Friday, January 11, 2013

USA/National Geographic Publish Special Edition

USA TODAY, National Geographic Channel and the National Geographic Society have partnered on a special tabloid edition: National Geographic Society turns 125. The special edition marks the 125th Anniversary of the founding of the National Geographic Society and a New Age Exploration.
The 48-page all color special edition is on newsstands now and can also be ordered online. This is the fourth special tabloid edition that USA TODAY and National Geographic Channel have partnered on. 

DNMedia Expands Stake in Luxury Market

DMNmedia, the marketing solutions group of The Dallas Morning News, Inc., has acquired the assets of DG Publishing, Inc. (DGP), a portfolio company of Elm Creek Partners, a Dallas-based private equity firm . DGP is a magazine publisher of high-end resource guides including Design GuideTexas and The Texas Wedding Guide . The purchase further strengthens the News' media portfolio in the luxury magazine segment and will complement FD Luxe, a premium lifestyle magazine targeting affluent consumers in North Texas.

ShopperTrak: Holiday Sales Up 2.5%

More shoppers spent more at the cash register during the 2012 holiday season than they did the previous year, according to ShopperTrak, the world's largest counter of retail foot traffic.
ShopperTrak estimates that during the holiday shopping season of November and December 2012, national retail sales increased 2.5% and foot traffic also increased 2.5% when compared to the same two months last year.
ShopperTrak's initial data indicates that shoppers spent $248.8 billion during this period. The U.S. Department of Commerce will release its December GAFO sales numbers in February.

Print Endures: Only 16% Purchased e-Book in 2012

A 2012 survey revealed that just 16% of Americans have actually purchased an e-book.
Ever since Amazon introduced its popular Kindle e-reader five years ago, pundits have assumed that the future of book publishing is digital. Opinions about the speed of the shift from page to screen have varied. But the consensus has been that digitization, having had its way with music and photographs and maps, would in due course have its way with books as well. By 2015, one media maven predicted a few years back, traditional books would be gone.
Half a decade into the e-book revolution, though, the prognosis for traditional books is suddenly looking brighter. Hardcover books are displaying surprising resiliency. The growth in e-book sales is slowing markedly. And purchases of e-readers are actually shrinking, as consumers opt instead for multipurpose tablets. It may be that e-books, rather than replacing printed books, will ultimately serve a role more like that of audio books—a complement to traditional reading, not a substitute.
How attached are Americans to old-fashioned books? Just look at the results of a Pew Research Center survey released last month. The report showed that the percentage of adults who have read an e-book rose modestly over the past year, from 16% to 23%. But it also revealed that fully 89% of regular book readers said that they had read at least one printed book during the preceding 12 months. Only 30% reported reading even a single e-book in the past year.

USPS: App that Brings Mail to Life

USPS Surprises CES with Eye-Popping App that Brings Mail to Life:
The USPS debuted a new app this week at CES 2013 that worked well and could increase a company’s interest in sending mail again. The app, which was developed with Aurasma, scans a piece of mail and uses augmented reality to make the paper an interactive ad. “We worked on this to show companies that hard copy mail can be a part of their editorial content,” Chris Karpenko, head of USPS outreach, told me on the CES show floor. “It’s all about the customer experience.”

Ink Industry Under Cost Pressure

Printing Ink Industry Still under Cost Pressure in Raw Material Market – No Relief in the Short Term: Leading printing ink manufacturer Siegwerk anticipates difficult raw material markets and signalizes selective price increases for 2013.
They are indispensable for producing print products such as packaging, advertising brochures and newspapers. And in recent years they have constantly increased in price. This refers to tree resins, pigments, additives such as bonding agents and solvents – the raw materials and components used for the printing ink industry.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Verso Names Bucksport Mill Manager

Matt Archambeau has been named the new manager of the Bucksport mill, Bill Cohen, a spokesman for the mill, told the Bangor Daily News.
Archambeau previously was manager of the Verso mill in Sartell, Minn., which was permanently shuttered after a fatal explosion in May 2012. Subsequently, the Bucksport mill absorbed some of the work that had been done in Sartell.

Norske Skog Shuts Newsprint PM

Norske Skog has shut down PM 2, a newsprint machine at its Tasman mill in Kawerau, New Zealand. The unit closed as scheduled on January 9.
The site's PM 3, which like the decommissioned machine can produce 150,000 tonnes/yr of newsprint, is still in operation.
PM 2 will remain onsite, but its closure is planned to be permanent.

UPM Closes Russian Sawmill, Seeks Buyer

UPM announces a production curtailment at its Pestovo sawmill in Russia, and begins negotiations with employees. The negotiations will affect all of the approximately 180 sawmill employees. Starting today, production at the mill will be curtailed to the level necessary to fulfil the on-going contracts. At the same time UPM announces a search for a buyer for the Pestovo mill production area for restructuring or reorientation of production.

Talks Break Off Over NY Port Work Rules

Bargaining broke off today between the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the New York Shipping Association (NYSA) over proposed work rule changes in local contracts at the ports in New York and New Jersey, contacts said.
ILA pres Harold Daggett left the negotiations after the NYSA proposed "revolutionary changes" in work practices at the New York/New Jersey ports, which are the No. 2 port system in the USA behind the Los Angeles and Long Beach, CA, system, according to a Journal of Commerce story.

Interview with Phil Riebel of Two-Sides US

1/1 Interview with Phil Riebel President of Two-Sides US, and Greenwashing Dragon Slayer:
I met Phil in January of 2012 at the NPTA Executive Meeting where I was an invited speaker, and we have been working together since.  PrintMediaCentr is an Allied Organization of Two-Sides US, and proud to be associated with all of their endeavors.

Quad/Graphics Closing Dubuque Plant

Quad/Graphics Announces Closure of Dubuque Plant:
Two-hundred fifteen employees who work for Quad/Graphics in Dubuque (IA) will now have to seek employment elsewhere. Devastating news to those who work at the printing plant and for those who have been fighting to keep the company from leaving.
Quad/Graphics announced Wednesday that it is closing the Dubuque plant and permanently laying off all its employees by early March.

USPS Ends Mail Works Guarantee

Mail Works Guarantee, launched in 2011, suffered from high barriers to entry: To participate, advertisers were required to have ad budgets of at least $250 million but little previous involvement in direct mail. If participants then boosted their direct mail by more than 500,000 pieces but failed to meet mutually agreed-upon metrics of success, USPS guaranteed a postage refund of up to $250,000.

Ad Pages Down 8.2% In 2012

2012 was another tough year for magazines, with total ad pages falling 8.2% from 168,712 in 2011 to 154,838 last year, according to the Publisher’s Information Bureau. Losses cut across most of the major magazine categories, although some individual titles did post positive results. Out of 219 titles tracked by the PIB, 158 titles or 72% of the total experienced ad page declines. 74 titles or nearly 34% of the total experienced ad page declines of 10% or more, and 28 titles or 12.8% of the total experienced ad page declines of 20% or more.

Grantland: New York Magazine Our Model

http://adage.com/article/digital/grantland-grows-york-magazine-a-model/239098/

The Atlantic Offers Another App

As publishers wrestle with whether to deliver their digital content in an app or Web-based browser, the browser is gathering momentum.
The Atlantic today announced the launch of a tablet-optimized HTML5 site for The Atlantic Wire, its news and pop-culture site. And according to The Atlantic president Scott Havens, the new Web app could eventually replace the site's iPhone app.

Time Inc. Prepares for Layoffs

Time Inc. staff are on eggshells as they await news of layoffs and smaller bonuses than in years past as the company faces declining revenue.
CEO Laura Lang, in a memo yesterday, has already told employees she would eliminate the usual 3 percent merit increase for 2013 as the company looks to “aggressively manage costs.”

MediaNext Wrap-Up

MediaNext Wrap-Up:
FOLIO:'s MediaNext event concluded today in New York. With about 1,000 in attendance the show examined all the ways publishers are evolving into true multiplatform media companies. With keynotes from LinkedIn's Dan Roth, Business Insider's Henry Blodget, Vox Media's James Bankoff and Meredith's Tom Harty, as well as four tracks dedicated to the various strategic channels publishers are leveraging, event content sat right at the intersection of where "traditional" meets digital.

Thriving in the Age of Transformation

MediaNext Show: Thriving in the Age of Transformation:
Relevancy and innovation will help brands, and especially magazine publishers, not only stay afloat in the age of digital transformation, but also enable them to thrive. That was the message delivered by keynote speaker and Meredith Corporation’s National Media Group president Tom Harty during the final day of the MediaNext Show, FOLIO:’s annual conference.

DMA Names Woolley CEO

With Woolley as CEO, DMA Focuses on Data Marketing:
Linda Woolley has been appointed president and CEO of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the organization announced today. Woolley, who last May became the DMA's acting president and CEO following the resignation of her predecessor Larry Kimmel, has spurred DMA's new agenda to support and advance data-driven marketing practices.