Two Additional Mills Announce Pulp Increases

https://www.versopaper.com/Default.aspx

Verso announced to customers this week that it will increase maple northern bleached hardwood kraft (NBHK) pulp prices by $20/tonne, effective June 1 until further notice, industry contacts said.

Verso slated its June 1 maple NBHK price at $870/tonne with the $20/tonne hike.
The only previous June 1 price increase in North American hardwood markets came from NewPage, which weeks ago told domestic customers its NBHK and southern bleached hardwood kraft (SBHK) pulp prices would increase $20/tonne with all orders June 3 and after.

http://www.canfor.com/ 
Canfor Pulp has informed customers in the USA that it will increase northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) pulp prices $20/tonne, effective June 1, industry contacts told RISI.

Canfor Pulp's $20/tonne increase on premium reinforcement NBSK, announced to customers this morning, comes after it last raised US prices in April to $930/tonne. The firm's latest increase would bring its US NBSK list price to $950/tonne.
Two major producers of NBSK previously announced $20/tonne, June 1 increases in North America.
West Fraser made the first move on May 24 with a $20/tonne increase worldwide that includes North America, Asia, and Europe.
Domtar began informing domestic customers that it would increase prices on NBSK as well as southern bleached softwood kraft (SBSK) on Tuesday, contacts said. Domtar set NBSK at $950/tonne and SBSK at $910/tonne.

CEP and CAW Form New Union: Unifor

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/05/30/unifor_will_be_name_of_new_super_union_that_combines_caw_and_cep.html

The new Canadian union being formed by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) and the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW) will be named Unifor. The name and logo were unveiled today during a packed press conference of 200 local leaders, members, community supporters and allies.

"Today, we are proud to introduce our new union as Unifor, a union that will fight for working people in every sector of the economy and in every community in Canada," said CEP National President Dave Coles. "Unifor will be a union for young workers, those struggling to piece together part-time work and contract jobs, and other precarious working conditions. It will be a union for everyone."

Daishowa-Marubeni Wins Tax Case in Canada

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/the-canadian-press/130523/cant-tax-reforestation-top-court-rules-case-could-affect-oil

A Japanese-based forestry company has won a long-running tax battle with Ottawa over how reforestation obligations should be handled when harvest rights are sold.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 9-0 on Thursday that passing on future liabilities for land reclamation cannot be considered taxable at the time of the sale.
Revenue Canada had argued the cost of such liabilities should be treated like a mortgage and thus the value should be added to the sale price for tax purposes. 
But Daishowa-Marubeni International Ltd., or DMI — with the backing of the Alberta government — argued that the obligation to reforest was embedded in the timber rights granted by the province.
The top court agreed that since Alberta wouldn't allow any transfer of those timber rights unless the buyer assumed the reforestation demands, that cost actually depressed the sale price.

Italy: Producers Seeking Price Increases

http://www.euwid-paper.com/news/singlenews/Artikel/italy-producers-seeking-higher-prices-for-publication-papers.html

July. Buyers understand future market conditions to remain in their favour despite capacity curbs and closures at UPM, Holmen, Stora Enso and Norske Skog.

Some movement returned to the newsprint market in Italy in late May.
Prices for magazine paper should also soon be heading upwards, if suppliers get their way. A first move in this regard was made by some of the leading European manufacturers at the end of May. The mark-ups demanded by producers were usually €25-40/t or 5-7% and would apply to all shipments from 1 July. Some other suppliers told EUWID they were planning to follow suit soon, but were still considering how high their price increase would be.

Stora Enso Names Acting CFO

Stora Enso OYJa : Jyrki Tammivuori appointed as acting Cfo of Stora Enso:

Stora Enso Group Treasurer, Jyrki Tammivuori, has been appointed as acting Chief Financial Officer as of 1 July 2013. As announced in April, the current CFO, Karl-Henrik Sundström, will head the new Printing and Living Division combining the current Printing and Reading Business Area and Building and Living Business Area from the beginning of July. The process of recruiting a new CFO is advancing.

Lecta Increases Coated Prices

http://www.lecta.com/home.htm

Lecta, the second largest European coated woodfree paper-manufacturing group, made up of Condat, Cartiere del Garda and Torraspapel, announces a price increase in its 1 and 2 side CWF papers.

Taking in consideration the manufacturing cost levels and the rising input costs the price increase is inevitable. It will be implemented in the paper deliveries from early July.

Catalyst Paper Worried About Labor Shortage

Catalyst Paper worried about labour shortage at its Port Alberni mill:
Catalyst Paper said the biggest challenge its Port Alberni mill faces in the future is a looming labour shortage.
The general manager of the Port Alberni mill, Fred Chinn, said skilled employees are retiring regularly from the operation and they need to figure out how to replace them.  Back in the 1990′s, many young workers were let go because they had the least senority.  This has left an age gap in the employment profile.

Jonas Bonnier to Step Down as CEO of Bonnier AB

Jonas Bonnier to Step Down as CEO of Bonnier AB:  Jonas Bonnier is stepping down as CEO of  Stockholm-based Bonnier AB, parent to the U.S.-based Bonnier Corporation and divisions in 17 other countries. Bonnier, who became CEO in 2008, will officially transition out at the end of 2013, at which point he'll head to the U.S. to continue overseeing Bonnier Corp. as chairman of the board, a role he's had since 2007.

MediaPost Mag Bag

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201435/mag-bag-25-of-tablet-owners-prefer-digital-mags.html#axzz2UtPKQ5PL

Digital magazines are increasingly popular with tablet owners. Overall, 26% of tablet owners said they prefer the tablet versions of magazines over print versions.

According to a new survey of 1,293 tablet owners by the Mequoda Group, a digital publishing consultancy,  that proportion will increase to 65% by 2020. That said, the engagement numbers are currently still rather modest..

Andrew Rashbass is stepping down as CEO of the Economist Group in order to take the new role of CEO at Reuters... 
Brandon Huff has been appointed executive vice president of digital for Dwell Media, where he will be responsible for initiatives such as the company's new e-commerce unit, which is set to launch in 2014... 
Tom Kirwan is joining Time Inc. Branded Solutions, Time Inc.’s corporate ad sales division, as vice president for digital sales...
And more...

Warren Buffett Buys Another Newspaper

http://www.tricities.com/news/local/article_22a5dc02-c938-11e2-a421-0019bb30f31a.html

The Roanoke Times will become part of Warren Buffett's newspaper group.

BH Media Group, an Omaha-based division of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said Thursday that it would purchase The Times from Landmark Media Enterprises of Norfolk, for an undisclosed price. Earlier, BH Media purchased a daily newspaper in Greensboro, N.C., from Landmark.

NYT Launches Full Mobile Site Redesign

http://www.adweek.com/news/press/new-york-times-launches-first-full-mobile-site-redesign-2006-149892

Until recently, the New York Times mobile site was exactly the same as it was when it launched in 2006, back when touch-screens were a rarity, the Motorola Razr was a high-tech device, and the iPhone had yet to enter our common consciousness. But today, that finally changed when the Times debuted its first full redesign of m.nytimes.com.

A few initial changes were made to the site in late April: the design was cleaned up, load times improved, and some touch-screen optimizations introduced. Today's big revamp also includes layout updates and features like article-to-article and section-to-section swiping, commenting capability, prompts for iPhone users to view Times content on its mobile site, and the ability to save articles across platforms. The site’s advertising components will now include full-screen interstitial units.

Voluntary Carbon Offsetting Tops 100 Million Tonnes

http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2013/05/30/2723673/voluntary-carbon-offsetting-tops.html

Voluntary demand for carbon offsetting grew 4% in 2012, when buyers committed more than $523 million to offset 101 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Private sector buyers flocked to offsets earned by planting trees, saving tropical forests, or distributing clean cookstoves in the developing world, according to this year’s State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets report, released by Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace this week in Barcelona, Spain.

The European private sector, including regulated energy utilities, was the market’s biggest voluntary buyer – seeing demand grow 34% to 43.4 million tonnes of offsets even in the face of significant challenges to Europe’s mandatory carbon market. 
Across the pond, United States-based corporations, ranging from The Walt Disney Company to Chevrolet, offset more emissions than buyers in any other single country at 28.7 million tonnes. A little over a third of offsets purchased by US buyers (9.7 million tonnes) were obtained for future use in California’s emerging cap-and-trade program.