Ruling Allows NewPage to Invest $20 Million in Mills

http://www.wisconsinrapidstribune.com/article/20130810/WRT01/308100248/DNR-ruling-help-NewPage-Corp-invest-paper-mills?nclick_check=1

Despite a 115.5 percent decrease in net earnings during the second quarter, NewPage Holding Inc. officials say a recent ruling from a Wisconsin agency means the papermaker will be able to invest $20 million into its mills.

A confirmation from the state Department of Natural Resources means the Ohio-based company has the financial strength to meet its obligations for any landfill closures without having to post collateral, said Amber Best, vice president of corporate communications for NewPage, following the company's Friday release of its second-quarter financial results.
Based in Miamisburg, Ohio, NewPage employs about 1,700 people at mills in Wisconsin Rapids, Biron and Stevens Point and its research and development headquarters in Biron.

NY; Move from Print Takes Constitutional Amerndment

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/nyregion/albany-long-buried-in-paper-resolves-to-save-a-small-forest.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0#h[TsiEtl,1]

In the waning days of the legislative session this year, document clerks piled a metal cart and hand truck high with sheaves of paper and wheeled them into the Senate and Assembly chambers. Bill after bill was stashed under desks, where each remained, occasionally kicked but seldom read.
The scene is a ritual at the New York State Capitol, which is awash in paper. Even though legislators are enacting fewer laws, they are printing up a storm — 19 million pages every two years, including the full text of all bills, published in type so small, and language so dense, that few could read or understand them.
Now, though, voters will have a chance to move the Legislature into the current century.
In June, after years of inaction even as other states moved to reduce legislative paper consumption, New York lawmakers gave their final approval to a measure that would allow the Legislature to publish bills electronically, rather than on paper.
However, nothing in Albany is ever simple. An obscure provision in the State Constitution requires that bills “shall have been printed and upon the desks of the members” for three days before a vote can be taken. So delivering bills to lawmakers on tablets or laptop computers, as it turns out, requires a constitutional amendment, which the Legislature will put before voters on the statewide ballot next year.

China World’s Largest Importer of Hardwood Chips

http://www.paperage.com/2013news/08_13_2013china_importer_hardwood_chips.html

Growing demand for paper in China has not only forced the country to import large volumes of pulp to supply the country’s paper machines, but also resulted in investments in new pulp production within China, according to Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ).
Because of a lack of competitively priced wood fiber in China, the two pulp companies with the largest pulp mills in the country, Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd (APRIL) and Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), are procuring much of their wood fiber needs from out-of-country sources. As a consequence, importation of wood chips to China has surged the past few years. In just five years, the import value for wood chips has increased from 180 million dollars in 2008 to 1.3 billion dollars in 2012, and this year the estimated import value could be close to 1.5 billion dollars, WRQ said.
It has only been a matter of time before China became the largest importer of hardwood chips in the world. In the second quarter of 2013, China surpassed Japan with the record importation of almost 2.4 million m3 of chips, WRQ noted.

Heidelberg Reports Q1 Results

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/08/13/heidelberg-achieves-significant-improvement-in-res/ 
Sales of EUR 504 million in line with expectations

Operating result excluding special items (EBITDA) some EUR 45 million better than in previous year at EUR -2 million
Free cash flow including payments for Focus 2012 at break-even (previous year: EUR -112 million)
Outlook remains unchanged: Aiming for net profit in financial year 2013/2014

The new organization and the comprehensive range of cost-cutting measures are showing tangible results at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg). As expected, the company significantly improved its operating result in the first quarter of financial year 2013/2014 (April 1 to June 30, 2013), which puts it on the right track for meeting its target of a positive net result for the year.

Time Inc. Sports Properties Enjoy Stellar First Half

http://www.magazine.org/node/26484 
Time Inc.’s sports properties, including Sports Illustrated, SI Swimsuit and Golf multiplatform franchises, closed out the first half of 2013 with significant momentum highlighted by y-o-y newsstand growth (SI +9% units sold; SI Swim +7% units sold), ad page increases (Golf +6%; SI Swim +25% (PIB)), breakthrough sponsorships (Target, Ford, Symetra) and an expanded digital footprint (SI Digital +13% unique visitors Golf.com +11% UVs (comScore)); SI Swim +24% UVs, (Omniture). The strong numbers were underlined by groundbreaking journalism and the launch of several new editorial franchises resulting in a strong first half for the Time Inc. titles.

Gap Buys All of Tumblr's Mobile Ads for a Day

http://mashable.com/2013/08/12/gap-mobile-ad-takeover/

Gap wants to create a "pop culture moment" for its fall Back to Blue campaign, and it's turning to Tumblr to create it.
On Monday morning, Gap issued a call on Tumblr for creators to share, through an original piece of content, what "blue" means to them — blue being, of course, the color of Gap's logo and of its signature product, the blue jean.
See also: Yahoo to Pay Tumblr's David Karp $81 Million to Stay for 4 Years
The four winning submissions, as determined by Gap, will be distributed through a mobile ad takeover on Tumblr on Aug. 29. On that day, Gap will purchase every single mobile ad Tumblr runs, the first brand to do so. Tumblr began running mobile ads in late April. The company says its mobile userbase is growing rapidly, and is expected to overtake desktop traffic by early 2014, founder and CEO David Karp has said previously.

Northstar Travel Media Names CFO

http://www.minonline.com/news/22904.html

On Aug. 12, Northstar Travel Group CEO  Tom Kemp announced the hire of Lisa Cohen as chief financial officer of the Travel Weekly/Successful Meetings/Meeting News-flagshipped b2b publisher.
Cohen ended nearly five years as CFO of Remedy Health Media, the former MediZine  where 1960s/1970s/1980s magazine entrepreneur Dale Lang (Media Networks/McCall's/Working Mother/Working Woman, etc.) has been an investor since 1990. Cohen's résumé also includes Sleep Innovations and Ernst & Young.

REMODELING Launches Home for Life 2013

http://www.foliomag.com/2013/remodeling-magazine-launches-home-life-virtual-home-tour#.UgqHeLyYyKw

REMODELING magazine announced its launch of “Home for Life 2013,” a virtual tour showing how to remodel a home to be cost-efficient, safe and comfortable for life after retirement.

The virtual tour will be targeted towards members of the baby boomer generation entering their retirement years—nearly 30 percent of the U.S. population. A study by AARP found that 84 percent of boomers want to stay in their homes during retirement, but only 16 percent have adapted their home for retirement.
Rick Strachan, group president, Residential Remodeling at Hanley Wood explains that the targeted audience for “Home for Life” has two audiences in mind. “We saw a very significant need for serving both trade and consumer audiences in the field of retrofitting homes for retirement,” says Strachan. “Creating this tool would allow reach to both of those audiences.” Boomers are the largest customer group for these professionals. “As of today, 44 percent of all home improvement expenditures are coming from baby boomers,” he says.

Print News Subscriptions Trend Down

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/206615/more-print-news-subscribers-plan-to-cancel-subs-u.html#axzz2bsbcVWWx

It’s no secret that newspapers and magazine publishers have suffered steep declines in print circulation over the last decade, and that trend is just going to continue, according to a survey of 1,134 U.S. adults conducted by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute in the first quarter of the year.
The findings, summarized in RJI’s “2013 Q1 Research Report,” revealed that 12.7% of print subscribers plan to cancel their subscriptions in 2013. The percentage was highest among print subscribers ages 15-34, with 19% saying they plan to cancel -- but even among subscribers 65+ the proportion was 10.5%.
  On the positive side, the decline in print subscriptions is clearly correlated with increasing consumption of news via digital channels, with a special emphasis on mobile.
DJI found that 73% of respondents ages 35-44 currently read news on their smartphones, along with 69% of respondents ages 25-34, 66% of respondents ages 18-24, 62% of respondents ages 45-54, and 64% of respondents ages 55-64. For the 65+ age range, the proportion falls sharply to 35%.

Ackman Resigns from JCP Board

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324769704579010290931122848.html

Hedge fund manager William Ackman  has resigned from the board of J.C. Penney, bringing an end to an unusually public rift among directors that had threatened the struggling company's turnaround efforts. Ackman resigned Monday, J.C. Penney said in a statement Tuesday. The board is bringing aboard former Federated Department Stores Inc. — now Macy's — executive Ronald Tysoe  and said it will name another new director in the future.

Publishers Object to Remedy in Apple Case

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-08-07/business/41168651_1_publisher-defendants-e-book-prices-harpercollins-publishers-llc
Publishers who have settled an electronic book pricing dispute with the federal government objected Wednesday to penalties the government wants to impose on Apple Inc., saying it will hurt publishers rather than the personal electronics giant.
A judge ruled in an antitrust case last month that Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple had conspired with publishers to drive up the price of e-books in 2010, spoiling the $9.99 price Amazon.com had established. The trial revealed e-book prices rose after Apple signed so-called agency agreements with publishers that took effect in 2010. In such agreements, publishers set prices for each title, rather than retailers.
In papers submitted to a federal court judge Wednesday, five publishers said the government’s plans to ban Apple from engaging in agency agreements for five years would not restrict Apple’s pricing behavior.