Canfor Follows Domtar, Cuts NBSK Price $30/Metric Tonne for December 1

NewPage Port Hawkesbury and Bowater Mersey Paper Get Break in Electric Rates

The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board ruled that NewPage Port Hawkesbury, which is in bankruptcy protection and seeking a buyer, and Bowater Mersey Paper, which has been struggling, will receive a discounted rate for electricity for a period a three years.  The companies had requested a five-year respite. 

UPM Will Close Albbruck Mill in January

UPM reported in September that, absent finding a way forward, it would close its Albbruck, Germany 320,000 metric tonne per year coated mechanical mill.  A potential Russian investor materialized in October, but in the end, no alternatives were found to keep the mill running.  The mill, which employs 557 people, will close in January 2012.

USPS begins new year with $139 million loss

USPS begins new year with $139 million loss: Washington, D.C.—The U.S. Postal Service posted a $139 million loss for October, the first month of its 2012 fiscal year. That compares with a net profit of $283 million in the same period last year.

Digitas CEO Laura Lang Tapped as Time Inc. CEO

Time Warner announced the appointment of Laura Lang to the position of Chief Executive Officer of Time Inc., the largest publishing company in the U.S.   Since the departure of Jack Griffen last February, an interim management committee has been running the firm.  Ms Lang was most recently CEO of Digitas, the largest global digital marketing agency; she will begin in January. 

S&P Revises R.R. Donnelley Outlook to Negative from Stable

S&P Revises R.R. Donnelley Outlook to Negative from Stable: Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services revised its outlook on Chicago-based printer R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. (RRD) to negative from stable. The outlook revision reflects our expectation of weak economic conditions, negative trends in...

Advertising on USPS vehicles “could raise $360m a year”

Advertising on USPS vehicles “could raise $360m a year”: The US Postal Service could be making more than $360m a year in extra revenue by using its vehicles as a platform for advertising.

Open Sky Media Acquires Marin Magazine

Open Sky Media Acquires Marin Magazine:

Study: Mag Industry Hops On Action Code Trend, Engages Consumers

Study: Mag Industry Hops On Action Code Trend, Engages Consumers:

For Some, Digital Revenues a Sorely Needed Boon:

With print advertising on the run, digital continues to rise.

NewPage Port Hawkesbury gets timeline extension to sell mill:
This morning the Nova Scotia Supreme Court has approved an extension to NewPage Port Hawkesbury‘s creditor protection period.

Quebecor lays off 400: reports:

The train service that moves 268,000 Calgarians daily served up little but chaos during both commuter rushes Monday, as the weekend windstorm's aftermath triggered one of the worst LRT shutdowns in recent... Alberta's Progressive Conservative government is in danger of forgetting an important, costly lesson from provincial history and the PC ... (more)

Germany Goes Out of Print as manroland Files for Insolvency: Germany, which invented the printing industry more than 500 years ago and dominates the market to this day, has lost its talent for making money from the presses. In the weeks before manroland’s insolvency filing, the company negotiated with...

Bauer Cuts Rate Base on In Touch and Life & Style:

Quebecor's Sun Media cutting 400 jobs: union:

It was on Twitter where talk first emerged that the Montreal-based multimedia giant would be cutting at Sun Media, which has dozens of papers, free commuter publications and numerous weeklies in Ontario, Quebec and other provinces.

Transcontinental launches a new brand image: To better reflect its evolution into a leading player in the new marketing communications landscape, Transcontinental today launched a new brand, logo and positioning: TC. Transcontinental, the Canadian leader in marketing activation.

HP Q4 earnings down 88 percent: HP today announced financial results for its fourth quarter and full fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2011."HP has a great opportunity to build on our strong hardware, software, and services franchises with leading market positions, customer relationships, and intellectual property," said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer.

USPS Shipping Rates Rise An Average Of 4.6%: The U.S. Postal Service announced its rate increases for all shipping services and the average rate increase will be 4.6%, effective Jan. 22, 2012

Fibrek acknowledge’s Resolute Forest Product’s unsolicited take-over bid:
Overnight, Fibrek Inc. put out a press release acknowledging Resolute Forest Product‘s (formerly known as AbitibiBowater) unsolicited offer to acquire Fibrek.

Manroland administrator reports investor interest: A number of unidentified investors have already expressed an interest in Manroland, according to the court-appointed administrator Werner Schneider.

Bowater Mersey and NewPage Port Hawkesbury get 3 year power rate break:
It isn’t the 5 year power rate break they had requested, but Bowater Mersey and NewPage Port Hawkesbury in Nova Scotia will be receiving a 3 year break on their power bills.

NewPage under bankrupcty protection, but still wants a $3 million payout for 15 executives:
NewPage Corporation may be under bankruptcy protection, but that hasn’t stopped the company from filing a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court asking for approval for $3 million in a short-term incentive program to be split among 15 of its executives.

Resolute Forest Products curtails paper making in Fort Frances for the rest of the year:
Resolute Forest Products, previously known as AbitibiBowater, is curtailing its Fort Frances, Ontario paper machines for the rest of the year. The downtime will start next week.

100 employees will be affected.

Poor market conditions are cited for the downtime.

Kraft mill operations are not affected.

USPS: Catalogs Pay Their Way – American Catalog Mailers …: American Catalog Mailer Association makes its case: “We estimate the catalog industry paid $3.6 billion in postage, generating more than $1 billion of fixed-cost coverage above what it cost the USPS to deliver the catalogs. ...

Norske Skog recommends closure of its Follum mill

USPS Hires Banking Advisory Firm to Help With Restructuring Business Model: Statement on Retention of Evercore Partners The U.S. Postal Service must make fundamental changes to its business model to return to profitability and continue its mission of providing quality service to every address in the nation. Proposed changes include operational, compensation and benefits changes to reduce Postal Service annual expenses by $20 billion by 2015.

PRC Approves January Postage Increase: As we told you in our October 28, 2011 E-tip the United States Postal Service announced their intention to increase postage on market dominant products by an average of 2.133%, effective January 22, 2012. This increase was approved on Tuesday 11/22/2011 by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). Price Increases The price increases vary by mail class and [...]

USPS Says Recession Cost $2.34B: by Jim Tierney at Multi-Channel Merchant In defense of a bid for an exigent rate increase next year, the U.S. Postal Service claims the recession impacted its finances to the tune of $2.34 billion during fiscal years 2008-09, according to a Nov. 21 filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission. Given the fact that Congress hasn’t agreed to any [...]

USPS proposes rate increases for 2012 – Direct Marketing News: The U.S. Postal Service ( USPS ) seeks to raise shipping service rates by 4.6%, the company said in a Nov. 22 statement. Priority Mail prices will increase on average 3.1%, Express Mail prices will increase 3.3% and ...

USPS announces rate hikes for competitive classes of mail | Rocky …: The average for Priority Mail is 3.1% and Express Mail is 3.3%. A number of service changes indicate the USPS is trying to incent mailers to reduce window service demands, reducing USPS costs. DMA supports this trend and ...

NewPage Port Hawkesbury seeks extension to creditor protection period:
NewPage Port Hawkesbury filed a motion with the Nova Scotia Supreme Court yesterday asking the court to extend its period of creditor protection.

The motion will be heard on Tuesday.


NewPage Port Hawkesbury seeks extension to creditor protection period is a post from: ForestTalk.com

manroland AG files for Insolvency: manroland AG today filed a petition to initiate insolvency proceedings with the jurisdictional district court at Augsburg, after the negotiations with a potential investor have failed on the home stretch. At the same time the company has filed a request for self-administration in order to finalize the on-going restructuring efforts. The provisional insolvency administrator Werner Schneider will in due course examine the situation at manroland, in order to obtain a comprehensive picture of the si

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Two Unions Continue Negotiations with U.S. Postal Service: WASHINGTON, DC—Nov. 20, 2011—Although the contracts with the National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO (NALC) and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, AFL-CIO (NPMHU) expired at midnight Sunday, Nov. 20, the Postal Service...

Postmaster General Urges Congress to Reevaluate the Postal Reform Bills: WASHINGTON, DC—Nov. 21, 2011—In a speech delivered to the National Press Club, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe encouraged Congress to step back and take a second look at postal reform legislation as currently drafted in the House...

RR Donnelley Expands Packaging and Product Labeling Platform With Acquisition of StratusGroup:

R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company today announced that it has acquired West Chester, OH based StratusGroup, Inc., a full service manufacturer of custom pressure sensitive label and paperboard packaging products for health and beauty, food, beverage and other segments.

Valpak partners with Savings.com – Direct Marketing News: Coupon companies Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, Inc and Savings.com have partnered to provide more than 20000 online coupons from national brands and retailers on Valpak.com, both companies said Nov. 21.

Postmaster General Urges Congress to Reevaluate Current Postal Reform Bills: WASHINGTON — In a speech delivered today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe encouraged Congress to step back and take a second look at postal reform legislation as currently drafted in the House and Senate.

Negotiations On Postal Union Contracts Extended:

Just 1 in 3 Consumers Say QR Code Scan Was Worth It: A survey of more than 500 U.S. consumers finds that 72% of consumers say they have seen a QR code, yet nearly 30% of these respondents do not know what it is.

RR Donnelley Acquires StratusGroup to Expands Its Packaging, Labeling Platform: CHICAGO—Nov. 22, 2011—R. R. Donnelley & Sons has acquired West Chester, OH-based StratusGroup Inc., a full-service manufacturer of custom pressure-sensitive label and paperboard packaging products for health and beauty, food,...

Jason Wagenheim Out as Glamour Publisher After 2½ Months: This story first appears on FOLIO: sister publication, minoline.

Postal Service Ends Fiscal Year with $5.1 Billion Loss: WASHINGTON, DC—Nov. 16, 2011—The U.S. Postal Service ended its 2011 fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2010 – Sept. 30, 2011) with a net loss of $5.1 billion. The year-end loss would have been approximately $10.6 billion had it not been for...

B-to-b ad pages grow modestly in August: New York—B-to-b print ad pages increased 0.5% in August compared with August 2010, according to data released by American Business Media's Business Information Network. Ad pages were up 1.

SP Newsprint files bankruptcy

White Birch idles newsprint mills in Quebec

Turner offers a bill to bust down export a barriers:

More exports mean more jobs as the region struggles to emerge from the economic downturn, and no business knows that better than Appleton Papers Inc.

NAPUS: A Tale of Two Postal Bills: From The National Association of Postmasters of the United States – eNAPUS Legislative and Political Bulletin Two vastly different postal bills are pending before the House and Senate. The bills, H.R. 2309 and S. 1789, contain numerous divisive provisions; some are common to both. Consequently, they do not seem to be on the fast track.

Bennet: USPS 'Time-Out' Provides More Time to Evaluate Effects of …: Washington, DC –Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today announced that the USPS has issued a temporary “time-out” on post office closings that will provide more time for the Agency to examine potential effects of ...

Print Magazines Still Dominate Overall Magazine Engagement: In its annual Survey of the American Consumer, media and consumer research firm Gfk MRI interviewed approximately 26,000 American adults on their media consumption habits, including magazines. The latest survey finds that out of 1.6 billion magazine exposures, print was the format turned to by 9 out of 10 of the overall audience.

Financial Times Web App Gains One Million Registrants: Financial Times reaches yet another milestone, now boasting one million registrants for its native web app. Apps.FT.com launched in June, after FT decided to go without Apple for its subscription-based app offering.

QR Codes and the Gender Gap:
I recently aggregated all of the QR code demographic and usage data I could find (and am adding to it all the time), and one of the trends that surprised me is while much of the data is highly consistent — such as age demographics and usage patterns — gender is not one of them.

Paper maker UPM prepares for temporary lay-offs:

Forest group UPM-Kymmene said it is preparing temporary lay-offs in several Finnish paper mills due to weak demand.

Print-Only Impressions Still Dominate Overall Magazine Audience Engagement: For those who still doubt that magazines have a place in the digital world, new data proves magazines’ growing digital prowess. According to GfK MRI, adults who read magazines on digital platforms (including desktop/laptop computers, tablets, e-readers and smartphones) make up 11 percent of gross magazine audience impressions.

Digital Readers 11 Percent of Total Magazine Audience: For those who still doubt that magazine content has a place in the digital world, new data proves magazines’ growing digital prowess.

Two Sides' seminar reveals that "print is the new cool": Two Sides Autumn Seminar reaffirms the popularity of print as an essential medium for media planners with leading media players citing print as being "the new cool" and having a unique appeal compared to digital media.Held at Stationers' Hall in London on 7 November the Autumn Seminar entitled: "Why print has a key role to play in the integrated future of marketing" included influential brand owners and media decision makers.Leading figures from the print and paper industries and other members o

Flint Group Flexographic Products announces further price increase for Printing Plates: Since the middle of 2010 raw material and energy costs have grown considerably - with some materials witnessing growth rates of up to 100%. Despite Flint Group continuously pushing productivity and cost savings initiatives, the raw material cost increases placed on the market have not been able to be absorbed and will have to be passed on. Subsequently Flint Group Flexographic Products is forced to increase prices for nyloflex® and nyloprint® printing plates in 2012.

MWV to Spin Off Consumer & Office Products Business and Merge it with ACCO Brands Corporation: (USA)MeadWestvaco Corporation (NYSE: MWV), a global leader in packaging, today announced that the company will spin off its Consumer & Office Products business and has signed a definitive agreement to merge the business into ACCO Brands Corporation (NYSE: ABD...

Marc Peyser Promoted to Budget Travel Editor: This story first appears on FOLIO: sister site, minonline.

Bowater Mersey gets tax break:
The Region of Queens Municipality in Nova Scotia has voted today to give the Bowater Mersey mill a moderate tax break of 15%, or approximately $135,000/yr over 10 years.

Heidelberg shows "revolutionary" mailing line: Heidelberg has joined forces with Kodak and perfector manufacturer Popp to produce a mailing line that the companies believe could revolutionise personalised mailing.

William Pollak To Leave ALM In Early 2012:

USPS loses $5.1 billion for fiscal 2011: Washington, D.C.—The U.S. Postal Service ended its fiscal year 2011 with a net loss of $5.1 billion, compared with an $8.5 billion loss the year earlier.

White Birch Paper Company to Idle Stadacona Mill in Quebec City: (CANADA)White Birch Paper Company today announced that it will cease production temporarily at its Stadacona paper mill, in Quebec City, commencing December 9, 2011...

Brown Printing and Publisher Future US Expand Their Relationship: WASECA, MN—Nov. 15, 2011—Brown Printing has signed a multiyear, multimillion dollar agreement with Future US to supply manufacturing and distribution solutions for 20 of the publisher’s titles and special editions. This agreement...

MPA: Tablet users consuming more magazine content: New York—Nine in 10 magazine readers who access magazines via mobile devices said they are reading as much or more magazine content since acquiring their tablet or e-reader, according to “The Magazine Mobile Reader,” a study...

Two Unions Continue Negotiations with U.S. Postal Service: WASHINGTON, DC—Nov. 20, 2011—Although the contracts with the National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO (NALC) and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, AFL-CIO (NPMHU) expired at midnight Sunday, Nov. 20, the Postal Service...

Postmaster General Urges Congress to Reevaluate the Postal Reform Bills: WASHINGTON, DC—Nov. 21, 2011—In a speech delivered to the National Press Club, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe encouraged Congress to step back and take a second look at postal reform legislation as currently drafted in the House...

USPS Pension Overfunding Part 1: Pro and Con Unions and Users …: The APWU (American Postal Workers Union) and other postal unions make the case that: “The financial problems facing the Postal Service were made significantly worse by a Bush-era mandate that the agency pre-fund ...

Print Is Dead? Not for this Growing Publication Niche: Sales of bookazines are up nearly 20 percent this year, according to industry consortium MagNet. “These results seem to contradict what the industry press has long decided, that digital is killing print,” MagNet, which reports on...

Print Magazines Still Dominate Overall Magazine Engagement: In its annual Survey of the American Consumer, media and consumer research firm Gfk MRI interviewed approximately 26,000 American adults on their media consumption habits, including magazines. The latest survey finds that out of 1.6 billion magazine exposures, print was the format turned to by 9 out of 10 of the overall audience.

Department of Commerce: E-commerce spending up 13.7%: U.S. retail e-commerce totaled $48.2 billion during the third quarter of 2011, an increase of 13.7% compared with the third quarter of 2010, according to Nov. 17 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

7 Reasons the Jury Is Still Out on Flats Sequencing: It's still not clear whether the U.S. Postal Service's $1.4 billion investment in the Flats Sequencing System will pay off, according to the chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission says. Mailers had hoped FSS would reduce the Postal...

InfoTrends’ Global Production Copying and Printing Market Forecast: According to InfoTrends latest forecast, Global Production Copying and Printing Market Forecast: 2010-2015, the retail value of print in the production copying and digital printing market is expected to grow at a 5-year CAGR of 5.4%, reaching $117 billion in 2015.This global view of the digital production printing market provides detailed forecast data on the growth in digital document printing in a range of segments. The Excel pivot table section allows the user to view the information in ...

KBA Reports Orders up 15.4%: While the third quarter saw demand in the press engineering sector slow, German press vendor Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) profited from a strong presence in niche markets such as security printing, metal decorating and industrial coding, where demand is robust. In the summer quarter the group booked new orders worth €472.8m, the highest level since the record year of 2006. The order intake for the nine months to October was up 15.4% at €1,155.7m (2010: €1,001.2m). The order backlog

Staples revamps b-to-b e-commerce site, reports net sales increase: Staples, Inc. launched a new e-commerce site for its b-to-b division, Staples Advantage, said Laura Brooks, VP of b-to-b e-commerce at Staples. The new site is designed to feature faster and easier search navigation, alternative product recommendations and enhanced site customization, among other changes.

Wood fiber costs increase and pulp prices fall | Pulp & Paper