The Story of Mill Towns in a Changing Industry

http://www.startribune.com/business/179601951.html?refer=y&refer=y 
The North American paper industry is in rapid decline. Historically a bulwark in the forests of Minnesota, mills have cut thousands of workers and are competing for a shrinking market. A mill in Sartell that closed this year after a Memorial Day explosion was the latest to go dark.

"It's kind of disheartening," said Jim Skurla, an economist at the University of Minnesota Duluth. "Paper's never going to disappear, but it's going to be smaller than it has been."
River towns in the forest from eastern Washington to the coast of Maine have lost more than a hundred paper mills in a wave of consolidation in little more than a decade -- a trend most people in the industry expect to continue. Wisconsin has lost nine paper mills since 2005.

Graphic Packaging Buys Contego's Food Carton Business

Graphic Packaging Holding Company Agrees to Acquire Contego's European Food Carton Business:
Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE: GPK), a leading provider of packaging solutions to food, beverage and other consumer products companies, announced an agreement to acquire Contego Cartons, a leading food and consumer product packaging company based in the United Kingdom. Contego is owned by Platinum Equity.

RDA Reports Q3 Results

RDA Revenues Drop by $82 Million in Q3:
The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. had a rough third quarter, at least according to its financial results released Tuesday—revenue decreased $82.3 million to $230.1 million, a decline of 26.3 percent from the same period in 2011.
The results show that there was some improvement, with the losses narrowing by $2.8 million on a normalized basis. The revenue declines, the company says, were primarily due to a lower active customer base on books and home entertainment products, and a reduction in promotional investment across Europe and Asia, among other things.

David Zinczenko to Leave Rodale

David Zinczenko to Leave Rodale:
David Zinczenko, senior vice president and editor-in-chief of Men's Health, is leaving Rodale, the company has confirmed following a report by New York Post's Keith Kelly. Rodale says the decision was mutal to not renew his contract at the end of the year.

Have Publishers Let Competitors Position Their Media?

Have Publishers Let Competitors Position Their Media?:
Media buyers who buy the products publishers sell now divide the media they manage into three categories.
Earned media, largely social media where organizations "earn" exposure by posting content on services like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.
Owned media, media a marketer owns like their company website, newsletter, or blog.
Paid media, third party media, which is most of what publishers sell to marketers.
How did this happen? These category names came into common use around 2008 when social media was being added to media budgets. With the need to contrast social media with traditional media, the social media centric thinking of the time renamed traditional media as it contrasts to social, suddenly we became "paid media." This label casts a negative implication every time it is used.

2012 Ad Growth Projection at 5.9%

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/187629/2012-finale-for-us-ad-biz-59-rise.html#axzz2CmlYAVUd

A Wall Street firm has increased its growth projection for the overall U.S. ad business for 2012, bumping it up from 4.9% to 5.9%. Big drivers include local TV stations and cable outlets, which drew huge revenues from political campaigns.

Time May See Editor-in-Chief Change

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/time_to_go_for_huey_QwCxk7RHru7WszB9PNkk2N

John Huey, who was relaxing at the Time magazine Person of the Year luncheon yesterday, is expected to step down as editor-in-chief of the Time Inc. empire by the end of the year, Media Ink has learned.
Martha Nelson, a veteran of People and InStyle who is currently the No. 2 as the editorial director of the company, is expected to move into the top spot.

Advance May Cut Newspaper's Delivery Schedule

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/187555/cleveland-plain-dealer-may-cut-frequency-digita.html#axzz2CgtNuOBP

Advance Publications may drop the daily publishing schedule for another big regional newspaper. In a letter to readers published on Sunday, Cleveland Plain Dealer editor Debra Adams Simmons and publisher Terry Egger warned that big changes were coming as the newspaper seeks to “embrace dynamic shifts in the way information is consumed.”