Sappi May Close More Mills

http://www.iol.co.za/business/companies/sappi-may-close-more-mills-1.1523327#.UaeHHeuYyKw

Johannesburg - South African-listed paper maker Sappi is considering closing more mills in Europe as falling demand and rising costs for inputs such as pulp put pressure on margins, its chief executive said on Tuesday.
Sappi, the world's largest maker of fine paper used in glossy magazines, has been cutting capacity in all its operations as the paper industry struggles to recover from a slump caused by sluggish demand and over capacity.
But recovery has been slow for Sappi with weak consumer demand in Europe and an acceleration to digital devices from traditional print.
Chief executive Ralph Boettger said the company was cutting costs in “every single area” of its European business, which is its biggest, to boost margins.
“We are going to have to also take out further capacity and that will most probably involve closure of either mills or machines or both,” Boettger told Reuters in an interview.

Port Hawkesbury Gets Chips from Quebec

Barge arrives at Port Hawkesbury Paper with chips from Quebec:
The new buzzing in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia today is about a barge loaded with wood chips from Quebec that arrived this week at Port Hawkesbury Paper.
There are 230 truckloads of wood chips on the barge.
Port Hawkesbury Paper said they ordered the chips when the truck drivers refused to deliver wood to the mill for a few days earlier this month, and they have no plans to continue to bring wood chips in from Quebec.
Russell Huntington, a representative from Eastern Nova Scotia Private Wood Producers is skeptical. He said many truckers, including himself, haven’t shipped wood to the mill in months.
“I haven’t shipped them a stick of wood since sometime in January, and it doesn’t seem to bother them,” he says. “There are contractors that never started back up – there’s quite a few contractors shipping all the wood up to Northern (Pulp), and their stud wood up to Scotsburn.”

Russia's Only LWC PM Starts

Russia's Kama mill located in the Perm region has restarted its 86,000 tonne/yr lightweight coated paper PM 7. In April, the mill produced some supercalendered (SC) paper on PM 7, while in May it started making LWC paper. Kama said that it is currently in the process of establishing its customer base in central and western Russia. 
The Kama mill, which recently changed hands, might soon see a new 330,000 tonne/yr LWC paper machine installed at its premises. The firm plans to complete a full feasibility study before the end of the year, after which it intends to start building a new machine. Kama said that it will be able to confirm more details on the investment once the feasibility study is completed.

Catalyst Raises Coated Prices

http://catalystpaper.com/

Catalyst set $30-40 price increases on coated paper products shipping on and after July 1.

Prices for the company's Pacificote grade will go up $30/ton and Electracote and Electracote Brite grades will increase by $40/ton. Pricing in Canada will rise by C$33/tonne and C$44/tonne respectively.

The increase applies to to all brightness, finishes, and basis weights, Catalyst said.

Temple Inland Fined for 2011 Spill

Temple Inland fined $3.3M for 2011 spill:
A federal judge has ordered Temple Inland, a subsidiary of International Paper, to pay $3.3 million and serve two years of probation for polluting the Pearl River in 2011 with illegal discharges from its paper mill in Bogalusa, killing thousands of fish.

Millstein Named Assistant to Hearst CEO

http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Lincoln-Millstein-named-senior-Hearst-VP-4557111.php

Hearst Newspapers' Lincoln Millstein has been promoted to senior vice president and special assistant to the CEO of Hearst Corp., the company announced Wednesday.

Millstein, 63, will cede his current role as executive vice president and deputy group head of Hearst Newspapers on June 1 to take on the newly created position, joining a group of executives advising Steven Swartz on corporate strategy. In his previous position, Millstein, a Greenwich resident, was second in command operating 15 daily newspapers, managing aspects of digital, print, marketing and sales.

Hearst Joins Roku Investors

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201369/hearst-backs-roku-to-expand-tv-streaming.html#axzz2UiA5hSTP

Hearst has joined a $60 million venture-capital round backing Roku, the company that facilitates online streaming to TV screens. The media company with magazines and TV stations has an arm with investments in Brightcove and WideOrbit.
Hearst became a first-time Roku investor in the series F round, along with an unnamed institutional investor. Previous funders BSkyB and News Corp. also participated.

Magazine Readership Growing

http://www.adweek.com/news/press/magazine-readership-growing-survey-shows-149863

Some needed good news from the magazine publishing industry: As newsstand sales fell and circulation remained flat through the end of 2012, the latest data from GfK MRI's Survey of the American Consumer, which tracks print and digital magazine audiences, shows that overall readership among adults in the U.S. continued to grow between Spring 2012 and Spring 2013 while digital readership nearly doubled.
Over the past year, the U.S. magazine adult audience (for print and digital editions combined) increased nearly 3 percent to 1.2 billion.

Britain Plans to Privatize Postal Service

http://www.piworld.com/aggregatedcontent/britain-plans-to-privatize-postal-service

Britain is preparing to privatize its postal service. The government on Wednesday said it had appointed Goldman Sachs and UBS to manage an initial public offering for the Royal Mail later this year, The New York Times reports. 
The sale would be the biggest privatization in the country since the railroads in the 1990s, The New York Times reports. Michael Fallon, the minister for business, said the sale was a “practical, logical and commercial decision.” 

Magazines More Popular Among College Students

http://www.pubexec.com/article/magazines-more-popular-than-ever-among-college-students-says-shweiki-media-25061159/1

In a seemingly tech-oriented world, there's been constant speculation over the last few years that print is a dying medium—especially among the younger set, who had smartphones thrust into their hands years ago and haven't looked back since. Shweiki, in conjunction with Study Breaks College Media, wanted to test these suspicions, however, and see just how accurate the "print is dead" theory actually is. After surveying 387 college students, the answer is, it turns out, that it couldn't be further from the truth. Check out the awesome results.

97 percent have read a free magazine
90 percent have read a magazine in the last month
84 percent keep magazines for at least a month
70 percent share magazines with friends and/or borrow them from friends
85 percent get fashion ideas from magazines
89 percent visit Websites they see in magazines
84 percent purchase an item after seeing it in a magazine
63 percent use coupons from magazines to make purchases
84 percent redeem specials and promotions they see in magazines

Williams-Sonoma: What Customers Want Now

http://www.chiefmarketer.com/direct-marketing/williams-sonoma-and-nordstrom-share-what-customers-want-now-28052013

No matter what channel they’re interacting or shopping in, all customers today want one thing—a seamless experience. This means that service and relationship building is more important than ever.

“Consumers want us to know them, and as part of that service the customer wants a frictionless shopping experience,” said Pat Connolly, executive vice president and CMO of Williams-Sonoma.
Connolly and Jamie Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom Direct, shared what it means to be a customer-led company last week during a keynote discussion at Responsys Interact in San Francisco.

1 in 4 Kindle Users Still Buying at Bookstores

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/business/press-releases/article/New-Simba-Report-1-in-4-Kindle-Users-Still-4557139.php

Media forecast and research firm Simba Information has released the 2013 edition of Trends in Digital and Trade Book Retailing. This new report, which compiles data from proprietary surveys and additional sources to study the print and digital book retailing business, uncovers some of the nuances and contradictions of the consumer book market which include the finding that one in four adults who have used a Kindle to read an e-book in the last three months have also bought at least one book at an independent, local or used bookstore, and more than one in five have used a chain bookstore.

Print Reading Audience Up

Magazine Audience Sizes Flat-to-Growing, Per GfK MRI Numbers: 
Print reading audiences are on the rise, according to spring 2013 data released this week by measurement firm GfK MRI. Of the 181 titles surveyed, about 42 percent or 76 titles saw print audience size increase by 5 percent or more from spring 2012 to spring 2013.
About 35 publications saw audiences grow from 5 to 10 percent, while 41 saw gains of 10 percent or more.

First Automated Magazine Kiosk

World’s first automated magazine kiosk
The world's first automated magazine kiosk – internet-connected Meganews Magazines – is about to be launched. Prior to its launch, the research institute Innventia analysed the new product’s impact on the environment. Innventia’s life cycle assessment shows that Meganews Magazines with print-on-demand technology is a sustainable complement to traditional magazine sales.

B-to-B’s Path to Mobile Optimization

B-to-B’s Path to Mobile Optimization:
Even though they see the rising tide of mobile users, b-to-b publishers aren’t sure how to proceed. The same AAM study reports that 60 percent are undecided about how exactly they’ll optimize for mobile. Meanwhile, close to two-thirds of consumer magazines already have a definitive approach.

RR Donnelley/Harlequin Agreement Reported

RR Donnelley to Provide eBook Services for Harlequin:
R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company (Nasdaq:RRD) announced today that it has been awarded an agreement to provide eBook services and digital content fulfillment to Harlequin. Under the terms of the agreement, which renews and expands the companies' relationship, RR Donnelley will provide eBook conversion services, asset management, delivery to Harlequin's business partners and retailers as well as digital content fulfillment. Services will be provided using RR Donnelley's LibreDigital platform.