UNSPSC 14121902: Colored newsprint

UNSPSC 14121902 Colored newsprint is a Commodity code for printing papers used in high-volume color and monochrome production. State and local governments buy colored newsprint primarily as part of outsourced printing and mailing service contracts, where vendors consume the material to produce customer-facing documents — utility bills, tax notices, delinquency correspondence, and other transactional mail. The issuing bodies soliciting work under this code are city and municipal departments that have identified printing as a service to be contracted out rather than performed in-house. The scope includes not only the newsprint itself but the full production workflow: dynamic laser printing, document composition, insertion, mail finishing, and envelope handling.

The City of Madison, Wisconsin issued a Request for Proposals in March 2026 for city-wide printing and mailing services, due April 3, 2026, that exemplifies current activity. The contract serves the Madison Water Utility (approximately 580,000 pieces printed weekly) and the Finance Department Treasury section (approximately 127,000 pieces printed monthly for tax and delinquency notices), with an initial two-year term and three optional one-year renewals. The RFP evaluation weights technical qualifications and submission quality at 65 points and cost at 35 points, with local vendor preference factored into the financial score. Recent opportunities under this code remain limited; Madison represents a visible municipal printing consolidation effort, but the code shows sparse broader activity in state and local procurement over the current period.