Complete Story
07/18/2018
Columbus Dispatch raises prices after tariffs spike newspaper costs
Buying The Columbus Dispatch at a newsstand will cost you double what it did last year.
Newsstand prices have gone up from $1.50 to $3 for a weekday edition. The Sunday newspaper costs $5.00 if you buy it at a newsstand.
The Dispatch blames its recent price hikes for its newspaper on fewer print advertisements and new tariffs on newsprint imported from Canada. The U.S. Commerce Department added a 22 percent tariff on Canadian uncoated groundwood paper in March, saying it found evidence of dumping.
“That was more than a 20 percent increase on our costs, and we buy newsprint by the railcar load, and this is something that has added millions to the cost of producing a newspaper in a year,” says Editor Alan Miller.
The Dispatch isn't the only newspaper hurting from the Trump's administration's tariffs. In April, the Tampa Bay Times cut 50 jobs after warning in an editorial that higher newsprint costs would lead to a $3 million in losses. Gannett Co., which publishes USA Today and the Cincinnati Enquirer, said their operations would be "impacted significantly by changes in newspring prices."
