Companies producing wood and paper for publication (5)
I believe the answer is:
firms
'companies' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'wood and paper for publication' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'wood' could be 'fir' (fir is a kind of wood) and 'fir' is found in the answer.
'paper' could be 'ms' (abbreviation for manuscript) and 'ms' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'producing' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for firms that I've seen is " Companies".)