The National Post reports in its Wednesday edition that for years, George Arwady watched as the disruptive power of the Internet battered America's newspaper industry. The Post's Tom Blackwell writes, however, that the publisher of The Republican, a daily in Springfield, Mass., believed the bleeding triggered by readers shifting to on-line news platforms had finally stabilized. That all changed earlier this year, he says, when duties of up to 30 per cent were slapped on imported Canadian newsprint, causing costs to suddenly spike in a still-teetering business. At Mr. Arwady's paper, and the seven others The Republican prints on contract, publishers have been eliminating pages, reducing the number of copies they place in newsstands and trimming jobs to cope with the inflation. "The market is getting murdered," Mr. Arwady told the Post. The story is similar across much of the United States, as newspapers try to absorb the soaring price of Canadian newsprint. The current tariffs are preliminary, but the U.S. Commerce Department is slated to make its final decision by Aug. 2, and the U.S. International Trade Commission to follow in September. The duties will become permanent if both bodies agree they are required.