12 JULY 5, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
HEADING
Stop attacking the press!
For obvious reasons, last week’s
deadly mass shooting at the
offi ces of The Capital Gazette, a
community newspaper in Maryland,
struck a nerve with all of us who live
and breathe local journalism.
Our hearts go out to the fi ve members
of The Capital Gazette who were
gunned down in cold blood by just another
of the many gun-toting madmen
who’ve rained death and grief upon
our country in recent years.
The shooting happened at a time in
our country in which the free press is
under constant attack from the president
and his many supporters. Just
days before the massacre, President
Trump branded the press as “the enemy
of the American people” before
a crowd at one of his many rallies.
Similar slanders against journalism
in America have been oft repeated by
Trump and his many boosters on rightwing
media outlets and social media
networks.
The Capital Gazette massacre apparently
stemmed from one man’s deranged
grudge against the publication which
goes back several years. That motive,
however, does not excuse the hateful
and infl ammatory lies the president and
his followers have perpetuated against
the press of this country for years.
It evolved from accusations of
“liberal media” bias from loudmouths
who didn’t like what they were hearing
on TV or reading in the papers, to
Trump’s constant “enemy of the people”
slander, to the re-emergence of the
German word lugenpresse (lying press),
a Nazi term used by many right-wing
trolls today.
The Founding Fathers codifi ed in
the Constitution the importance of the
press. Indeed, it’s important not only
to the survival of our republic, but the
survival of communities.
We’re here to be your eyes, ears and
even the voice on the issues aff ecting
you in government, in your neighborhood,
in your school district, even
on your block. We’re here to inform,
enlighten investigate and educate you
on the world you live in.
Sometimes the truth can be painful
or inconvenient; not every story can
have a happy ending. But without
the press, the world is a fantasyland
molded by powerful individuals
who create their own truth and do
not care about your life, liberty or
happiness.
We are not the enemy. These
repeated attacks on the press in our
country are intolerable, disgraceful
and unamerican to the core.
An attack on one outlet is not only
an attack on every media outlet, but
also an attack on all of us — and all of
you — as free-speaking Americans.
EDITORIAL
ESTABLISHED 1908
Co-Publishers
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA SCHNEPS
Editor-in-Chief
ROBERT POZARYCKI
Classifi ed Manager
DEBORAH CUSICK
Assistant Classifi ed Manager
MARLENE RUIZ
Reporter
RYAN KELLEY
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FOR 109 YEARS
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York Press Association
Newsprint tariff s hurt
community papers the most
BY JOSHUA SCHNEPS
When considering the
newspaper industry in
the United States, many
in the federal government tend to
think of large corporations owning
chains of daily and non-daily metro
newspapers. But few probably have
a grasp or understanding of the
sheer number, local infl uence and
critical information provided by
locally-owned, non-daily community
newspapers.
Like The Queens Courier, founded
by my mother Victoria Schneps
in her home, and the Ridgewood
Times, many local newspapers are
multi-generational, family-owned
and operated businesses. The majority
of employees at these locally
owned businesses, from salespeople
to reporters, live in the communities
they serve.
Publishing local community newspapers
has always been an intensely
competitive industry; Queens County
alone has fi ve privately-owned,
weekly community newspaper
groups. But with local advertising
going more and more to public corporate
entities including Facebook,
Google and Yelp, the industry has
faced a crisis.
The only mode of survival has
been cutting costs and keeping them
as low as possible.
The newspaper industry has two
core expenses: staffi ng and printing.
A majority of community newspapers
do not have their own printing
facilities. They are at the mercy of
larger companies, many large metro
dailies, that have started to print
smaller community newspapers and
buy the newsprint in bulk.
The United States does not have
enough newsprint to meet the demand
of publishers here in America;
we need the Canadian newsprint to
survive as an industry.
I have read that the federal government
feels the current tariff s put in
place will have a minimal impact on
newspapers expenses. First, this is
inaccurate. Printing expenses have
increased 5%-30% in just the past 3
months, which equates to about a
2-15% increase in overall expenses.
Secondly, if the current costs
of newsprint do not pull back,
newspapers will be forced to layoff
workers, and many publications
will close. This is not an industry
that is in a position to pass on this
added expenses to our advertisers
in the way of higher advertising
costs or increase subscription prices.
Because of the current state of
the industry, most newspapers are
running very lean operations with
slim profi t margins. Many have invested
in digital marketing, but this
accounts on average to less than 10%
of overall revenue.
We implore the federal government
to support an industry that not
only is vital to our democracy, but is
a major employer of local workers
throughout the country.
Lastly, if this administration can
not act in a timely manner to resolve
the tariff s on newsprint, we hope this
information will be taken into consideration
to review other measures
that can off set this sudden increase
in expenses to this vital industry.
Please contact your local Member
of Congress and U.S. Senators Charles
Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and
urge them to do what they can to stop
this industry-killing tariff .
Joshua Schneps is co-publisher of
The Queens Courier, Ridgewood
Times, El Correo NY and Noticia LI.
link
/www.qns.com
