H2 Equity Closes on Norkse Parenco Buy

http://www.norskeskog.com/

The investment firm H2 Equity Partners has wrapped up the purchase of Norske Skog's Parenco mill in Renkum and its global recovered paper business Reparco. The deal was finalized on October 2.

Parenco will carry on producing mainly supercalendered-B (SC-B) paper on the mill's 265,000 tonne/yr PM 1. The firm will continue to sell the paper under Norske Skog's brand name NorCal until at least the end of the year, according to Parenco managing director Frans Versteeg.

Catalyst Paper Changes Focus

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/emboldened-by-fifty-shades-contract-catalyst-paper-turns-the-page/article4596761/
Pulp fiction has helped to rescue a Canadian company in distress.

A leaner Catalyst Paper Corp. has slashed the amount of newsprint in its production lines and shifted attention to new opportunities, emboldened by a recent contract to supply book-grade paper for a steamy bestseller.
Catalyst Paper now derives just 15% of its revenue from newsprint, 25% from pulp and 60% from specialty papers. This compares to the 2008 revenue breakdown of 25% from newsprint, 21% from pulp and 54% from specialty papers.

CEP Votes Yes on Contract at Domtar’s Kamloops

New 5 year contract for CEP Local 10b at Domtar’s mill in Kamloops, BC:
Workers at Domtar‘s Kamloops pulp mill have voted to accept a contract offer from their employer.
The members of CEP Local 10b voted 87 % in favour of a deal recommended by the bargaining committee.
Last week the members voted 99.6% in favour of a strike.
The new contract is a 5 year deal.

2011 US Packaging Machinery Ships Up 19%

US packaging machinery shipments jump 19 per cent in 2011
Shipments of U.S. packaging machinery grew 19 percent in 2011, reaching US$7.7 billion, according to PMMI’s 2012 Shipments Study. PMMI’s annual research also shows total consumption in the United States climbing by 23 percent to US$8.8 billion.

CEP Votes on Merger with CAW

More than 1,500 delegates and observers will gather in Quebec City, Oct. 14-17 for the national convention of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.

CEP, one of Canada's largest unions, will confront challenges that workers face in this weakened economy, but also the challenges that labour unions in general face. In that context, delegates will debate resolutions calling for collective bargaining and political action as well as one calling for CEP to form a new union with the CAW (autoworkers).

The vote on the new union is the second of two. CAW delegates voted unanimously in favour of the new union proposal at its convention, Aug.22nd in Toronto.

NYT Editorial; "Long Live Paper"

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/opinion/long-live-paper.html?ref=opinion

LAST week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan declared a war on paper textbooks. “Over the next few years,” he said in a speech at the National Press Club, “textbooks should be obsolete.” In their place would come a variety of digital-learning technologies, like e-readers and multimedia Web sites.
Such technologies certainly have their place. But Secretary Duncan is threatening to light a bonfire to a tried-and-true technology — good old paper — that has been the foundation for one of the great educational systems on the planet. And while e-readers and multimedia may seem appealing, the idea of replacing an effective learning platform with a widely hyped but still unproven one is extremely dangerous.

Modern Luxury Media Buys Aspen

http://www.minonline.com/news/21278.html
Upscale metro/regional publisher Modern Luxury Media added another rich market with last week's purchase of the six times-a-year Aspen magazine. Seller (price not disclosed) was Janet O'Grady (pictured), who took full ownership of Aspen in 2002 following the death of her husband Randy Beier. The two had bought Aspen in 1987 when it was 13 years old.

Reader's Digest's Digital Transformation

http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/07/readers-digest-tablet-numbers/

Reader's Digest... " magazine that I remember seeing on lots of shelves when I was growing up." Now Editor in Chief Liz Vaccariello tells me that the magazine has undergone a “digital transformation”, especially this year, and it’s finding a growing audience on tablets, with digital sales set to exceed newsstand copies by December.
The magazine is reversing that slide on at least one front — starting in January, it’s going back to a fully monthly schedule.

Angie's List; Print Has Unique Marketing Value

Angie, On Why Angie’s List Publishes a Print Magazine:
Angie Hicks Bowman, co-founder of the home service rating company that carries her name, is one of the smartest marketers I have ever interviewed. After her first year of door knocking, her company had 1,000 members. Today, that number is over 1.5 million paid members.
When I asked Angie why she is sticking with print magazines she said, “I think people interact with print publications differently than they do with online content. Angie’s List is essentially a problem solving service. But our print magazine allows us to interact with members..." Angie added that her magazine helps differentiate her company in the crowded online market: “It’s one of the neat differentiators about us. We are not only collecting all of this content but actually packaging it into this kind of “news you can use format.” In addition, Angie said her print magazine helps drive incremental activity by educating members.

Study; 80% of Consumers Open Direct Mail

Marketers Overestimate The Power of Digital Marketing: Most consumers are not keen to new forms of direct marketing, such as mobile and social media, and would rather communicate with brands through established direct mail and email channels, a new study finds.
According to Marketing-GAP, fewer than 2% of people are “happy” to get marketing messages via text and social media. It states marketers continue to “massively overestimate” the popularity of these channels.
Eight out of 10 open direct mail. The percentage of consumers surveyed who open direct mail is 80%, a little above 2010 levels. A third (34%) state they open all direct mail, 45% only open messages from companies they use and 20% say they don’t open direct mailings.

WSJ Offers Advertising Exchange

http://www.btobonline.com/article/20121010/MEDIABUSINESS16/310109993/wall-street-journal-digital-network-debuts-private-ad-exchange

The Wall Street Journal Digital Network has introduced a branded private advertising exchange called WSJ Audex.
The invitation-only exchange enables advertisers to do real-time bidding across Barrons.com, MarketWatch.com, SmartMoney.com and WSJ.com.

Welch Out at Fortune and Reuters

http://www.adweek.com/news/press/jack-welch-quits-fortune-reuters-144331
Jack Welch has quit [1] writing for Fortune and Reuters after the news outlets piled on him for suggesting that the Obama administration cooked the monthly jobs report for political gain.
The critics pounced, among them Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer, who contradicted Welch’s claim on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and Fortune corporate sibling CNNMoney ran a story [2] today slamming Welch's own job record while running GE. Reuters posted a story [3] Oct. 5 quoting money manager Barry Ritholtz as saying Welch’s comments were “hilarious,” referring to allegations that Welch himself tried to manipulate GE’s earnings.

Forrester Lowers Digital Ad Forecast

Forrester lowers digital ad spending forecast: U.S. digital interactive media spending will increase from $12.7 billion this year to $28.0 billion in 2017, growing at an annual average rate of 17%, according to a forecast from Forrester Research.