Opinion: When supply shortages knock on your front door

I will forever remember March 2020 as the time that I truly recognized cause for concern that COVID-19 was among us and that I needed to prepare personally and professionally to “hunker down.” Having almost no experience preparing for a real disaster, I did what so many others seemed to do. I prepared like I might for a major snowstorm or hurricane. We all rushed to the grocery stores to stock up on necessities: hand sanitizers, antibacterial wipes, tissues, paper towels, our families’ favorite foods and maybe a little (or a lot) of beer and wine. Oh, and toilet paper!

It was during this period that it first became apparent to me that supply chain shortages were real, particularly in the paper industry. Two years later, consumers are limited to one toilet paper purchase per household by many local retailers. Seeing an empty shelf here and there is something we’ve become accustomed to. Short-term demand shifts, like those that occur with an impending storm or Super Bowl weekend, have impacted supply of certain goods in the past and they will again. However, I didn’t anticipate any long-term impact regarding paper.

So, here’s what we all now know to be true. So many of the shortages we are seeing today are undoubtedly directly linked to the global pandemic. Manufacturers all over the world have had to shut down or slow down due to a less accessible workforce. When people don’t work, the goods and services we have come to rely on are increasingly in short supply. We may have first noticed this at the grocery stores, but it has also quickly impacted availability of automobiles, building materials, electronics and a cadre of other goods and services.

Here’s what I didn’t fully grasp until much more recently. COVID set into motion some key consumer changes that would indirectly impact how we conduct our business at Springfield Business Journal. The cost of printing is second only to personnel as the largest expenditure on our books. Just imagine, if you can, the impact to your business if your largest expenditure doubled in a year’s time. Or maybe you don’t have to imagine at all. The costs of printing and logistics for SBJ’s weekly edition is approximately 120% higher than it was just a year ago, and more than 200% up from five years ago.

I’d like to think the relatively short-term run for toilet paper is the culprit, but unfortunately the problem is more complex than that and may be around for the long haul. It is true that printing has skyrocketed because printing and graphic paper is in such short supply, despite the fact print demand has decreased significantly over the past five years. At the same time, consumers have gone online to make their purchases in huge numbers. As a result, demand for packaging and shipping materials has overtaken demand for coated and uncoated graphic paper stock. Many graphic paper mills around the country have shuttered. Others are retooling their production for packaging.

So, I’m left to contemplate where this leaves small publishers like SBJ. I recently spoke to a Spokane, Washington-based friend and colleague who I once considered to be comparable, only to learn that he literally owned his supply chain and therefore didn’t share my same angst. When you own the land that houses the forest that supplies the pulp to manufacture the paper that supplies your in-house press that prints your publication – well, you can see where I’m going. Life is just good.

I have chosen to use this column to lay all of this out for our readers, not to prepare you for an impending price increase or to tell you to expect anything drastically different from us. It’s simply what’s on my mind. It has caused me to seriously contemplate the value we bring. Our focus and value always has been and always will be timely, relevant and accurate business news. Plain and simple. I appreciate the quality and consistency of our paper and print job, but I don’t think it’s our unique value proposition, and I’m betting you don’t, either.

I’d love to hear from you as I work with the SBJ staff to find solutions that may result in a change to the paper we purchase or the printer we use. Let us know what is important to you. Likewise, let us hear about your unique value proposition and how change is impacting your business. What will you do about it, and how can we help?

Springfield Business Journal Publisher Jennifer Jackson can be reached at jjackson@sbj.net.