An informal review at NEXPO of newsprint basis-weight averages around the globe showed the United States among the highest users of the heaviest grades, with the 48.8-gram, or 30-pound, stock setting the standard here. But use of lighter stocks appears on the rise everywhere in reaction to newsprint cost trends.
Lou Franconeri, vice president of operations at the San Antonio (Texas) Express-News, defined 48.8 grams as the U.S. standard, but he also noted that some papers have made the switch down to 45 grams, or 27 lbs. He questioned whether the cost benefit was not often offset by more breaks and a loss in quality.
New Zealand also relies on 48.8 grams, said Frank Kelett, executive director of the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association, representing Australasia, but "the standard in Australia is 45 grams, driven by the needs of the nationwide change to high-speed offset presses in capital cities." Only 3 percent of total usage, Kelett said, is 48.8 grams.
Luis Fernando Santos, generente general of El Tiempo in Bogota, Columbia, noted that 45 grams is standard in Latin America, though to a lesser degree than in Australia, while Boris Fuchs, deputy managing director and research director of IFRA, pointed to a downward trend that has some European newspapers going as low as 42.5 grams (26 lbs.) or even 40 grams (25 lbs.), primarily in Scandanavia. He suggested this trend may be going too far, resulting in "too much show-through."
Keiichi Katsura, professor of social services, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, was gloomiest on the topic of newsprint, noting that Japan "stands on shaky ground" because it must import as much as 50 percent of the fiber needed to produce pulp. Some 40 percent to 60 percent of Japan's papers rely on 43-gram stock, he said. Because of the nation's vulnerability in the volatile newsprint market, he said, look for Japan to take a leadership role in creating electronic news-delivery products.
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