Town of Barrhead to help lobby for newspaper EPR exemption

BARRHEAD - The Town of Barrhead has decided to lobby the provincial government on behalf of community newspapers to have the industry be exempt from the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations which will add to the industry's cost of producing their publications.

On March 14, councillors instructed administration to draft a letter to be signed by the calling on lobby the United Conservative Party (UCP) government to exempt newspapers from the EPR and send a copy to other municipalities to encourage them to make similar efforts.

Coun. Rod Klumph made the motion following a presentation by Alberta Weekly Newspaper Association (AWNA) president and vice-president of manufacturing for Great West Media Evan Jamison and Barrhead Leader general manager Lynda Leng.

Councillors invited the pair to address council following their Feb. 28 meeting when Klumph, in response to an advertisement in the Town & Country This Week, stated EPR regulations could adversely impact local newspapers and suggested that they write a letter to the UCP government supporting the newspaper industry's efforts to become exempt from the EPR.

The purpose of the EPR regulations, which will be rolled out over the next two years, is to reduce the amount of material packaging that ends up in the recycle bin while shifting the cost of recycling off municipalities and onto producers. 

"(We, as newspapers) understand and agree with many goals of the EPR. To make things more easily recyclable, to develop good robust recycling infrastructure and try to deal with a circular economy," Jamison said, adding that the industry has made large strides since the 1980s. "We have a very recyclable product with well-defined infrastructure and markets for those recyclables. It is not like plastics that are pilling up or getting sent for disposal because there is no place for recycling."

Jamison said he believes that is one of the reasons why the UCP latched on the EPR because they want to develop a plastic and petrochemical recycling industry in the province.

"People in the government have told us that newspapers have been caught up as collateral damage," he said.

As for costs to the industry, Jamison noted that for the Town & Country This Week, he estimated it could add upwards of $9,000 annually, while for larger papers like Great West Media's St. Albert Gazette, that number is more like $40,000. For the large dailies, he said the EPR could potentially add "hundreds of thousands."

He added that it is estimated that the EPR will cost the Alberta newspaper industry between $1 and $2 million.

He noted that this comes at a time when newspapers are already struggling due to reduced advertising revenue and escalating costs involved with newsprint, ink, and printing plates to the cost of transporting their product. 

And although he said Great West Media and other newspaper chains are doing their best to transition into the digital world, newspapers still receive the bulk of their revenue from their physical product.

"It is a tough world generating advertising revenue online," Jameson said. "Google, Facebook and them do not like to give up margin to other players."

He also noted that the newspaper industry is very integrated, saying the same plant that prints the Edmonton Journal also prints several community papers, including the Town & Country This Week.

"In recent years, there has been a lot of consolidation. In Alberta, we used to have more than 20 printing plants. We are now down to seven."

Jamison noted that newspaper chains, including Great West Media, have done everything they can to reduce production costs, using the example of creating regional products.

"It is not because we wanted to do that. It is because of increasing costs and declining advertising revenue," he said, adding more recently moved to a slightly reduced page size of their newspapers as another cost-saving measure.

However, Jamison said, newspapers will always be expensive to produce.

"Local news stories are expensive to produce. To have a reporter spend the time, go to meetings, conducting interviews. When you look at the hours involved in any story, it is expensive."

Jamison and Leng noted local newspapers are the record of the community, and they are worth preserving. 

"The Barrhead Leader has been in the community for 95 years, since 1927, and that is nice to have. That is something many communities cannot say," she said.

Mayor Dave McKenzie agreed with Jamison that newspapers were an unfortunate casualty of the government trying to rectify other problems in recycling infrastructure and he was pleased that the Ontario government had decided to exempt newspapers from their EPR program.

Klumph reiterated his thoughts from the Feb. 28 meeting about the importance of community newspapers.

"Who else would report on school activities, a car club event, the Ag society? It is extremely important. I've said it before (our local reporters), more often than not, are the only witnesses of what happens at our council meeting and hold us accountable. That is important for our democracy," he said.

Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com