There are 100s of "mulching' discussions here the forum search will pull up for you to read and many mulch choices available. Straw is quite common and often considered the ideal mulch but must be applied thickly. Hay is another but prone to more weed seeds unless you can old bales that have rotted well already.

Best/favorite mulch discussions

Dave

Straw and newspaper are both fine, but the latter tends to blow away, even when shredded. That's why I stopped using it. But newspaper is very permeable to water so if you get it to stay in one place, it works well. Long ago when colored inks used heavy metals, colored print wasn't a good option. I think that caution isn't relevant anymore.