First off, there's the newsprint. Lots and lots of newsprint. The Gazette and the Charleston Daily Mail, which have combined production services, use about 9,500 tons of newsprint every year. That's more than 180 tons every week, or 27 tons each day. Then, there's office paper.
Reporters take lots of notes.
Some take their notes on the computer screen when they do interviews over the phone. But most of the time, when they're out talking to people for stories, reporters use spiral notebooks. And sometimes, when reporters take notes on their computers, they print out the notes before writing their stories. Editors use a lot of paper, too. There's a running newsroom joke about Editor James A. Haught printing out a dozen copies of every assignment he makes.