Thursday, September 20, 2012

Obstacles Grow for Port Hawk. Restart

As ForestTalk.com suspected, Nova Scotia Power is no longer offering a special discount power rate to Pacific West Commercial Corp.  now that the advanced tax ruling is off the table.
The advanced tax ruling would have allowed Nova Scotia Power to become a 30% equity partner in the mill and receive a combination of preferred and common shares of the newly created Port Hawkesbury Paper.
At this time, it seems unlikely that the sale of the mill to Pacific West Commercial Corp. will proceed.

No Word on Catalyst Mill Sale

http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/170248906.html 
With just hours to go before the scheduled closure of the $8.6 million sale of the Catalyst Paper Elk Falls site, a cone of silence smothers efforts to confirm the status of the deal.
The sale was announced Aug. 16 and was first scheduled to complete by Sept. 5, however, the date came and went with Catalyst scrambling to clear the property of valuable leftovers. At that time, Brown told the Mirror the closing date for the sale had been extended to Sept. 19.

IP to Acquire Packaging Plants, Turkey

http://www.internationalpaper.com/US/EN/Company/Media/IPNews.html
International Paper, today, announced it entered into a binding agreement with Sabanci Holdings to purchase their stake in the companies' Olmuksa joint venture in Turkey.
The joint venture, headquartered in Istanbul, was formed in 1998 and has grown to become a market leader in corrugated packaging in Turkey. The company operates two recycled containerboard mills and six box plants.

European NBSK Price Increase


Starting in October, prices for softwood pulp on the European market are set to rise again for the first time in five months. The first producers have announced plans for hikes for NBSK pulp.
The targeted price adjustment for October depends on the European paper industry's response after the summer holidays. At the moment, industry experts are predicting a normal rise in demand after the summer. After a very weak August, the order volumes are starting to pick up again a bit in mid-September, EUWID was told.

AF&AP: Boxboard Production Falls 0.8% in August

AF&AP Release August 2012 Paperboard Report: Total boxboard production decreased by 0.8 percent compared to August 2011 but increased 2.2 percent from last month.  Unbleached Kraft Boxboard production decreased over the same month last year and decreased compared to last month.  Total Solid Bleached Boxboard & Liner production increased compared to August 2011 and increased compared to last month.  The production of Recycled Boxboard increased compared to August 2011 and increased when compared to last month.

Households Making $100K: 82% Read Print

Households Making $100K+ Remain Heavy Print Users: A survey shows that households making 100K+ continue to "reaffirm the power of the hard copy print publications in their lives, even as tablet and smartphone penetration grows disproportionately in this demographic."
The survey finds that 82% of Affluents regularly read at least one of the 150 measured and reported print publications (143 magazines and 7 national newspapers). The total duplicated average-issue audience (AIA) is more than 221 million, reflecting that America’s 59 million Affluents read an average of 18.7 issues across an average of 8.2 titles. Comparing publications measured in both 2011 and 2012, Affluent average-issue audience was relatively stable at -1.3%.

Atlantic Media Names SVP-Group Publisher

Atlantic Media promotes Lauf to senior VP-group publisher: Atlantic Media Co. has promoted Jay Lauf, VP-publisher of The Atlantic, to senior VP-group publisher of Atlantic Media Co. and publisher of Quartz, the company's business news brand that launches next Monday.

Hearst Prepares for Leadership Change

Frank Bennack, chief executive of Hearst, is preparing to hand over the reins to Steven Swartz, his chief operating officer ushering in a new era for one of the world’s largest private media companies.
“We have a very bright and able chief operating officer. Specific dates and movements to succession haven’t been set or announced, but it’s clear that they’re not far into the future and that I’m working very hard with him,” Mr Bennack told the Financial Times.

Newspaper Employment Down 40.6% Since '01

While plenty of industries have shrunk over the last couple of years, few have been hit as badly as newspaper publishing, which was already contracting before the economic downturn began. Since then, economic woes have simply reinforced the long-term trend.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, total employment in the newspaper publishing industry has plunged from 414,000 in 2001 to 246,020 in 2011, equaling a 40.6% drop in 10 years.

Quad/Graphics Actable & Milwaukee Magazie Interactive Issue

Quad/Graphics Actable Brings Milwaukee Magazine to Life: Every page is interactive, offering amazing and engaging reader experiences for editorial and advertising content. Quad/Graphics, Inc., announced today that its Actable interactive print solutions helped Milwaukee Magazine create its first entirely interactive issue. The October "Best of 2012" issue, on newsstands this week, features 146 image recognition and augmented reality experiences that readers can launch on their Actable-enabled smartphones and other mobile tablet devices.

Vertis Sells Its Prepress Packaging Assets

Vertis Sells Its Prepress Packaging Assets to SGS: Vertis Holdings and SGS International announced an agreement under which SGS will further augment its complete, design-to-print packaging solutions with the purchase of additional prepress packaging equipment, data files and certain related assets from Vertis.