Don't Waste The Chance To Save On Paper Waste

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept, 2000

Are you an active or a passive print buyer? According to Kathy Reilly of Print Production Advisory, if you're a passive buyer, you don't know very much about your own numbers, because you haven't been thinking about what you paid as a run rate, and you haven't looked at your paper waste. Reilly says she runs into many publishers who have no idea what their printer is charging in actual waste.

"This is a deadly moment if you don't know anything about your paper waste, because it's a negotiable number," she says. "The waste depends on the printing press. When the paper goes through the press, you know it's going to waste a certain amount because there's trim, there's the part on the core of the roll (they don't run to the last inch), and the outer core that gets torn off, plus bindery waste and running waste." Printers add on a certain percentage of waste that they are going to charge for as paper, whether they waste it or not. But, says Reilly, you can say, "Look, I cannot live with 13 percent waste. I want 11 percent." She adds, "It's one of my first negotiations, but I run into publishers all the time who never negotiate it at all."