Newspaper even on the outside carries nothing much (5)
I believe the answer is:
often
'much' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'newspaper even on the outside carries nothing' is the wordplay.
'newspaper' becomes 'ft' (Financial Times newspaper).
'on the outside' means to remove the middle letters.
'carries' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (in a down clue, some letters go beneath others).
'nothing' becomes 'O' (looks like zero - 0).
'even' with its centre removed is 'en'.
'ft'+'en'='ften'
'ften' put after 'o' is 'OFTEN'.
(Other definitions for often that I've seen before include "Perhaps daily" , "Commonly" , "Frequently, habitually" , "A great deal" , "Repeatedly with regularity" .)