Four Additional Mills Raise Coated & SC Pricing

Four additional mills have announces coated and Supercalendered paper increase.

Canadian papermaker Catalyst advised customers in Canada today that it will increase the price of its Electracal and Electraprime products by $C55/tonne effective July 1.
The increase will apply to all brightness, finishes, and basis weights

Kruger will increase the transaction price on all coated paper grades by $2.00 per cwt.

This will be effective with shipments on, or after July 1, 2013, and will apply to all weights and brightness levels.

Evergreen has announced a $2.00/cwt increase, effective with all new and confirmed orders shipping on or after July 1, on TruSpec4, TruSpec4.5 and TruSpec5 in all basis weights and finishes.
Sappi has announced a price increase on all new and confirmed orders that book with confirmed delivery dates on or after July 1 as follows:

a $1.50/cwt increase on Opus Web, Sommerset Web, Flo Web and Galerie Fine Web, in all basis weights and finishes, and a $2.00/cwt increase on Galerie Lite Web and Galerie Brite Web, in all basis weights and finishes.

Catalyst Paper CEO to Depart

Catalyst paper announces CEO's departure: Catalyst Paper (TSX:CYT) announced that President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin J. Clarke will step down from his position later this spring. Mr. Clarke has advised Catalyst’s Board of Directors that, with the company’s recent financial restructuring successfully completed, the time is right for a leadership transition.
Mr. Clarke will continue in his role for an interim period through June 2013 to assist in a smooth transition. He plans to return to his home in New York State, where his family resides. A search for his successor is underway.

Boise to Close Two Paper Machines

Boise to close two paper machines
Boise will close two paper machines at its International Falls, Minnesota mill by the fourth quarter of this year. The machine closures will impact about 300 jobs and reduce the company's uncoated freesheet capacity by approximately 115,000 tons per year.

Boise Announces Q1 Results

http://www.boiseinc.com/boise.html

Boise Inc. (BZ) today reported a net loss of $(1.2) million, or $(0.01) per diluted share, for first quarter 2013, compared with net income of $21.3 million, or $0.21 per diluted share, for the same period in 2012. EBITDA (1) was $56.2 million for first quarter 2013, compared with $87.4 million for first quarter 2012. The pre-tax maintenance cold outage costs at our mill in DeRidder, Louisiana, which occur once every five years, reduced our first quarter results by $22.4 million. In addition, incremental depreciation expense related to shortening the useful lives of some of our assets, primarily at our mill in International Falls, Minnesota, reduced our results by $5.3 million.

Great Northern Cash Flow Problems

http://bangordailynews.com/2013/05/01/news/penobscot/creditors-pressing-east-millinocket-paper-mill-for-payments/

Cash flow problems at an East Millinocket paper mill have left the business's owners months behind in some of their payments to vendors, officials said Wednesday.

But a company official said that Cate Street Capital and its subsidiaries, Great Northern Paper Co. and Thermogen Industries, are hoping pending emergency legislation can help them secure about $15 million in state tax credits over eight years for one of their projects.

RISI Names Asian CEO of the Year

RISI, the leading information provider for the global forest products industry today announced that Mr. Li Hongxin, chairman of Sun Paper, has been named Asian CEO of the Year for 2013. The award will be presented to Mr. Li at RISI's 14th annual Asian Pulp and Paper Conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai, June 17-19, 2013.

Mr. Li also won the honor in 2010, and is the first two-time winner since voting began in 2008. Respondents to the annual RISI survey, including investment analysts and portfolio managers covering the forest products industry, selected Mr. Li based on leadership, vision and strategic accomplishments. One analyst commented, "Sun Paper has good practice on forest-pulp-paper integration, which is essential for the company's further development. Also, the company has sufficient liquidity and the chairman is far sighted."

USW Signs Agreement with KPS

United Steelworkers (USW) members at Wausau Paper's Rhinelander, Wis., and Mosinee, Wis., mills and the Thilmany mill in Kaukauna, Wis., today ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with KPS Capital Partners in anticipation of the private equity firm successfully creating the largest specialty paper company in North America.

"We are proud of the leadership that our local unions have shown in bringing their respective memberships together to ratify this important deal in the specialty paper sector," said USW President Leo W. Gerard. "This particular piece of the industry still has enormous growth potential and has long been in need of a new strategic vision to capitalize on that opportunity."

USW local 2-00015 and local 01778 represent the workers at the Rhinelander mill. USW local 2-00221 and local 2-00316 represent workers at the Mosinee mill. USW local 2-00020 represents workers at the Kaukauna, Wis., mill. This agreement represents a new beginning for about 1,400 paper workers at these three mills.

UPM Finishes Negotiations in Jokilaakso

http://www.upm.com/en/Pages/default.aspx

UPM has wrapped up negotiations with employee representatives at its Jokilaakso mills in Jämsä, central Finland. The company will cut 41 jobs at the plants instead of the 45 proposed earlier. Almost half of the jobs will be taken out through retirement solutions.

In response, almost 1,000 workers - approximately 850 blue-collar and 100 white-collar employees - downed tools at 6 AM today for a one-day strike, halting production.
The Jokilaakso plants include the Jämsänkoski mill and the Kaipola mill. The Jämsänkoski factory can churn out some 880,000 tonnes/yr of supercalendered (SC) and specialty paper on four PMs while the Kaipola facility can make some 700,000 tonnes/yr of newsprint, SC, lightweight coated and uncoated mechanical paper on three PMs. Some 1,050 people work at the Jokilaakso mills.

NewPage Announces Pulp Price Increase

http://www.newpagecorp.com/wps/portal/corporate/home/!ut/p/c5/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3ifAG8jD28TI3cLY0djA08zPx8T_5BQYwN3Q_1wkA6zeFd3Mz9fH1NDA_dQHzMDz2CDUNNA3zBDC2MTiLwBDuBooO_nkZ-bql-QnZ3m6KioCAAzqV6s/dl3/d3/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/

NewPage informed North American customers today that it will increase prices on northern bleached hardwood kraft (NBHK) and southern bleached hardwood kraft (SBHK) market pulp by $20/tonne, effective with all new orders entered June 3.

NewPage's announcement of a price hike comes after Alberta-Pacific and Resolute separately announced $20/tonne price increases that were effective May 1.

Stora Enso to Speed Implementation of Chinese Project

Stora Enso to speed implementation of Chinese project
Stora Enso plans to accelerate negotiations with the Chinese government about building a plant in the in Guangxi province, which is expected to be one of the largest paper mills in the country.
Currently the implementation of the project is delayed, due to the lack of the necessary licenses. In this regard, Jouko Karvinen, Executive Director of the company, plans to discuss this issue with the Chinese government.

Russian Billionaire to Build One of Europe’s Largest Mills

Russian billionaire to build one of Europe’s largest mill
Russian Sveza Group of Companies, owned by the billionaire Alexei Mordashev, plans to invest up to 60 billion rubles (USD$2 billion) in the building of a paper mill in Russia’s Vologda region, according to governor of the region Oleg Kuvshinnikov.

Magazine of the Year: New York

http://www.adweek.com/news/press/new-york-wins-magazine-year-asme-awards-149117

New York was the big winner at tonight's National Magazine Awards, where it was named Magazine of the Year, beating out National Geographic, Time, Esquire and Glamour. New York also won the Magazine Section award for its "Strategist" section.

National Geographic, which led the nominations with eight nods, didn't leave the ceremony at the New York Marriott Marquis empty-handed—in fact, editor in chief Chris Johns seemed to be a permanent fixture on the stage. The magazine took home four awards, for General Excellence in Print (News, Sports and Entertainment Magazines), Photography, Tablet Magazine and Multimedia.
Other General Excellence in Print winners were Vogue (for Service and Fashion Magazines), Martha Stewart Living (Lifestyle), Outside (Special-Interest) and The Paris Review (Literary, Political and Professional). General Excellence in Digital Media went to indie music site Pitchfork, one of the night's two digital natives to win awards, known as Ellies for the elephant-shaped statuettes winners receive. (Slate also received an Ellie for Columns and Commentary.)

http://www.minonline.com/news/22314.html

New York magazine and editor-in-chief (since March 2004) Adam Moss capped a great two days in May by winning the American Society of Magazine Editors' 2013 Magazine of the Year at the May 2 National Magazine Awards. The honor goes to the publication judged best when the content of its print and digital editions are combined.  

National Magazine Awards Announced

National Magazine Awards: A Celebration of a Changing Landscape: Last night 600 magazine editors and publishers gathered to celebrate the best of the best in print and online content at the 2013 National Magazine Awards. The American Society of Magazine Editors and The Association of Magazine Media hosted the 48th annual award gala, and this year they mixed things up by converging digital and print mediums into one ceremony. For the first time publications like Pitchfork and Martha Stewart Living could compete head-to-head. Still, the night belonged to the traditional print-based companies.

New York Magazine Wins Cover of the Year

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2013/05/8529610/eve-big-magazine-award-party-new-york-takes-home-trophy-sandy-cover
To kick everyone's egos into gear on the eve of the Ellies, officially known as the National Magazine Awards, the American Society of Magazine editors today unveiled the winners of its 2013 Best Cover Contest. 
Cover of the Year went to New York magazine (a perennial favorite of the Ellies judges) for its famous 
Nov. 12, 2013 issue featuring a stunning aerial photo of Lower Manhattan post-Sandy.

Time Inc. in Transition

http://allthingsd.com/20130501/time-inc-keeps-shrinking/

Time is still a really big publishing company, with 23 percent of the U.S. magazine business. And once it is done firing people, it may make money again.

Overall revenue was down 5 percent, to $737 million. Subscription revenue was down 11 percent, and the main reason advertising revenue was up 2 percent was because Time Inc. now has control of Golf.com and Sports Illustrated’s website, which used to be run by Time Warner’s cable networks.
And the additional money Time Inc. makes from those sites is basically wiped out by the absence of licensing fees they used to charge the cable guys for those sites. Magazine ad dollars were down.
Time Inc., or whatever the new company will be called, should still be profitable for a while, though. The company lost $9 million this quarter, but that’s because it spent $53 million firing about 6 percent of its workforce.

The Atlantic Launches "The Atlantic Books"

http://www.pubexec.com/article/the-atlantic-launches-the-atlantic-books-new-long-form-digital-imprint/1

The Atlantic today launched "The Atlantic Books," a new long-form digital imprint for the magazine's expanding ebook initiatives. The debut title, Denial by Jonathan Rauch, is available today.

Ad Market Core Growth Forecast

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199572/us-ad-market-core-growth-forecast-at-24-tv-co.html#axzz2SFO4l7GB

U.S. advertising market will continue to slowly bump along slowly this year, giving way to faster and smoother trends in 2014.
Media agency forecasting unit Magna Global says U.S. core media owner growth will inch up 0.4% by the end of 2013, climbing at a much better 5.9% next year. Taking out the usual two-year bump from political and Olympic advertising, media owners core growth will climb 2.4% this year and 3.8% in 2014.

MediaPost Mag Bag

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199515/mag-bag-asme-cover-winners-announced.html#axzz2SFO4l7GB

Forbes is taking print digital, quite literally, with a limited number of special issues that contain a small WiFi router, courtesy of Microsoft. 

Hearst Magazines has named Lucy Kaylin editor in chief of O, The Oprah Magazine, filling the spot left by Susan Casey, who is leaving the company to work on a new book. The appointment is effective May 6. Kaylin previously served as deputy editor of the magazine, a role she held since 2009.   

Kim Tan has been named vice president for marketing at Real Simple.

Magazines are racking up record volumes of Web traffic with high-profile stories. Monday, April 29, 2013 was the biggest day ever for Sports Illustrated’s Web site and mobile presence, thanks to the first-person essay in which NBA center Jason Collins announced that he was gay, making him the first professional basketball player to come out while still playing.

Parents Still Value Libraries

http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/05/01/parents-children-libraries-and-reading

94% of parents say libraries are important for their children and 79% describe libraries as “very important.” That is especially true of parents of young children (those under 6), some 84% of whom describe libraries as very important.
84% of these parents who say libraries are important say a major reason they want their children to have access to libraries is that libraries help inculcate their children’s love of reading and books. 
 81% say a major reason libraries are important is that libraries provide their children with information and resources not available at home.
71% also say a major reason libraries are important is that libraries are a safe place for children.

WFMA Rebrands

Another Magazine Association Rebrands: Add another magazine association to the rebranding list. The Western Fulfillment Management Association has changed its name to Association for Audience Marketing Professionals. The WFMA's new brand is the result of a familiar-sounding situation: "The new name reflects the transformation of the publishing and support services industries in the last decade to include digital and other media," says the release announcing the change.

Condé Nast Launches B-to-B Ecommerce

Condé Nast Launches B-to-B Ecommerce Site:
Condé Nast is taking its glossy, high-style images off the page and into the b-to-b marketplace.
The publisher has launched CondeNastTrade.com, offering the interior design community access to select photos and illustrations from 11 of its titles. Close to 7,000 images are currently available on the site for custom installations via New Era Portfolio, a fine art publisher and Condé Nast's partner in the effort. Pricing for the service varies significantly based on the solution the designer needs.

Texas Monthly Redesigns

Texas Monthly: Texas Monthly, on the occasion of its 40th anniversary last September, redesigned the print magazine and followed that up with a relaunch of its website in February.

B-To-B Tech Outlook

B-To-B Tech Outlook: The b-to-b media mix is shifting. Consumers are accessing content on their own terms from a variety of platforms, marketers are redirecting their spending accordingly and publishers are altering their business models to attract and support the best opportunities. Here, FOLIO: convened some of b-to-b’s top leadership to provide an in-their-own-words look at how they’re prioritizing their capital investments in IT and other technology to support content creation, distribution and sales.

RR Donnelley Agreement with AmeriMark

RR Donnelley Awarded Multi-Year Multi-Million Dollar Agreement by AmeriMark: R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company today announced that it has been awarded a multi-year multi-million dollar agreement to provide catalog services to AmeriMark Direct and its Dr Leonard's Healthcare Corp. business. The agreement extends and significantly expands the companies' relationship.