paper products. I do too,” he said.
In an editorial in late February, Orr told his readers the cost of printing the World Journal’s physical newspaper may soon rise dramatically.
The reason: proposed 25 percent tariffs on lumber products from Canada, including newsprint paper. According to Columbia Journalism Review, Canada provides an estimated 80 percent of the newsprint used by U.S. newspapers. The Trump policy represents an economic shock for small newspapers, in particular, companies often already working on thin margins.
“Just devastating to have to pay that much more in printing,” Orr said.
The president’s tariffs on Canadian lumber (and many other products) were announced on March 4. Two days later, a one-month delay on the tariffs was announced for products covered under the USMCA trade agreement, exempting newsprint from the higher import costs until April 2.
“I'm just crossing my fingers, hoping that it doesn't come to that,” Orr said.
Cost increases across the board
Weekly editions of the World Journal are printed a three-hour drive South of Walsenburg, at the press of the Santa Fe New Mexican. That’s been the case since the closure of the Pueblo Chieftain printing plant nearly two years ago.
Standing upright in the backroom of the Santa Fe facility are 30-foot-tall rolls of paper. Each weighs about a ton and holds seven miles of newsprint. Press Circulation Manager Josh Harris calls it “the forest.”
“We’ve made a lot of sacrifices over the years to make sure that we can keep printing (for) people and that they keep coming back and that their businesses remain viable,” Harris said. “You can’t do that if you are charging people into the dirt.”
The New Mexican actually sources most of its newsprint from American suppliers. Still, in the days leading up to the Trump Administration’s expected tariffs, the New Mexican press announced about a 4 percent rate increase for its approximately 75 client publications, including the World Journal. That’s because Harris does not expect U.S. paper costs to remain flat if the tariffs are implemented.
“If everything else is going up 25 percent, then American suppliers are probably going to try to get 10 to 12 just because you can't get it anywhere else, right?” Harris said. “It is capitalism.”
A boon for American paper manufacturers? Not exactly
Economist Gary Hufbauer has been studying trade policy for six decades. He worked in the U.S. Treasury Department during the Nixon, Ford and Carter Administrations and taught at Georgetown University as well as the University of New Mexico. For the last 35 years, he’s been with the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Hufbauer said Harris’s expectation about American newsprint rates is likely accurate.
“We've done a lot of studies of tariffs in the past and generally speaking, U.S. producers of similar products raise their prices,” he said. “It's kind of all over the map, but say 60 to 75 percent of the tariff is going to be the raise in prices from U.S. producers.”
While tariffs were a part of Trump’s strategy in his first term, Hufbauer described them as “absolutely central” to the trade policy of the president’s second term. The administration argues tariffs will reinvigorate America’s hollowed-out industries, while the tariff dollars earned could bolster the federal budget and pay down the national deficit.
“What (economists) find in looking at a lot of examples is that high tariffs have not historically been a path to a robust manufacturing sector,” Hufbauer said.
For comparison, Hufbauer looks at the recent history of three developing nations—Brazil, India and China. Both Brazil and India have used the high tariff approach in recent decades. Studies have found that while tariffs did protect some industries, manufacturing in the countries suffered as a whole from inefficiencies and reduced competitiveness. During periods when the countries did free up their trade policies, the economic results were generally positive.
Meanwhile, China’s approach for the last 40 years has been the opposite, with the country largely adopting low tariff policies. The country’s economy has surged, and its net export of manufactured goods has increased 25-fold in the past two decades.
Finally, Hufbauer said the increased economic opportunities that high tariffs present for domestic manufacturers do not always lead to higher production, more competition and lower prices. In this, he said paper products are a great example. Paper mills take a long time to build. They also lead to higher localized pollution than other manufacturing facilities, making municipalities reluctant to approve their construction.
“It’s not easy to open a new newsprint factory in the U.S.,” he said.
A commitment to paper
The World Journal in Walsenburg is a family-run operation. Brian Orr’s wife Gretchen is the other co-publisher. His daughter Ruth is the paper’s art director.
“I've just got a really good close crew who are all excellent at their jobs,” Orr said. “It's why I feel confident that we will weather whatever comes because I've got great people.”
The paper is encouraging readers to switch to digital-only subscriptions, if possible. Orr is also reducing the number of print copies he sends to certain newsstands. Those efforts will help the company save on printing costs, but Orr insists he is not giving up on a physical print edition.
“I've seen a lot of changes,” Orr said of the industry that’s defined his life. “Might not look exactly like we do now, but we will always be here and always be making a paper.”
