Off-colour article following piece in paper (7)
I believe the answer is:
manilla
'paper' is the definition.
(manilla paper is a kind of paper)
'off-colour article following piece' is the wordplay.
'off colour' becomes 'ill' (I've seen this before).
'article' becomes 'a' (indefinite article).
'following' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'piece' becomes 'man' ('man' can be a synonym of 'piece'**).
'ill'+'a'='illa'
'illa' after 'man' is 'MANILLA'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for manilla that I've seen before include "cigar" , "Bracelet made of metal" , "type of brown paper" , "Hemp fibre" , "West African bracelet; sounds like capital of thirty across" .)