Stora Enso Reports Q1, Plans Restructure

Stora Enso: "First quarter performance as expected - time to rethink structures": Stora Enso CEO Jouko Karvinen comments on first quarter 2013 results announced today:
“The first quarter of 2013 was, as expected, clearly characterised by weak markets and profitability for our Printing and Reading and Building and Living Business Areas. The combination of continuing structural decline in media-driven paper grades and economic weakness in Europe led to year-on-year declines of 9% in the Group’s operational EBITDA and 21% in operational EBIT despite the solid performance of the other two Business Areas. Seasonality also reduced the cash flow to an unsatisfactory level.

http://www.pulpapernews.com/2013/04/stora-enso-rethinks-business-structure-and-organisation

Stora Enso plans to launch a Group streamlining and structure simplification project intended to achieve annual fixed cost savings of EUR 200 million, including the earlier announced EUR 30 million in the Building and Living Business Area, with the full impact starting from the second quarter of 2014. The project is planned to include all Business Areas and corporate functions. In addition to reducing costs, the planned project would reduce interdependencies between businesses and enable a stronger focus on growth in value creating businesses.

Earth Day Request: Cut the Anti-paper Greenwashing!

http://twosidesus.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/my-earth-day-request-cut-the-anti-paper-greenwashing/

by Two Sides U.S 
I’ve had it with my bank and all the other companies that are bashing paper products to promote electronic billing, statements and other e-services.

It may come as a surprise to you but 8.4 million Americans make a living in the print, paper and mail value chain that generates 1.3 trillion in revenues (EMA 2012 Job Study).  I bet you’re getting a lot of this money in your coffers.

About 10 million Americans own private forestland (US Forest Service) and many of them rely on the income from their properties to make a living (ex: lumber for construction and pulp used for papermaking – yes PAPER)...
I believe we are the ones saving forests for the long-term by managing them responsibly and making sure our society can benefit from forest products (like paper) that are highly renewable, highly recyclable and store carbon for their useful life.  These inherent environmental features make paper quite a sustainable product compared to all the other things that surround us, including electronics...
It’s time to gather your marketing team in a room and tell them to stop greenwashing the millions of people who earn a living from the print, paper, mail and forestry value chain.  Please focus your message on the true benefits of e-media: speed, convenience and maybe a few others.
Remember…we are your customers and most of us care about the environment just as much as you do.
Now it’s time for me to shut down my computer and cell phone for the day and go for a walk in the forest.  Happy Earth Day!

Wausau Brokaw Site Sold

http://www.waow.com/story/22044452/2013/04/22/ex-wausau-paper-mill-in-brokaw-sold-again

The former Wausau Paper mill in Brokaw has been sold again.

Niagara Worldwide LLC and its subsidiary Brokaw Development said Monday it sold the 50-acre site for an undisclosed amount.

Don Jacobsmeyer, director of real estate for Niagara Worldwide, said Brokaw Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of B & B Metals, a metal scrap company located near Manitowoc owned by Bob Burrows, purchased the property.

Mohawk Names Names VP Sales

Mohawk, North America's largest privately-owned manufacturer of fine papers, envelopes and specialty substrates for commercial and digital printing, is pleased to announce three management promotions and two new hires.
Melissa Stevens has been promoted to Vice President, Sales. Previously, Director of Sales, Strategic Accounts and Sales Process Improvement, Stevens will continue to manage and develop Mohawk's sales force, driving new initiatives and developing new market opportunities. Stevens holds a BS in Business & Marketing from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is currently pursuing her MBA. She joined Mohawk in 2004 as Specification Sales Representative in the New England Region.
Michelle A. Carpenter has been promoted to Vice President, Environmental and Energy Stewardship. Beth Reardon has been promoted to Regional Sales Manager, Midwest.

Resolute Thunder Bay Curtails Production as Union Votes "No"

http://www.chroniclejournal.com/content/news/local/2013/04/23/layoffs-ahead-resolute-pulp-mill

Resolute to curtail Thunder Bay, ON, newsprint and pulp mill for two weeks starting Apr. 24, as it looks to contract out jobs.

CEP union rejects proposal from Resolute Forest Products to eliminate jobs through contracting out

Members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada Local 39 have voted down a proposal from Resolute Forest Products to eliminate jobs through contracting out. The employer has identified 42 jobs across the mill which they have decided to contract out, including newsprint shipping, kraft shipping, garage maintenance and bark inventory and handling.

Resolute Forest Products were under CCAA protection until 2010, and the plan of arrangement to exit this protection contained a new collective agreement which reduced wages by 10%, required employees to pay the premium costs for their short term disability plan, and a reduction in vacation pay.

Haute Time Moves from Digital to Print

After Launching in Digital, Haute Time Rolls Out Print Mag:  Courting a digital audience before introducing a print product is becoming a much more common practice by content publishers, and a strategy that new enthusiast magazine Haute Time is betting on. The new 50,000-circ, biannual pub launched on Monday and is hoping to tap the power of social, celebrity and digital as a blueprint for success.
In April 2012 Haute Media Group introduced a group of niche sites focused on the luxury consumer demographic as a spin off to its Haute Living magazine; the media network includes sites HauteTime, HauteAuto, HauteResidence, HauteYatchs and HauteFashionDaily.

Advanstar Debuts Online Marketplace

Advanstar life sciences group debuts online marketplace: Media company Advanstar Communications' life sciences group has launched the Pharmaceutical Technology and BioPharm International Marketplace.

Home Depot Surveys SMBs on Green Products

http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130422-906414.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The survey of more than 1,000 small business owners found that more than one-third of those surveyed (36 percent) would pay a higher initial cost for greener office products if they would generate long-term savings. Eighty-four percent say they would purchase the "green" office product over the comparable regular office product if the two were equally priced.

Ebay Fighting Online Tax Bill

http://mashable.com/2013/04/22/ebay-enlists-users-to-fight-tax-plan/

EBay is calling on some 40 million of its users to fight a national legislation that would give states the power to collect sales tax from out-of-state online retailers. 
John Donahoe, eBay's CEO, sent the first of the emails out Sunday morning. The message, aimed at users and sellers in eBay's Marketplace, charges that the proposed legislation, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act, would burden small entrepreneurs. The Act, which the Senate may vote on this week, applies to businesses with more than $1 million in out-of-state revenues. Donahoe argues that the threshold should be $10 million in revenues or 50 or more employees, which would apply to only large online retailers, like Amazon. 

Amazon supports the bill, a spokesman told The Wall Street Journal. Reps from Amazon could not be reached for further comment. The National Retail Federation is also in favor of the measure.

Departures Launches Home + Design

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/departures-launches-home-design-spinoff-148581

Further evidence of the strength of luxury advertising in an otherwise slumping ad market, Departures this month is launching Home + Design, a one-off issue that will be delivered to half a million subscribers—otherwise known as American Express Platinum and Centurion cardholders—with their Culture Issue.

Condé Nast Expands Private Exchange Efforts

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/cond-nast-cracks-door-wider-its-private-exchange-148822

Condé Nast, having cracked open the door to programmatic buying two years ago, has swung it open a little more.

The traditional magazine powerhouse raised some eyebrows a couple years ago when it created a private ad market to sell its online ad inventory. In so doing, Condé Nast believed it could have it both ways: The company could take advantage of advertisers' growing demand for automated buying while putting a velvet rope around its content to keep out unseemly advertisers (and keep pricing palatable).
Now, it's decided to go a step further, making premium inventory on individual brands like VanityFair.com and GQ.com available along with the brand-nonspecific "Condé Nast inventory" already available.

Email Pioneer: USPS Essential

http://www.dmnews.com/email-pioneer-says-the-united-states-postal-service-must-survive/article/290101/

One of the people responsible for the proliferation of electronic mail, a man truly hailed as one of the “Fathers of the Internet,” told attendees at Postal Vision 2020 today that he considers the United State's Postal Service's brand of physical delivery as fundamental to a democratic society.

Semper Print Industry Survey Released

Semper Print Industry Survey Reports Largest Drop in Profitability in 12-Year History of Survey.:Semper International, the leading placement firm for skilled help in the graphic arts and printing industry, announces its print Industry Insight survey has seen a sharp decrease in profitability compared to last quarter.
Highlights:
51 percent of companies surveyed reported a profitable Q1. This represents a 28-point decrease over last quarter.
13 percent of companies expect sales to decrease through the remainder of Q2, 2013 while 47 percent hope for an increase.
The vast majority of respondents indicated that hiring levels will remain the same. Compared to 5 percent of companies in the previous quarter, 11 percent are planning to reduce their staffs. -->

Quad/Graphics Equipping New Facility

Quad/Graphics presses deeper into New Berlin:
Quad/Graphics has begun installing equipment in what will be its second New Berlin facility, a 205,063-square-foot industrial building at 5600 S. Moorland Road. The facility, which will operate around the clock seven days a week, will open in late May. It will mainly serve as a mail sorting center, a commingling plant that will combine letter-size mail from multiple customers into one mail stream to take advantage of greater postal savings from presorting, said Claire Ho, Quad/Graphics spokeswoman. The sorting will help support the company's direct mail division.

'Do not track' Congressional Hearing Scheduled

'Do not track' congressional hearing set for April 24: Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) plans to hold a hearing on Wednesday, April 24, on the advertising industry's use of behavioral tracking data and the state of do not track standards.