Terrible smear in the paper (5)

I believe the answer is:

reams

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'in the paper' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'terrible smear' is the wordplay.
'terrible' is an anagram indicator.
'smear' anagrammed gives 'REAMS'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for reams that I've seen before include "Lots of paper" , "Scrapes the barrel" , "Large quantity of written matter" , "a very large amount" , "This much paperwork" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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