An old towel is what I used for most of my shooting life, but a couple of years ago I bought one of these Lyman mat's from a local gun store.I have always just used an old thick towel.
I think you'd like the Lyman mat that I linked to above.I like the texture and designs of the TecMats...I’ve come to discover, though, that the dark gun parts are hard to see against the black mat. Of course, alighted color would get “dirty”, but I’ve come close to misplacing a couple of screws!
Yes, I've used newspapers, and still do on occasion when I'm doing something quick and don't want to break out the Lyman mat. I still get the local paper delivered, but it seems like the delivery person does it as a hobby. Sometimes it's early, sometimes it's late, sometimes it doesn't arrive.Remember when you used to get newspapers? I used to use old newspapers, but I don't get a single newspaper anymore. Newspaper was the best, as you could just roll up the paper with all the wasted patches, no clean up, just throw it all away. Now I have one of the large mats.