Pacific West Wants Post Hawkesbury Running in September

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/article/90810--pacific-west-wants-the-keys-to-shuttered-newpage-mill-by-aug-31-says-monitor

The prospective buyer of a shuttered paper mill in Cape Breton is eager to get the deal wrapped up by Aug. 31 to avoid missing a lucrative season for paper orders, the court-appointed monitor handling the sale said Thursday.

Mathew Harris of Ernst & Young said Vancouver-based Pacific West Commercial Corp. could get the NewPage Port Hawkesbury mill back in operation immediately if all goes as planned.

"Pacific West really needs to get this going by the first of September because it's the key season for placing orders for (supercalendered) paper," Harris said in an interview.

Catalyst Pays Tax Bill

http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/local/story.html?id=f1d8abb7-80d6-4ea8-94eb-8bdfd207d3c3

Catalyst Paper paid its entire property tax on June 29 to the tune of $4,214,654 of which, $3,813,210 is municipal taxes that go directly into City coffers.

The payment came days after Catalyst got approval from its creditors for a restructuring plan that should see the Port Alberni mill stay open.

NewPage Escanaba Celebrates 100

NewPage celebrates 100th anniversary of Escanaba paper mill in Upper Michigan: The Escanaba Paper Company, a subsidiary of NewPage Corporation, announced today that it is celebrating a century of making pulp in Escanaba, Michigan.

www.nola.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/escanaba-oks-15-million-sale-of-city/ca95e2d159554f1f8238d57b26517fd3

Separately, it was reported that  t he Escanaba City Council has approved the sale of the municipal coal-fired power plant for $1.5 million to a private local company.

The company plans to convert the power plant to burn biomass.

Escanaba has been working for five years to find a use for the aging and inefficient plant.

Stora Enso Restarts Langerbrugge Rebuilt SC PM

StoraEnso Langerbrugge - PM 3 Press Rebuild Start up: Stora Enso Langerbrugge Mill, located in Gent, Belgium started up their PM #3 with new Press Section.
PMT Italia S.p.A supplied, installed and started up the new Press Section. The PM3, a 6,5 m wide machine producing SC paper, has been rebuilt by partly replacing the existing Press Section steel framework with a completely new stainless steel one, giving PM3 a longer life time and providing the necessary flexibility for future implementations as well as pressing technology upgrades.
This new project, developed by PMT, represents the confirmation of the market
perception of PMT Italia as a reliable supplier amongst the leading paper
machinery producers.
(PMT Italia S.p.A.)

Allure Expands Multi-Platform, Adds Pinterest

Allure Expands Annual Mobilized ‘Free Stuff’ Issue, Adds Pinterest Promo: While many magazines only started this year to embrace the mobile 2D code technique of activating print with smartphones, Allure is already in its third year of a massive annual multi-platform project. The August ‘Free Stuff’ Issue appears this week... Last year the issue attracted over 575,000 scans and 830,000 entries.

Q2 Consumer Magazine Ad Pages Fall

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/178352/magazine-ad-pages-take-another-hit.html?print

Spring brought no relief for consumer magazines, with total ad pages declining 8.5% from 44,795 in the second quarter of 2011 to 40,969 in the second quarter of 2012, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. Total advertising revenues, based on official rate cards, slipped 3.2% from $5.7 billion to $5.5 billion.
Losses were widespread, with 140 out of 217 consumer magazine titles tracked by PIB (or 64.5% of the total) experiencing ad page declines; 76 titles, or 35% of the total, experiencing ad page declines of 10% or more, while 34 titles, or 15.7% of the total, experienced ad pages declines of 20% or more.

Heidelberg Reports Q1 Financials

Heidelberg Reports Positive Q1 Preliminary Figures: Thanks to a good showing at drupa trade fair, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) has made a positive start to financial year 2012/2013 (April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013). Based on preliminary calculations, incoming orders for the first quarter increased to some EUR 890 million (previous year EUR 665 million) - their highest level for four years.

Frank Romano on Digital Printing

It’s a Wild New Digital Printing Landscape, Folks:
Frank Romano. Professor Emeritus at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology), author of over 50 books and founder of eight publications speaking at PBI. Excerps from interview on digital printing:
1. Talk a little bit about nanographic printing technology, which was introduced at this year’s Drupa.
...It uses very small particles that lay down an ink thickness thinner than offset and can print on virtually any substrate.
2. What are some of the trends in digital printing reproduction over the last year?
A year is an eon in technology development. In the last few months there were 32 announcements involving digital printing.
3. Explain some of the differences in major digital presses.
First, there is toner... Second, there is inkjet...The big news at Drupa was Landa nanographic printing.
We can then categorize digital printing into toner and inkjet.
Then into sheet and roll devices.
Then into special substrates or standard substrates.
Then into document or packaging.
4. Are there any general rules to decide which press best suits a customer?
There are no rules for anything in printing any more..
5. Does it really matter which press you choose?
As a print buyer, the choice of device will be based on print quality, substrate acceptability...

Measuring ROI of Social Media

Creative Group survey finds measuring social media top challenge: The top challenge for marketers implementing social media is measuring ROI, according to a survey by the Creative Group, a staffing service for marketing agencies.

More Pressure on Congress; USPS Can't Make 8/1 Payments Due

USPS Default on August 1 Appears Likely: Under a schedule laid out in the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, the Postal Service is also supposed to make a $5.6 billion payment into the retiree health fund at the end of September. “Without congressional action, we will default on both payments,” USPS spokesman Dave Partenheimer said in an email Thursday.