Newsprint
Newsprint is low-cost, low-quality, non-archival
paper. It is generally made by a mechanical milling process, without the chemical process that is usually used to remove
lignin from the pulp. The lignin causes the paper to rapidly become brittle and yellow when exposed to air and/or sunlight.
[http://science.howstuffworks.com/question463.htm]Newsprint is used in the printing of
newspapers, flyers, and other printed material intended for mass distribution. It usually has an off-white cast and distinctive feel.
Modern printing facilities most efficiently print newspapers in multiples of eight pages on a newsprint roll in two sections of four pages each. The two sections are then cut in half.
A newspaper roll's width is called its
web and is defined by how many front pages it can print. A roll prints four front pages with four back pages behind it (two front and back on each of the two sections).
Faced with dwindling revenue from competition with broadcast, cable and internet outlets, newspapers in the 21st century — particularly
broadsheets — have begun a process of downsizing the width of their newsprint rolls to a standard size across the business.
The new broadsheet standard in the United States is the
48-inch web (which means the each page in its section is 12 inches wide). Newspapers such as
USA Today have already converted to the new standard which is also considered easier to handle.
Interest in the standard reached a crescendo when the
Wall Street Journal said it would abandon its iconic
60-inch web (15 inch wide frontpage) format in favor of the new standard by January 2007.
The New York Times is now considering abandoning its
54-inch web (13 1/2 inch frontpage).
Newspapers around the world are also downsizing their broadsheets.
