Radio Times is switching to environmentallyfriendly paper in a move which it hopes other UK publishers will follow.
As of this week, Radio Times will carry an FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) logo to certify that the timber used to make the paper comes from well-managed forests.
BBC Magazines publishes more than a million copies of the magazine every week. The print run uses 20,000 tonnes of paper a year, equivalent to 350-400 tonnes a week which is more than the weight of a jumbo jet.
BBC Worldwide said it had been lobbying its paper suppliers to make the switch for the last nine years. BBC Wildlife Magazine was the first title to swap paper in 2000. BBC Music Magazine, Songs of Praise and teen title It’s Hot have also been given the ‘green stamp’.
Although glossy magazines are increasingly using recycled paper, they still rely heavily on a new wood fibre and publishers cannot tell whether it has come from forests which are managed in an environmentallyfriendly way.
Radio Times uses paper from the Swedish company SCA and the Caledonian mill in Scotland, owned by Finnish company UPM.
BBC Magazines managing director Peter Phippen, who is also chair of the Periodical Publishers Association environmental committee, said: “As BBC Magazines works to persuade the rest of the UK magazine industry to follow its lead on FSC, this move should encourage other publishers, as well as making a direct contribution to the environmental cause by ensuring that the huge volumes of paper used in the production of Radio Times come from sustainable sources.”
Robert Napier, chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund UK, welcomed the move and said he hoped it would motivate other magazine publishers to follow the initiative.
By Ruth Addicott
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