Newspaper publishers are not looking for sympathy for troubles in their industry or struggles with their business model. But when the government artificially inflates the price of its second largest expense, it’s important readers and consumers understand the consequences.

At the behest of one relatively small newsprint producer in Washington state, the Trump administration has imposed tariffs from 6.5 percent to 30 percent on newsprint — the paper news is printed on — imported from Canada.

The Washington-based North Pacific Paper Co., owned by New York Hedge Fund One Rock Capital Partners, complained last year that Canadian companies were selling newsprint at unfair prices in the U.S. due to Canadian government subsidies. The Trump administration slapped a 6.5 percent tariff on Canadian newsprint in January and added another 22 percent in March to some types of paper.

North Pacific is the only newsprint company in the U.S. making this complaint.

So newsprint prices have been raised across the country and thousands of newspapers have been hit with a price increase on newsprint, a paper’s second biggest expense after labor.

The tariffs will make it more difficult for newspapers to hire reporters, customer service people and others who help produce high quality, relevant newspapers that take a critical eye to government actions that impact taxpayers. The tariffs will make it more difficult for newspapers to deliver crossword puzzles and comics, Dear Abby and the bridge column. The tariffs will make it more difficult for newspapers to publish letters to the editor, hold community forums and hold public officials accountable.

The newspaper industry has met these kinds of challenges and more for the last decade as the industry undergoes a disruptive transformation — a transformation that has reduced the number of journalists across the country by about 50 percent.

It’s taken great courage and sacrifice for working journalists to continue in the profession, and despite the huge reduction in reporter numbers, newspapers remain a formidable institution holding government accountable.

So one can legitimately wonder if the government — the Trump administration — wants to take a swing back — as is its habit — at an industry giving it fits.

Let’s hope a cabinet department of the U.S. executive branch would not have such base motives.

But it’s not the newspaper owners who will feel the long-term consequences of these tariffs. It’s readers and news consumers who may get less, be asked to pay more and be forced to rely on Facebook and its Russian trolls for their news.

The newspaper industry, including the parent company of The Free Press, is vehemently challenging these tariffs, and international trade bodies are also investigating.

The case that Canadian newsprint subsidies are unfair competition is flimsy. If it had merit, many other American newsprint makers would be participating.

The tariffs on newsprint are defacto attacks on the newspaper industry and the American news consumer.

— Mankato Free Press, April 26