Pagination isn't working

I’m running a multisite install. One of my sites has 9 uncategorized posts (just getting started). I have a custom page template (page-news.php) where I would like to display the latest 3 posts with pagination. The code below shows the top 3 posts, with “Older Entries” at the bottom. When you click the older entries link, it takes you to “…/page/2/”, and outputs, quite literally, the same three posts found on the previous page. Thoughts? I’m sure it’s something simple, but I think I’ve been staring at it for too long and I’m starting to lose my mind…

<?php
	// set up or arguments for our custom query
	$paged = ( get_query_var('paged') ) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
	$query_args = array(
		'post_type' => 'post',
		'posts_per_page' => 3,
		'paged' => $paged
	);
	// create a new instance of WP_Query
	$the_query = new WP_Query( $query_args );
?>

<?php if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); // the loop ?>
	<h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
	<div class="news-page-news-date"><?php the_time('F j, Y') ?></div>
	<div style="float:right; padding:0px 0px 10px 10px;">
		<?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) : ?>
			<?php the_post_thumbnail('thumbnail'); ?>
		<?php endif; ?>
	</div>
	<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
	<hr>
<?php endwhile; ?>

<?php if ($the_query->max_num_pages > 1) { // check if the max number of pages is greater than 1  ?>
	<nav class="prev-next-posts">
		<div class="prev-posts-link">
			<?php echo get_next_posts_link( 'Older Entries', $the_query->max_num_pages ); ?>
		</div>
		<div class="next-posts-link">
			<?php echo get_previous_posts_link( 'Newer Entries' ); ?>
		</div>
	</nav>
<?php } ?>

<?php else: ?>
	<h3>Sorry...</h3>
	<p><?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>