I spent several years working for a very small commercial printer and was in charge of the billing/inventory system there. Eventually, since I was tracking the raw materials, I was put in charge of ordering paper.

We only three mid-sized printing presses and I was dropping just under six figures every month on paper alone. Of course, we weren't printing on the kind of paper you get with the NYT. This was higher quality stuff but you can get an idea of the costs involved.