For many U.S. businesses I'm sure it's pretty much irrelevant. For others, not so much. That's why you see some U.S. businesses complying with EU directives, while others simply block visitors from the EU.
Yes, if you are a local US newspaper.
"European readers of American newspapers" is.
When America asserts itself as the dominant power, international readers American newspapers is not a small market. At the very least, it doesn't match the spirit of the web to have region locked content.
Yeah, but international readers of the Lacrosse Tribune are probably few and far between.