PORT ANGELES — The Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum have joined the Peninsula Daily News in printing their weekly newspapers on newsprint from the Nippon Paper Industries USA Inc. mill in Port Angeles.
Mill manager Harold Norlund said portions of the Gazette were printed on Nippon paper at the Sound Publishing Inc. press in Everett last week.
Sound Publishing liked the finished product, Norlund said.
Concerns assuaged
The trial run assuaged concerns over Nippon’s relatively lightweight newsprint, he added.
“Once they ran it, it ran well,” Norlund said. “It met or exceeded their expectations.”
The PDN continues to be printed on the 40-gram-per-square-meter Nippon newsprint, as it has since June 2010.
Nippon newsprint is lighter, brighter and cleaner-looking than newsprint produced by other mills.
Nippon also makes lightweight paper used for telephone directories. It resumed making newsprint in 2010 after a 25-year hiatus.
“Their newsprint reflects the expertise that they’ve been able to bring to knowing how to make a lightweight paper,” said PDN Publisher John Brewer.
“And it is created with a low-carbon footprint using a lot of recycled stuff, which is very important, too.”
The PDN and Olympic View Publishing Co., which owns the Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum, were purchased by Black Press Ltd. in late October.
Poulsbo-based Sound Publishing — a division of Victoria-headquartered Black Press — is the largest community newspaper group in the Pacific Northwest.
600 metric tons
The PDN buys almost 600 metric tons of newsprint from the Nippon paper mill per year.
About 200 more tons will be used to print the weekly Gazette and Forum.
About 25 percent of the fiber in the newsprint comes from recycled newsprint and waste paper.
The rest comes from wood chips from lumbering operations and residual wood waste.
Norlund said the local economy will benefit from Sound’s business.
“When you buy locally, you’re helping your neighbor by keeping money internally and not spending a fortune freighting something off to a faraway destination,” he said.
“We buy a terrific amount of supplies locally.”
Norlund said mill operations continue to have a big impact on the local economy because of the family-wages jobs and benefits the mill supports.
“It’s nice to have our customers closer,” Norlund said.
Before switching to Nippon last year, the PDN was printed on 43-gram paper from SP Recycling Corp. of Newberg, Ore.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
