Yeah, the newspaper thing is an old-school approach from back in the day when things were different. Even the *glass* was different, today's automotive glass is *MUCH* softer than it used to be, higher polymer content. The idea was that the ink provided mild abrasion, which is not what you want on aftermarket tint anyhow.
Now that we have MFs and numerous good glass cleaners I can't see any reason to use newspaper. Lots of reasons *not* to use it though, including the mess.