Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Resolue CEO Optimistic

The president of Resolute Forest Products is optimistic about the company's future.
CEO Richard Garneau told the Empire Club of Canada Thursday that "despite the disruptions and challenges that have shaken our industry, we have confidence in its future. "For Resolute, ensuring we are part of that future has meant changing the way we think about our business, changing how we do business and changing how we operate," he said.

Resolute Seeks 60% Tax Cut for Thunder Bay

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/story/2013/04/09/tby-thunder-bay-resolute-mill-request-tax-reduction.html
Resolute Forest Products wants 60% reduction in tax assessment for Thunder Bay mill
City administration has told Thunder Bay city council they could be on the hook for millions of dollars, if Resolute Forest Products gets its wish.
The company is asking the Assessment Review Board to lower the value of its pulp and paper mill to $29 million - retroactive to 2009.

Canada Invests $30.4 Million in Forest Industry

The government of Canada last week announced $30.4 million in federal funding toward "the transformation of the forest industry through innovation and market expansion." The mostly wood products investments also include a $42 million bioenergy project at Millar Western Forest Products' pulp and lumber mill site in Alberta.
Addressing forest industry stakeholders at the annual Council of Forest Industries (COFI) convention in British Columbia, Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver announced an investment of $19.5 million in five projects in Western Canada under the Investments in Forest Industry Transformation (IFIT) program. He also announced $10.9 million in funding for the 2013-14 Expanding Market Opportunities Program, including support for a Canadian wood products trade office in India.
The IFIT funding includes $6.75 million to Millar Western in Whitecourt, AB. For the first time in Canada's forest sector on a commercial scale, the mill will generate green energy from pulp mill effluent by using innovative anaerobic hybrid digester technology, the government said. This waste-to-energy technology has strong potential for replication at other mills across Canada.

Gorham Paper Reports Progress

At Gorham Paper and Tissue, Plant Manager Willis Blevins reported there were 211 people working and the company had hired eight new employees in recent weeks to replace retiring paper workers.
Three of the four paper machines were running and Blevins said he plans to run the fourth machine about 15 days this month.
Blevins reported sales are picking up and company officials noted GPT unveiled four new specialty paper brands last month.
Dick Arnold, president of both GPT and Old Town Fuel & Fiber, explained that GPT is moving away from printing and writing papers into specialty grades.

Hope for Paper Industry in Wisconsin

Despite nearly a decade of tough times for papermakers in central Wisconsin, industry leaders say recent developments signify a more encouraging future.
With Domtar Corp.'s sale of its Port Edwards mill as well as its acquisition of Xerox's paper and print media business in the United States and Canada, and its plans to start production later this year at its biomass plant in Rothschild; Wausau Paper's intention to sell its Mosinee and Rhinelander mills as well as its specialty papers business; and NewPage Corp.'s emergence from bankruptcy, industry leaders are hopeful for the future, said Jeff Landin, president of the Wisconsin Paper Council.

IP/Dogwood Alliance Agree on Plan

International Paper, forest group announce plan:
International Paper and a forest conservation group are announcing a plan to protect endangered forests in key paper producing areas of the South.
The Memphis-based paper company and Dogwood Alliance said Wednesday that they will map forests around International Paper's southeastern operations to identify endangered forests or areas where conservation of natural resources is critical to environmental health.
The agreement between International Paper and Dogwood, a longtime critic of the paper company, also includes a plan to discourage the conversion of natural hardwood forests to pine plantations.

Postal Board Prohibits Eliminating Sat. Delivery

Postal Board Shelves 5-Day Delivery:
The Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service voted to prohibit the elimination of Saturday delivery slated to take effect on August 5. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe had announced the move in February--minus approval from Congress or the Postal Regulatory Commission--in hopes of trimming some $2 billion from the ailing Postal Service's operating budget.
Congress foreshadowed the action taken yesterday by the Postal Service when, in March, it rubber-stamped an extension of the Continuing Resolution that funds Postal Service operations. The C.R. contains language stating that funding is dependent on mail service continuing at 1984 levels.

New York Magazine Debuts QR Code Marketing

New York Magazine Debuts QR Code Marketing Campaign:
Welcome to Cross-Media Marketing New York Magazine! Your first dip into the pool was executed very nicely as well… clear offer, tasty incentive, instruction to scan the QR Code, (and bonus that you called it a QR Code!), you also provided a url to the promotion (though not shown below), and your goal, per the article, was to make this engagement as easy as possible for consumers. Considering how many have come before you and haven’t gotten half of that right, you should be proud!

M&A Media Deals Slow

By many measures, the mergers and acquisitions of media and marketing companies have slowed down for the start of 2013.
The first quarter of 2013 witnessed a 30% slowdown to $8.2 billion from $11.2 billion in the first quarter of 2012. The value of deals were down nearly 70% from the $25.6 billion in the the fourth quarter 2012, per investment banker Berkery Noyes.
The number of transactions dropped 13% to 390 in the first quarter 2013 from 449 in the first quarter 2012. There were 411 deals in the second quarter last year; 407 in third quarter 2012; and 384 in the fourth quarter 2012. Eight of the top 10 largest deals of 2012 occurred in the third or fourth quarter.

How Catalog Marketing Can Still Work

Catalogs and direct mail continue to drive sales for niche and specialty B-to-B companies, but a question persists: Through web optimization, can't you get all of these sales by spending a lot less money? Without testing the theory, companies across the country are cutting their mail quantities, which is great news for companies that continue to mail.

MPA on PIB Numbers

While it's important to consider that Magazine Media now encompass myriad of platforms and reader commitment stays strong, it's with some optimism that we report that print magazines saw an advertising revenue lift in Q1 2013, despite continuing softness in paging. This is the first ad revenue uptick in nearly two years, according to the latest PIB numbers. More than 61% more titles posted PIB revenue and page gains compared to Q1 2012. In addition, the Food & Food Products ad category registered an increase in both ad page and revenue for the first time since Q3 2010, and Technology, down three of four quarters last year, showed double-digit ad dollar and page growth in Q1 2013.

Top Retail CEO Salaries

Here are the Top 10 CEO salaries:
Michael Jeffries, Chairman and CEO, Abercrombie & Fitch, Total Compensation: $48,069,473
Gregg Steinhafel, Chairman, CEO and President, Target Corporation, Total Compensation: $19,707,107
Leslie Wexner, CEO and Chairman of the Board, Limited Brands, Total Compensation: $19,230,484
Michael Duke, CEO and President, Walmart Stores, Total Compensation: $18,131,738 
Paul Marciano, CEO and Vice Chairman, Guess?, Total Compensation: $14,399,134 
And more...

Meredith Still Open to Buys

Meredith Corp. CEO Stephen Lacy says the media industry will be split into two categories: the consolidated and the consolidators.
There’s no confusion about the role the Des Moines-based publishing giant will take, he said.
“We have been at this 110 years, through a lot of evolutions of media platforms, and we are an aggressive consolidator,” said the 59-year-old executive in a far-reaching, 75-minute interview with The Des Moines Register in his office on the company’s downtown campus.

ABM/SIIA Merge

ABM to Merge With Software and Information Industry Association:
American Business Media is merging with the Software and Information Industry Association, ending 107 years of independence for the b-to-b media trade association. The merger was effective with a vote by the board last night. The move, said ABM CEO Clark Pettit and Chairman Jeff Lapin, was initiated by SIIA and creates a much larger association that is better positioned to serve an emerging industry, rather than the one that existed in the past.

Valassis Unveils Geo-Commerce Retail Zones

Valassis is unveiling new targeting capabilities through Brand.net, with a service called Geo-Commerce Retail Zone, which uses over 100,000 local targeting zones created by Valassis to reach prospective consumers on their way to retail. 
The Geo-Commerce Retail Zones overlay the trading areas of local stores with transactional data, behavioral data, and data from larger retail trade areas to pinpoint areas where relevant advertising can be delivered to high-potential consumers via mobile devices and other advertising channels.