To the editor:
I read through the BDN’s account of newspaper printing ending in Presque Isle. I can understand the alarming rise in the price of newsprint and how it further squeezes diminishing profits on most papers. But, gee, having the weeklies and the BDN delivered daily to The County …. That’s a trip. Especially in below-zero weather and blizzards. As we all know — and I grew up in Houlton before moving here to more agreeable Massachusetts — The County is like Siberia in winter — sometimes worse.
Personally, I like the “feel” of a crisp newspaper in my hands. The NY Times is home-delivered here in the suburbs of Boston but I usually check it digitally. The Boston Globe and the tabloid Boston Herald are still go-getters and worth spending time with on most days, although they are diminishing. I suppose that if you really want to see the future of even weeklies in The County, go to the dining halls at NMCC and UMPI and look around to see how many students are reading a newspaper. Zero. That is the future of print newspapers. I won’t see it in my lifetime — but they will.
One final comment: The tariff on imported Canadian newsprint is Trump’s backhanded way of getting revenge on the “enemy of the people,” as he calls it. Like gas prices that spiked after the flooding in Houston a year ago and in which these prices still haven’t declined, I am certain that newsprint prices won’t decline, either. After all, there’s no incentive. The papermakers are making money and they won’t get into a price war. So the newspaper “industry” will decline somewhat faster.
I wish I could type better news for you.
Best wishes to you, your family, and your staff for a majestic autumn in The County. A few leaves are starting to turn red, orange and yellow here immediately south of Boston.
Bob Jackins
Weymouth, Massachusetts
