Brier Dudley | Seattle Times Free Press editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As if they didn\u2019t have enough to deal with, America\u2019s newspaper publishers are facing a tight supply of newsprint that\u2019s driving up prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The crunch may be temporary but it highlights the uncertainty and cost pressures straining a local news industry that\u2019s largely online nowadays but still heavily dependent on printed newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If these conditions persist, cost and supply challenges may lead more newspapers to reduce pages, as The Seattle Times is doing temporarily until supply improves, cut print frequency or accelerate plans to become entirely online products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a double-whammy for publishers. It\u2019s not only expensive, it\u2019s really hard to find newsprint right now,\u201d said Kevin Craig, CEO of PAGE Cooperative, a North Carolina nonprofit that purchases materials and services for around 1,200 newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result of mill closures and disruptions, newsprint prices \u201chave gone haywire \u2014 they\u2019re as high as I\u2019ve seen in many years,\u201d Craig said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of two remaining newsprint mills in the U.S., NORPAC in Longview, Wash., produced its last roll of newsprint on Tuesday. It was recently acquired by International Paper, an industry giant that\u2019s prioritizing packaging products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last remaining U.S. newsprint mill, Inland Empire Paper near Spokane, is booked and can\u2019t fill any additional orders until June or July, according to Stacey Cowles, president of the Cowles Company that owns the mill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cowles said Inland is also increasingly using its equipment to make packaging products such as bags. He didn\u2019t say so outright, but it sounds like Inland could phase out newsprint production in a few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have a date certain when we phase out,\u201d he said. \u201cI suspect we\u2019re going to be making newsprint for at least another two or three years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So could Inland fully convert to packaging within five years? \u201cThat\u2019s where the trend is taking us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cowles said the newsprint business has \u201cjust been pretty horrible\u201d the last five to six years as demand has fallen. He expects prices will come up in the next year but \u201cwhether it\u2019s enough to make it profitable is still a question.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a century the Cowles family also owned timberlands, a press and The Spokesman- Review newspaper. It closed the press last year and is in the process of donating the newspaper to a nonprofit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A third U.S. mill, in Mississippi, closed in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if the U.S. no longer produces newsprint there\u2019s usually plenty available from Canada, which already provides around 90% of what\u2019s used by America\u2019s newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several of Canada\u2019s 10 newsprint mills temporarily closed last year, including one in Newfoundland that halted production for several months after fires and one in Ontario that paused because of financial difficulties, according to Fran\u00e7ois Chastanet, director of graphic papers for the Pulp and Paper Products Council in Montreal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf two or three things happen at the same time, suddenly you can have a supply disruption,\u201d he said. \u201cBut otherwise there are still quite a number of players.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Inland stopped producing newsprint in a few years, ending U.S. production altogether, \u201cI don\u2019t think it would be a big disruption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chastanet said demand for newsprint fell around 15% a year in North America but only 10% to 11% a year globally in recent years. Production capacity, meanwhile, has declined only around 11% a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All that is little consolation, though, to some local publishers scrambling for enough paper to print the next week\u2019s newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lewiston Tribune in Idaho usually keeps at least eight weeks of supply. It basically ran out of some sizes recently and had to print portions of the newspaper on pricey paper that\u2019s whiter, brighter and thicker than newsprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve dwindled that down to the point where some of our widths simply weren\u2019t available,\u201d Publisher Nathan Alford said on Tuesday. \u201cWe just got a truck last week so it\u2019s day to day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Wenatchee World, which prints many of the region\u2019s weekly newspapers, has good supply \u201cand we\u2019re just trying to navigate it well and be on top of things,\u201d Publisher Sean Flaherty said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The World recently announced that it\u2019s cutting print frequency from three to two days per week, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Flaherty said that wasn\u2019t because of supply, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe way I look at it is that our biggest audience has been online for a very long time,\u201d he said, so that\u2019s where the World\u2019s resources are being directed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alford isn\u2019t planning to cut print days at The Tribune, which delivers Tuesday through Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It turned a corner and was profitable in the first quarter, after losing money in 2025, but newsprint supply and prices won\u2019t make it easy to sustain that momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so committed to the printed product,\u201d Alford said, \u201cI think we\u2019re just going to cross our toes and fingers and hopefully stay supplied.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brier Dudley on Twitter: @BrierDudley is editor of The Seattle Times Save the Free Press Initiative. Its weekly newsletter: https:\/\/st.news\/FreePressNewsletter. Reach him
at bdudley@seattletimes.com.<\/em><\/p>\n