NewPage Names Controller, Chief Accounting Officer

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

NewPage Holdings Inc. today announced the appointment of Linda Sheffield, age 56, to the position of controller and chief accounting officer for NewPage and its subsidiaries, effective October 1, 2013.

Ms. Sheffield has been with NewPage Corporation since its inception in 2005 and has served in key positions including treasurer and vice president of finance, and most recently as vice president of compliance. Ms. Sheffield was responsible for establishing new systems, internal controls, Sarbanes Oxley compliance, internal audit and other processes necessary for corporate governance when NewPage Corporation was formed in 2005. As NewPage Corporation expanded, she led the finance integration of the businesses following the Stora Enso North America acquisition in 2007.

AF&PA Reports Kraft Paper, Paperboard Ships

http://www.afandpa.org/

The American Forest & Paper Association released its August 2013 Kraft Paper Report. Total Kraft paper shipments were 135.4 thousand tons, essentially flat compared to the prior month. Bleached Kraft paper shipments increased year-over-year 13.2 percent, but the 4.4 percent year-over-year decline in unbleached Kraft paper shipments was enough to bring overall Kraft paper shipments down 2.1 percent year-over-year.   The American Forest & Paper Association has released its August 2013 U.S. Paperboard Report.

Total boxboard production increased by 2.8 percent compared to August 2012, and increased 3.2 percent from last month. Unbleached Kraft Boxboard production increased over the same month last year, and increased compared to last month. Total Solid Bleached Boxboard & Liner production increased compared to August 2012, and increased compared to last month. The production of Recycled Boxboard increased compared to August 2012, and increased when compared to last month.

Domtar, Canfor Raise Pulp Prices

Domtar announced to North American customers this morning that it would increase northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) and southern bleached softwood kraft (SBSK) pulp prices, RISI has learned.

Domtar told domestic customers its market NBSK list price would rise to $970/tonne, and SBSK would rise to $930/tonne, industry contacts said. Both its paper grade softwood hikes are $20/tonne above its last US list price.

Canfor Pulp has informed customers worldwide that it will increase northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) pulp prices $20/tonne, effective October 1, industry contacts told RISI.

Canfor Pulp's $20/tonne increase would raise its list prices to $970/tonne in the USA, $900/tonne in Europe, and $730/tonne in China for its premium reinforcement NBSK. The $20/tonne increase also applies to other Asian markets where it does business.

More Japanese Firms Announce Price Increases

In Japan, Daio Paper, Hokuetsu Kishu Paper and Mitsubishi Paper Mills have followed Nippon Paper Industry's lead in announcing hikes on their printing and communication paper ranges.

The firms are all looking for a 10% increase effective on domestic shipments from October 21.

The hike is being ascribed to high production costs.

EoW Draft Legislation Divides Industry

http://www.erpa.info/

Europe is one step closer to getting end-of-waste (EoW) criteria for paper.

Last week, the draft legislation was approved by the Council of Ministers and will now continue through the legislative process, including being heard in the European Parliament. If the criteria are adopted, the regulation under which it falls would apply from January 1, 2014.

The proposal on EoW criteria for paper recommends that waste paper complying with all the criteria laid out in the draft can lose its waste status prior to being recycled. This means that the operations prior to the re-use of the material - sorting, separating, cleaning or grading - are considered as the completed recovery process, a fact that is dividing the paper sector. While the merchanting side of the market welcomed the fact that the point at which paper ceases to be waste would change from its current position at the paper mill to an earlier stage, the paper production front did not hold back on its criticism of the draft.

“I Didn’t Know They Could Do That with Print!”

http://whattheythink.com/articles/65397-some-ways-make-them-say-i-didnt-know-they-could-do-print/

Dipping into Xerox’s #PrintWins Twitter feed, I came across Vladimir Gendelman’s well-reasoned article, “Six Common Printing Myths Debunked.” His Myth 5, “Limited Options,” prompted thoughts about print’s abundant possibilities as a creative medium—an attribute that deserves more attention from creatives than it sometimes gets. 

Gendelman reminds us that with print, “you're not just restricted to a bland, printed rectangle.” His article deals primarily with marketing collateral, but his point about the magic that happens when print is used imaginatively applies to every type of product that the medium comprises.
Publishers in particular have done strikingly inventive things by stretching the definition of what printed books and magazines can be. In the following examples, printed paper remains the core of the product offering. But from there, the end-user experience soars to new aesthetic and technical dimensions.

NAPL 2013 State of the Industry Report

http://whattheythink.com/news/65488-napl-2013-state-industry-report-finds-dramatic-disparity-companies-sales-performance/
The National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) State of the Industry Report, 11^th Edition, reveals striking differences in individual company performance that has little to do with business size, location, or specialty, and everything to do with each company’s ability to respond to current industry and economic challenges. 

Harte-Hanks Agrees to Sell Shoppers

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/harte-hanks-agrees-to-sell-shoppers-2013-09-19

Harte-Hanks, Inc. HHS +0.09% , an international direct and targeted marketing company, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the assets of its Shoppers division to subsidiaries of OpenGate Capital for approximately $22.5 million in cash proceeds. The transaction is expected to close before September 30, 2013 upon satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Opinion: 'Sometimes Paper is Just Better’

http://ipdahome.org/newsstand/?cat=296

Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, founder of The Next Web, says there are five cases when paper is still superior to digital, and one of those is magazines. “Although I like my digital magazines and see a bright future for these publications, I also still like paper magazines,” he writes.

The Next Web

Random House Launches Custom Magazines

http://ipdahome.org/newsstand/?cat=296

Random House has partnered with Flipboard to create curated magazines for two of its bestselling authors, Margaret Atwood and “Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin. The Atwood magazine, MaddAddam’s World, is inspired by her new novel, MaddAddam, the third in a trilogy.

Gigaom

Meredith CEO: Print Remains the Core of Business

http://ipdahome.org/newsstand/?cat=296

Speaking at the CDS Global Summit, Meredith Corp. CEO Stephen Lacy said: “We have increased measured adult readership over 12 years, from 2001 to 2013, from 68 million to 115 million. Equally important, we have grown a digital business in addition to print, not replacing print. Our mantra is that everything we do in a new platform is in addition to keeping a strong and vibrant print business, on which, as most of you know, we make all of our profit today.” Lacy also discussed the changing media landscape and how new brands emerge and sometimes out-compete established print brands.

IAB's Whitepaper For Publishers

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/209497/iabs-whitepaper-for-publishers-aims-to-simplify-p.html#axzz2fNAfONMc

IAB's Programmatic Publishers Task Force this morning released their first whitepaper, titled "Programmatic And Automation - The Publisher's Perspective." The purpose of the whitepaper, just like the Publishers Task Force, is to address confusion in the marketplace. It also identifies key definitions for the industry to align under, namely in the "Which one of the many types of programmatic is that?" department.

CDS Conference: Innovation Highlighted

http://www.foliomag.com/2013/customer-service-innovation-highlighted-debated-cds-global-summit#.UjynNLyYyKw

Hearst has exceeded more than 1 million digital subscribers, and they pay more for their subscriptions than print subscribers, do, and the profit on digital is double that of print, Chris Wilkes, Hearst
Magazines vice president of digital said this week.
Speaking at the annual CDS Global Summit in Des Moines, Wilkes also said that while digital subscriptions only amount to low single-digits in overall subscriptions, he could foresee getting to 25 percent of total subs in five years. 
Keynotes included Wilkes and Meredith Corp. CEO Stephen Lacy. Lacy’s presentation on Wednesday spelled out how Meredith is expanding its brands into digital, but retaining a powerful presence in print.

Folio: 

Dow Jones, AllThingsD to End Partnership

http://www.foliomag.com/2013/dow-jones-and-allthingsd-end-partnership#.Ujym77yYyKw

After months of internal negotiation and external speculation, AllThingsD and Dow Jones have decided part ways. According to a statement from Dow Jones EIC and Wall Street Journal managing editor Gerard Baker, the decision was mutual.
Reports picked up on discussions between the two groups early this year, ahead of a partnership contract that's set to expire on December 31. 

Senator Supports Removing Postal Rate Cap

http://www.dmnews.com/senator-coburn-blasts-rate-cap-in-postal-hearing/article/312472/
Making a strident case for a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that is able to react to market forces, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) insisted today that the agency has to have the authority to set its own rates.
“We're going to have a postal system and we have to make the numbers work. Like I've told everybody in the [business mail] industry, there's going to have to be more than the inflation rate [increases],” said the ranking member of the Senate on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
Coburn challenged Cerasale's depiction of the size and influence of the business mail industry and charged him with contradicting earlier statements he had made about the value of the Postal

Regulatory Commission (PRC). In his testimony, Cerasale stated that business mailers accounted for nearly 90% of the USPS's $6 billion in revenues. Coburn estimated that mailers contributed more on the order of $500 million.

In response to earlier testimony by USPS Inspector General David Williams that moderate price increases return sufficient working capital to the Postal Service while having little effect on mail volume, Cerasale reminded the committee what happened to the catalog industry when it was hit with double-digit increases in 2007.
“Catalog volumes plummeted 23% in the next year, a year in which other Standard Mail volume grew,” Cerasale said.  “If catalogs were inelastic to pricing, postal revenues from catalogs should have increased. It did not. It dropped 11%.”

USPS Outlines 5-Year Plan at NEMOA

http://www.retailonlineintegration.com/article/usps-talks-with-retailers-its-updated-5-year-plan/1

In a keynote presentation yesterday at the NEMOA directXchange Fall Conference in Providence, R.I., Nagisa Manabe, chief marketing and sales officer of the U.S. Postal Service, addressed attendees about updates to the USPS’ five-year plan and the urgency of action needed among business mailers. 
"The Postmaster General is on the floor as we speak addressing the Senate, pushing for [postal reform] legislation," said Manabe. "We're hoping for a positive outcome very soon — at least by the end of the year."