Newsprint Consumption Drops

By: Jennifer Saba Newsprint consumption by U.S. daily newspapers was down by 1.8% in January compared with January 2003, according to the Newspaper Association of America's monthly newsprint statistical report. The total estimated newsprint consumption for January 2004 was 664,000 metric tons compared with 676,000 metric tons for January 2003. The report, which breaks out the numbers by U.S. regions, shows that no region had an increase in consumption.

Final inventories averaged 42 days supply at the end of January compared with 41 days for the year-ago period. Stocks were up 1.2%.