Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Resolute Reports Preliminary Q1 Results

Resolute Reports Preliminary First Quarter 2013 Results: Resolute Forest Products today reported a net loss of $5 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2013, or $0.05 per share, on sales of $1.074 billion. This compares to net income of $23 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, on sales of $1.054 billion in the first quarter ended March 31, 2012.
Excluding $33 million of special items, net income for the quarter was $28 million, or $0.30 per share. Excluding special items of $16 million, net income in the first quarter of 2012 was $7 million, or $0.07 per diluted share.

Chinese RCP Imports Up 26.3%, Pulp Up 36.6%

China's recovered paper (RCP) imports rose 26.3% to around 2.609 million tonnes in March, up from some 2.066 million tonnes in the previous month, according to data from China Customs.
The big increase in March intake is ascribed to the long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday in February.
March's figure was nonetheless 10.9% lower than the 2.928 million tonnes recorded in March 2012.
Total RCP imports in the first three months came in at 7.193 million tonnes, slipping 0.5% from the year-earlier period. 
China's total pulp imports surged 36.6% in March compared to the previous month, soaring to nearly 1.490 million tonnes, according to data from China Customs..
The March spike was due to the week-long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday in February, as pulp cargoes had been arranged to avoid arriving in the country during the long vacation period. Large quantities were therefore delivered to the country in March.
But March's total pulp import figure was 8.7% lower than the 1.631 million tonnes recorded in the same month of 2012.
Pulp imports for the first quarter totaled some 3.944 million tonnes, a decrease of 9.5% from the preceding year.

Wausau Reports Q1 Results

Excluding special items, the Company reported a net loss for the first-quarter of $1.7 million, or $0.04 per share compared with first-quarter 2012 net earnings, excluding discontinued operations and special items, of $4.8 million, or $0.10 per share.

Glatfelter Reports Q1 Results

Glatfelter (GLT) today reported first quarter 2013 net income of $15.6 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, and adjusted earnings of $17.4 million, or $0.40 per diluted share. These results compare with first quarter 2012 net income and adjusted earnings of $18.9 million, or $0.43 per diluted share.
Consolidated net sales for the first quarter of 2013 totaled $405.2 million, a 2.0 percent increase compared with $397.4 million in the first quarter of 2012.

MeadWestvaco Reports Q1 Results

MeadWestvaco's 1Q profit falls on charges:
MeadWestvaco Corp. said Tuesday restructuring charges dragged first-quarter profits down more than 77 percent at the packaging company, despite rising sales.

Meredith Expands Ad Sales Guarantee Program

Meredith Expands Ad Sales Guarantee Program:  
On the heels of a strong third quarter, Meredith Corp. announced that it is expanding its Sales Guarantee program following a successful inaugural year...
The Meredith Sales Guarantee program pledges an increase in sales performance for brands that advertise in the company’s portfolio of women-focused magazines. Brands participating in the first year of the Meredith Sales Guarantee experienced an average return on investment of $7.81 for every $1 invested in advertising in Meredith magazines, a statement from the company says. 
Meredith Corp., the publisher of magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens, is expanding its program for large advertisers to encompass more product categories, such as pharmaceuticals, and the number of clients it will work with. "We're a multimedia company," said Tom Harty, president of Meredith's National Media Group, which sells digital media as well as magazine ad pages. "We just feel like print gets bashed a little too much."

The Economist Targets College Students

The Economist magazine is headed to campuses around the country to encourage students, teachers, professors and others in the academic community to become readers. 
An effort that is to begin on Monday will carry the theme “Dare 2 Go Deep With The Economist” – the numeral, presumably, echoing how so many members of the intended audience use shorthand when they communicate online and on mobile devices.

U.S. News & World Report Profitable Again

Brian Kelly worked as a business journalist in Chicago, where he saw declining advertising decimate the paper he worked at, the Chicago Sun-Times, and strangle the Chicago Daily News. 
He saw a similar occurrence in Washington, where he presided over Regardie’s monthly business magazine from its inch-thick heyday in the 1980s to its famous flame-out during the early-1990s real estate bust. 
So after Kelly — a former editor at The Washington Post — ascended to the top spot at money-losing weekly news magazine U.S. News & World Report in April 2007, he had one thought:
Not on my watch.

Hearst Launches Harper's BAZARR in Germany

Hearst Magazines International and Hubert Burda Media today announced the launch of a German edition of iconic fashion magazine Harper's BAZAAR. 
Premiering with a Fall 2013 issue, the magazine will publish monthly starting in Spring 2014.

McGraw-Hill Renamed McGraw Hill Financial

This morning (April 30), McGraw-Hill Cos. chairman/president/CEO (since 1998) Harold ("Terry") McGraw III announced the corporate name change to McGraw Hill Financial (no hyphen). The news followed the March 22 closing of MH's $2.4 billion sale of college-textbook publisher McGraw-Hill Education to a group of investment funds affiliated with Apollo Global Management.

Online Tax Too Late for Small Businesses?

The Senate is poised to pass a bill to require all but the smallest online sellers to collect the tax. The House appears likely to follow suit. Although Amazon’s desire to avoid the tax played a fundamental role in its founding and growth, it is a supporter of the legislation. 
As it builds new warehouses and extends its already considerable reach, Amazon is relying less on price than speedy delivery, free shipping and a selection that encompasses just about everything. Small retailers say Amazon was always a significant opponent, and is now a fearsome one. 
“It’s beyond frustrating that Congress waited until Amazon became so dominant that having a massive tax advantage is no longer essential to its strategy,” said Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “The right time to fix this was a decade ago, when it could have saved many local businesses."

Coupon Use Still Strong

Reliance on discounts is stronger today, with more than half (51%) of consumers who use coupons stating that they use them more than they did five years ago and 37% stating that they use coupons more than they did a year ago.
A majority of respondents (74%) state that economic factors contributed to their increase in coupon usage over the last five years, either because their personal finances declined (43%) or because the recession made them more conscious about the importance of saving (31%). Additionally, 23 percent of respondents indicate that they use coupons more now because technology makes it easier to find and use them. 
Overall, the perception of couponing is positive, as indicated by nearly 6 in 10 respondents considering people who use coupons to be "savvy" (59%) versus "cheap" (9%).

CPI, Green Groups Lobby Gov. to Limit Support for Biomass

Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) has joined forces with a number of environmental groups and fibre-based trade associations to lobby Government to limit support for energy-only biomass.
Organisations supporting the campaign include the RSPB, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the
Wood Panel Industries Federation, the UK Forest Products Association and international wood product businesses Egger, Kronospan and Norbord. They have jointly written to Government warning that the pursuit of generating electricity from wood threatens to backfire, both in terms of the environment and industry.
The campaign raises concerns over Government plans to subsidise biomass electricity which could see the sector consuming the equivalent of up to six times the UK's annual forestry harvest by 2017, with catastrophic results. The group highlights that this huge new demand for wood will put up prices, risking the survival of existing industries - in wood, wood panels, packaging, construction, furniture and paper - and many of the 40,000 jobs that rely on them.