Trump’s tariffs against Canadian newsprint kill a newspaper in New York State

Cortland Standard building. Photo (cc) 2009 by Doug Kerr.

While Trump’s chaotic on-again, off-again tariffs are wreaking havoc with our retirement accounts, they’ve also resulted in the end for a daily newspaper in New York State.

The Cortland Standard, a family-owned daily, is shutting down in part because of Trump’s 25% tariff on goods from Canada, including newsprint, according to a story posted on the paper’s website. The 157-year-old paper was one of the five oldest family-owned newspapers in the U.S.

The Cortland Standard Printing Co. will file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. Seventeen employees have lost their jobs.

“I hoped this day would never come,” publisher and editor Evan C. Geibel was quoted as saying. “I’m so very grateful to my colleagues and the community for what they’ve done for me, my family and each other.”

Cortland, a city of about 17,000, is located in central New York, about halfway between Syracuse to the north and Binghamton to the south. It is also served by a digital news outlet called the Cortland Voice, which was founded in 2015.

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Author: Dan Kennedy

I am a professor of journalism at Northeastern University specializing in the future of local journalism at whatworks.news. My blog, Media Nation, is online at dankennedy.net.

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