More Mills Raise Prices in Europe

http://www.arcticpaper.com/en/Pressroom/News-archive/Arctic-Paper-announces-a-general-price-increase-of-5-7-for-coated-fine-papers/ 
Arctic Paper wishes to announce to its customers a price increase on all CWF paper grades, both in sheets and reels. The price increase will range from 5-7% and will differ from the current price levels per country and paper grade.
The price increase will affect deliveries from 15 April 2013. Further price increases in 2013 seems to be inevitable, to secure a minimum profitability.

http://www.metsaboard.com/Pages/Default.aspx

Following on from their earlier warning for a return to solid pricing policies in the face of sustained cost increases, Metsä Board has announced a price increase for its uncoated fine paper business in Europe.

The increase will be at least 50 Euro per tonne and take effect for all deliveries invoiced from 15th April 2013.

PwC Forest Product CEO Survey Released

http://www.pwc.com/us/en/industrial-products/forest-paper-packaging.jhtml

Forest, paper & packaging (FPP) CEOs are less confident about revenue growth over the next 12 months than their peers in other sectors, but are more optimistic about their company's revenue prospects in the next three years, according to PwC's 16th Annual Global CEO Survey released recently in Davos, Switzerland.

"CEOs have identified their top three priorities: enhancing operational effectiveness; investing in innovation and R&D; and developing new business models."

The survey found 92% of sector CEOs have implemented a cost-reduction initiative in the past 12 months.

R&D and innovation is a top priority for 42% of FPP CEOs in the next 12 months-a full 10% higher than the overall average across the entire CEO Survey.
Half of the FPP CEOs surveyed have entered into a new strategic alliance or joint venture in the past year, 34% completed a cross-border M&A and 32% completed a domestic M&A.
Every FPP CEO surveyed said that customer service was a key differentiator, the only sector in the full survey where 100% reported that customers influence their strategy.
Seventy-five per cent of FPP CEOs worry that energy and raw material costs could pose a threat to growth, far more than the average across the overall survey sample.
Ninety-five per cent reported that supply chain partners are influencing their strategy, and the large majority of CEOs are increasing efforts to engage with them.
Nearly three quarters (71%) of FPP CEOs plan to increase their company's focus on reducing their environmental footprint, while 18% will continue at their current levels.

Study: Consumers Trust Ads in Magazines & Newspapers

Study: Consumers Trust Advertising in Magazines and Newspapers More Than Any Other Media:
New research has revealed that despite important changes in media consumption in recent years, consumers continue to have most trust in advertising in printed media. When asked how much trust they attach to advertising in the various media, consumers gave magazines and newspapers a score of 63%, TV 41% and Internet 25%. Consumers were also asked about the role of advertising in purchase decision making - almost seven out of ten said that advertising in magazines and newspapers was most important in supporting purchase decisions. When asked to compare direct mail with social media almost 90% of respondents valued addressed and non-addressed mail above social media.

Catalogs Are Part of a Balanced Marketing Diet

http://www.dmnews.com/catalogs-are-part-of-a-balanced-marketing-diet/article/283668 
For a supposedly dead channel, print isn't doing too badly. According to the Direct Marketing Association, roughly 12.5 billion catalogs—often featuring interactive elements such as QR codes, text codes, and augmented reality enhancements—are printed and mailed each year.To demonstrate the continued viability of print as an evolving and thriving channel, NewPoint Media Group, publisher of The Real Estate Book and a variety of other targeted magazines, issued its advertisers and prospects the following challenge: collect as many catalog covers as you can and mail them in to win a cash prize.The secondary goal of NewPoint's “Catalog Challenge” was to open people's eyes to the sheer number of targeted, welcome print catalogs they receive, especially around the holiday season. Even e-commerce behemoths like Amazon and Zappos print and mail catalogs in the lead up to Christmas.

News Corp. Puts $2.6 Billion in Publishing Co.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/in-filing-news-corp-says-it-will-provide-2-6-billion-to-its-new-publishing-company/?partner=rss&emc=rss 
News Corporation’s new publishing company will receive a $2.6 billion infusion of cash and have no debt when it separates from the company’s higher-growth cable channels and Hollywood studio this summer. 
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, the company confirmed what analysts had expected: Rupert Murdoch will make sure his beloved trove of roughly 175 newspapers will have plenty of capital once they are split off on their own. 
The $2.6 billion figure, $1.82 billion of which will come from the parent company, is slightly higher than investors had anticipated, leading to speculation that it might be used to acquire additional newspapers.

Men Still Prefer Newspapers for Sports

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/195349/newspapers-remain-top-sports-source-for-men.html#axzz2NGRghbV
Between social media, mobile and cable TV, sports news outlets have been proliferating -- but newspapers are still the top source for sports news for sports fans. Among male sports fans ages 18-54, 76% cited the sports section of their local newspaper Web site as one of their “go-to” sources for sports news, while 69% cited the print edition. 
That compares with 66% for ESPN.com, 46% for league sites, 45% for Yahoo Sports.com, and 45% for ESPN Sports Center. Further down the list, 33% said sports talk radio and 23% said Sports Illustrated or SI.com.

How Time Inc. Should Reinvent Itself

http://adage.com/article/media/time-reinvent-independent-publisher/240254/ 
When Time Warner spins off its magazine unit, the world's biggest magazine company will become an anomaly: a publicly traded media company consisting entirely of magazines. Time Inc. titles were once the crown jewels of media, generating nearly a billion in annual operating profit just a decade ago. By 2012 that had fallen to $420 million, a precipitous 25% drop from the year earlier. Despite recent cost cuts, that portfolio -- and its infrastructure -- was built for an era when ad dollars were plentiful.

RRD Closing Greenfield, Ohio Plant

http://wnewsj.com/main.asp?SectionID=49&SubSectionID=156&ArticleID=204815

Citing "changing market conditions," the RR Donnelley & Sons company in Greenfield, previously known as Banta publishing, informed its employees Wednesday that it will be closing in May. Nearly 170 employees will lose their jobs as a result of the closing.

2012 Ad Spending Up 3%

http://www.btobonline.com/article/20130311/ADVERTISING13/303119997/kantar-media-reports-u-s-ad-spending-up-3-last-year 
Total ad spending in the U.S. reached $140.0 billion last year, up 3% over 2011, according to Kantar Media. Kantar tracks ad spending for measured media including TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, online (display ads only) and outdoor advertising. During the fourth quarter, total ad spending was up 2% compared with the same period in 2011.The fastest-growing media category last year was TV, which grew 8% over 2011, Kantar said. Outdoor advertising grew by 5%, and radio increased by 3%. Categories that were down last year included magazines (down 2%), newspapers (down 3%) and online (down 3%). 

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/195465/us-ad-economy-expands-for-third-consecutive-year.html#axzz2NGRghbVr 
U.S. Ad Economy Expands For Third Consecutive Year: Big, Mid-Tail Advertisers Biggest Factors  
Buoyed by big and mid-tail advertisers, the U.S. advertising marketplace expanded for its third consecutive year, albeit at a relatively modest 3% rate of growth.

Brown Printing Buys Nellymoser

Brown Printing Expands Mobile Solutions through the Acquisition of Nellymoser: WASECA, MN—March 11, 2013—Brown Printing Company today announced the acquisition of Nellymoser, a Boston-based mobile marketing and technology company. Nellymoser is a mobile innovator and a pioneer in rich media delivery, having deployed over 800 print-to-digital campaigns in 2012 for 50 of the Top 100 magazines.

Print Wins Again

Now THIS Is Funny! Print Wins Again:
This is for all those claiming that print is dead . . . or who want to respond to those who do. No commentary necessary. This ad speaks for itself. Enjoy.

World’s Largest Biomass Plant Started

World’s largest biomass gasification plant inaugurated
Vaskiluodon Voima Oy has inaugurated the world's largest biomass gasification plant, which was supplied by Metso, in Vaasa, Finland. The plant was inaugurated by the Finnish Minister of Labour Lauri Ihalainen on March 11th.
Vaskiluodon Voima's plant is ground-breaking in many ways, as this is the first time in the world that biomass gasification is being adopted on such a large scale for replacement of fossil fuels.