UPM Closing Two Supercalendered Paper Machines

UPM to shut PM 3 at its Rauma mill, Finland and PM 4 at Ettringen mill in Germany by end of April; to reduce 87 employees in Finland and 150 workers in Germany: UPM will permanently close down the paper machine 3 at UPM Rauma mill in Finland and the paper machine 4 at Ettringen mill in Germany by the end of the April 2013. The number of employees is reduced by 87 in UPM Rauma mill and by 150 in UPM Ettringen mill.

PM 3's annual production capacity is 245,000 tonnes, and PM 4's annual capacity is 175,000 tonnes. Both machines produce of SC (supercalendered) paper.

On Jan. 4 of this year, UPM shut down its Stracel paper mill in France. The mill, which employed 250 people, had been producing 270,000 tonnes per year of coated magazine paper grades.
Currently, UPM is trying to sell its Docelles mill (France), which is producing 160,000 tonnes of uncoated woodfree papers annually.

UPM's Rauma mill manufacturers LWC and SC papers with annual capacity of 1,210,000 tonnes. Located in Western Finland the mill employs 670 people. The mill was founded in 1969. 
UPM's Ettringen paper mill manufactures uncoated magazine papers. Its two production lines have a combined annual capacity of 460,000 tonnes. Located in Bavaria, south Germany, the mill employs 391 people. The mill was founded in 1897.

Burgo Signs Financial Agreement

http://www.burgo.com/en

On March 22nd Burgo Group signed an agreement with Mediobanca, UniCredit, Gruppo Intesa San Paolo and Banco Popolare which confirmed the commitment of these financial institutions to sustain the long-term debt maturing on 31.12.2015, ensuring the stability of the short-term credit lines up to the same date, and guaranteeing fundamental financial support to allow the Group to undertake the activities outlined in its Industrial Plan.

Q4 Industry Pulse Report Released

Fourth Quarter Industry Pulse Report Reveals Soft Close to the Year: Quarterly survey results show industry confidence, wariness of the US economy.
SGIA has released its Fourth Quarter 2012 Industry Pulse Benchmarking Reports for the graphics and sign, garment decoration and industrial printing communities. The reports examine sales and production indexes, employment figures, equipment purchases and confidence in the specialty graphics industry, as well as in the US economy as a whole.

Direct Mail Valuable Tool in Automotive Sphere

http://www.dmnews.com/vws-direct-mail-campaign-is-greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts/article/287820/

When it comes to the automotive industry, there still isn't a trustier channel than direct mail, and that's why Volkswagen tapped creative agency Proximity London to create a dynamic direct mail piece to persuade potential buyers to sign up for test drives. 
The consideration period is much longer for a car purchase than if, say, “you're deciding to buy a new brand of toothpaste,” says Caitlin Ryan, executive creative director at Proximity London—which is why direct mail is the way to go. 
“Direct mail works incredibly well in the automotive space; we do a lot of email and CRM for VW, as well, but direct mail is still what people want because it provides a tactile experience—they actually want to keep the literature,” Ryan says. “When people are considering a new car, they go into collector mode and look at many different models and gather lots of information.”

Google Sells Frommer's to Founder

http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/google-sells-frommers-brand-after-only-eight-months-to-arthur-frommer/

Well, that didn’t last long, did it. Less than a year after Google acquired travel book publisher Frommer’s from John Wiley & Sons for $22 million, it’s decided to sell it – to founder Arthur Frommer.
The Web giant bought the popular brand in August last year with the intention of using data from the travel guides to improve its own local listings and reviews used by a number of its Web services. It’s not known how much Arthur Frommer paid to buy back the rights to the brand he created way back in 1957. Travel news website Skift reported last month that Google had decided to stop printing the paper-based version of the famous range of guidebooks, but Frommer told the Associated Press this week that he intends to get the printing presses rolling again.

Yankee Candle Attracts Offers

http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-buyout-firms-eye-yankee-candle-2-billion-131840305--sector.html

Yankee Candle Co Inc has attracted offers from several private equity firms in a sale process that could value the largest scented candle maker in the United States at about $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

Bain Capital LLC, Advent International Corp, CVC Capital Partners Ltd , Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC and Ares Management LLC have made it through the first round of bidding and are set to meet with Yankee Candle's management over the next few weeks, the sources said.

EC Approves Bertelsmann/Pearson Merger

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-305_en.htm

The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed creation of Penguin Random House, combining parts of the publishing businesses of the media company Bertelsmann of Germany and the publishing company Pearson of the UK. The Commission found that the transaction would not raise competition concerns, in particular because the merged entity will continue to face several strong competitors.

Federal Fight Fierce Over Internet Sales Tax

http://www.pal-item.com/article/20130405/NEWS01/304050015/Federal-fight-fierce-over-Internet-sales-tax-bill

Congress is considering legislation to close that sales-tax loophole, arguing that the current system favors Internet companies over brick-and-mortar stores. 
State lawmakers have reached an impasse over the issue. State Sen. Luke Kenley, who is blocking a House-passed bill to force online retailer Amazon to collect sales tax on Indiana purchases this year, has said Congress needs to pass legislation that would apply to all online-only retailers.

NAA: Profile of American Newspaper Industry

NAA Releases Profile of American Newspaper Media Industry Revenue 2012: Overall, total revenue for U.S. newspapers declined by 2 percent in 2012 from a year earlier, according to new data compiled by the Newspaper Association of America. In total, the U.S. newspaper media industry took in $38.6 billion in 2012 compared with $39.5 billion in revenue in 2011, according to NAA’s projections.

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/209509/deeper-data-dive-finds-5-5-billion-in-uncounted-newspaper-industry-revenue/

Deeper data dive finds $5.5 billion in uncounted newspaper industry revenue Years of negative reports on ad revenue losses could leave the newspaper industry muttering, “I demand a recount.” The Newspaper Association of America has just completed such an exercise and found some solid gains that have been overlooked previously in its own measurements.