Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

Almost three years ago we made some changes to the look and the format of the Northern Wyoming Daily News. We changed our flag on the top of the front page, we moved vitals inside to page 2 and we separated into two sections to provide color on our sports pages.

Well, a lot has happened in three years and we are going to make another change starting next week. First and foremost, though, Northern Wyoming Daily News will remain publishing five days a week newspaper reaching you on the internet, in your mailboxes or on newsstands Tuesday through Saturday.

We will remain a 12-page newspaper for our Tuesday and Saturday publications. We will remain two sections for those publications as well.

During the middle of the week, for the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday publications, we will remain 10 pages as we are now, but those 10 pages will be in one section instead of two. The first five pages will be the same as your current five pages in your A section - the front page, page 2 will be jumps, Wyoming briefs and vital statistics. Page 3 is our main community page. Page 4 is our opinion page and page 5 is another community page. Pages 6 and 7 will be the classifieds and comics. Page 8 will be the Wyoming and national news you currently find on page 6 in the A section. Pages 9 and 10 will be the sports pages in order to provide color for our local sports coverage on page 10.

Why the change? As most businesses know the cost of doing business continues to rise and right now that's never been more so for newspapers.

Why is that? The rising cost of paper for newspapers. We were notified of a significant increase in our paper for this spring. We were also notified that our supplier can no longer get the weight of our current paper.

Why are paper prices rising. First, as explained best by the National Newspaper Association, On Aug. 29, 2017, a petition by a single newsprint mill in Longview, Washington, to the Department of Commerce resulted in an investigation of Canadian imports of uncoated groundwood paper (UGW) to determine whether paper production was subsidized and/or shipments were being "dumped" into the United States.

The producer is North Pacific Paper Company, NORPAC, Longview, Washington. It was recently acquired by a New York hedge fund, One Rock Capital Partners. NORPAC alleged that the Canadian government unfairly subsidizes newsprint production by allowing forestry on federal lands, and providing financial support in other ways that benefits Canadian production. It asked for duties up to 50 percent of the purchase price on the Canadian paper.

Yes, the Northern Wyoming Daily News purchases its paper from Canada.

According to National Newspaper Association President Susan Rowell, "Canadian paper producers have supplied the U.S. for many years. They have some natural advantages over U.S. papermakers because of hydroelectric power and shipping costs. More than a dozen U.S. mills have stopped making newsprint in the last decade because demand for paper has declined. Today, even if Canadian paper disappeared because of high tariffs being proposed to the federal government, the U.S. paper mills could not supply newspapers with the paper they need."

According to the NNA, many newsprint mills in both countries either closed or converted to other paper products in the past decade as U.S. newspaper publishers cut demand. In fact, the U.S. requires 75 percent less newsprint today than it did a decade ago.

So what does the complaint to the U.S. Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission, mean? The Department of Commerce, along with the International Trade Commission, have the duty of protecting American producers. It does not take much to kick off an investigation alleging unfair trade practices. In January, it announced a preliminary finding of a range of subsidies with a high of nearly 10 percent against Kruger Trois Rivieres of Canada; 4.42 percent against Resolute FP of Canada; and a variety of rates against other Canadian producers with most set at 6.53 percent. The Commerce secretary ordered US Customs and Border Protection to begin requiring cash deposits at these levels at the border. It will proceed with its investigation, expected to conclude in about May. The cash deposits ordered are the reasons for the current increase.

The ITC public hearing will be July 17.

A lot can happen over the next few months. A worst-case scenario, as pointed out by the NNA, in light of falling demand and the US government's pushback, Canadian producers could decide at any time to exit the market entirely. That could lead to dramatic newsprint shortages in the US.

So, we at the Northern Wyoming Daily News are trying to be proactive.

You're thinking if the number of pages remains the same, how will that help. Well the change overall will be a tremendous financial savings in press plates, plate processing, ink, wages (only running one section instead of two) and yes it will be a paper savings.

With each color section run there are what we in the newspaper business call "spoils," papers that are not of the quality for distribution while the pressmen work on getting the color right and making the registration (lining up all four color plates) as close to perfect as we can humanly get. We have between 200 to 300 spoils per section run, about 30 pounds.

The Northern Wyoming Daily News is committed to putting out a quality product that still serves the needs of our local community, and our expanded community around the Big Horn Basin. We believe these changes will ensure we are able to do that.