5 Tips to Reduce Your Paper Costs

My friends, it is official: All paper mills have announced rate increases effective April 1, 2011 of an additional $2 per CWT. If you are wondering what compromises you can make to not only budget for this rate increase, but possibly reduce your paper costs, then this blog is for you.

1. Consider backing off on the brightness of the paper. Let's say you are printing on 60# No.3 glosswith a brightness of 87. There is also 60# No.3 with a brightness of 84 that will offer you a savings. You can also look into No.4 with brightness of 76 or No.5, which is typically about 72 brightness. The bottom line: if you are willing to compromise on the brightness of your paper stocks, you will reduce your paper costs. This is an effective method that doesn't scream, "I changed my magazine,” to your readers and advertisers. Subtle changes like this can save you moneyin a big way.
2. Look at reducing the basis weight of your paper stocks. You might bethinking to yourself, "I can't do that, everyone will notice.” Then my question to you, my friend, is how serious are you about reducing costs? The key is making subtle changes to keep it as unobtrusive as possible. For example, ifyou are on 70# paper, look to 60#; if you are on 50#, look to 45#. Keep in mind, too, that the less your publications weighs, the more savings you will see in postal costs.
3. Remove your cover.I knowthis one isn't going to be for everyone. But if you're willing to make a drastic change to reduce costs, then this one could be right up your alley. Many publications have a 4 page cover over the inside pages. Get rid of it! If your inside pages are on a lighter basis weight paper stock such as 38# and you are utilizing a 80# or 100# cover to protect it, bump your inside pages up to 50# or 60#. You will still see savings. I know many advertisers pay top dollar for positioning on the cover, but they can still have quality positioning within the publication, and with the amount you will be saving you may be able to offer them two ad spaces at a discount to keep them happy. Based on your print quantities, savings can be enormous.
4. Change your trim size. I love big, and truly believe the larger your publication, the more readers and advertisers you will attract. However, I realize this is a very simple way to reduce paper costs and mailing costs. The more pages in a form, the less your paper and press costs. For example, instead of 10×13 print in 16 page forms, try 10×12 in 24 page forms; or move from 10×12 prints in 24 page forms to 9×10-7/8 in 32 page forms. From there, you can look to reduce your trim to whatever compromise you are willing to make, because most printers tap out at 32 page forms. Changing your trim size to reduce your paper consumption can yield a very nice savings depending on your print quantities.
5. I was on the fence about this one, but here it is anyway. You may be able to reduce your paper costs by supplying your own paper. Printers typically purchase paper directly from the paper mills. You can look to paper brokers tosee if you can find a better cost on your paper stocks. Here is the caution: this paper is sometimes a ‘secondary paper', meaning there are imperfections in the paper. In addition, printers typically charge a paper handling fee if you are supplying your own paper. The amount you are saving by supplying your own paper may be eaten up by the handling fee, and now you have one more thing on your plate – the paper broker. If you are going to supply your own paper, make sure your printer is involved in the process. Get samples of the paper and send them to the printer for evaluation. I would suggest you allow your printer to supply the paper, but I wouldn't be completely honest if I didn't recognize this as another way to reduce paper costs.

In case you didn't notice, the theme was subtle changes to reduce costs. I can think up some very drastic changes to reduce costs such as going from gloss to newsprint, going from heatset to coldest, etc. I believe protecting the integrity of your publication while doing everything possible to reduce your costs will lead to your long-term success as we fight through these tough economic times and rate increases.

Noah Knoble is a sales representative at J.B. Kenehan.