Newsprint

Newsprint is the inexpensive paper grade on which most newspapers are printed. It is typically made from mechanical wood pulp (often softwood like spruce or fir), sometimes blended with recycled fiber, and has a relatively short fiber length, low brightness, and a grammage usually between 40 and 52 grams per square metre. Its low cost and high absorbency suit it to high-speed offset and flexographic web presses, though the same properties cause yellowing and brittleness over time.

For political researchers and Model UN delegates, newsprint matters less as a material and more as a proxy for the health of the print press industry. Global newsprint demand has fallen sharply since the mid-2000s as readers migrated online and advertising revenue shifted to digital platforms. Mill closures in Canada, the Nordic countries, and the United States have reshaped forestry economics in regions historically dependent on pulp and paper exports.

Newsprint has also figured in trade policy disputes. In 2018, the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed antidumping and countervailing duties on uncoated groundwood paper imports from Canada, a category that includes newsprint; the U.S. International Trade Commission later voted to overturn those duties, finding no material injury to domestic producers. The episode illustrated how a niche industrial input can become entangled in broader U.S.–Canada trade tensions and lobbying by small-market publishers worried about input costs.

Beyond economics, newsprint carries symbolic weight in press-freedom contexts. Governments in several countries have at various points restricted imports or allocations of newsprint as an indirect tool to pressure independent newspapers — a tactic documented by press-freedom organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders. Rationing or taxing newsprint can squeeze opposition outlets without overt censorship, making the commodity a quiet barometer of media pluralism.