MediaFreak: Why are the smallest magazines the ones using the best recycled paper?

September 11, 2009 - MediaFreak
Once again, Barnes & Noble is giving special promotional space to magazines that use recycled paper. And once again, the month-long promotion is as much a shout-out to those titles with environmentally friendly practices (Natural Home, Mother Jones and The American Prospect are among the 10 featured this year) as it is a slap at their bigger brethren that don't. Since the promotion launched in January 2008 with Green America's Better Paper Project and Next Steps Marketing, the biggest publishing companies' titles have been conspicuously absent. There could be factors other than their commitment to being green (only magazines that voluntarily submit information on their recycled-paper use are considered for the promotion), but publishing companies have long complained that they can't afford to print on recycled paper. So ... publishing giants can't afford to use recycled paper, but indies like Mother Jones can? Somehow, that doesn't pass the sniff test.
-written by Lucia Moses