Stora to Record NRIs, Negative Impact on Q2

http://www.storaenso.com/

Stora Enso will record non-recurring items (NRI) with a negative net impact of approximately EUR 33 million on operating profit in its second quarter 2013 results. The NRI will have a positive tax impact of EUR 8 million and decrease earnings per share by EUR 0.03.

The NRI are:
a negative NRI of approximately EUR 37 million due to restructuring provisions related to the streamlining and structure simplification project announced on 23 April 2013, which is intended to achieve annual fixed cost savings of EUR 200 million, with the full impact starting from the second quarter of 2014. As disclosed on 18 June 2013 when the conclusion of the second phase of planning the streamlining and structure simplification project was announced, non-recurring items related to the project will be recorded mainly in the second and third quarters of 2013.
a positive NRI of approximately EUR 11 million due to disposal of land by the Group's equity accounted investment Montes del Plata.
a positive NRI of approximately EUR 10 million due to relocation of the cartonboard machine from the closed Baienfurt Mill in Germany to the Group's equity accounted investment Bulleh Shah Packaging in Pakistan.
a negative NRI of approximately EUR 17 million due to classification of a commodity purchase agreement as a financial derivative, and resulting fair valuation.

Hearst Projecting Ad Growth for Fashion Titles

http://www.adweek.com/news/press/hearst-projecting-september-ad-growth-fashion-set-151085

Fashion magazines haven't yet closed their September issues in the hotly contested ad page race, but Hearst is hoping to grab the spotlight ahead of its rivals, revealing that Elle, Harper's Bazaar and Marie Claire will all break their own previous records this year. 

“The fashion and luxury world has come roaring back in spending in advertising, particularly in print,” said Hearst Magazines president, marketing and publishing director Michael Clinton. Economic instability in Europe and slowed growth in Asia, he added, have led more high-end brands to focus their marketing budgets on North America.

Hearst estimated that Elle’s ad pages would be up 10 percent year over year to about 440 pages—making it the biggest single issue ever published by Hearst—on strong beauty and retail business as well as tech. Marie Claire is expected to be up 8 percent, boosted by a 36-page addition of its fifth Marie Claire @Work insert. New advertisers included Stuart Weitzman, Crest and TD Ameritrade. Hearst didn't give an estimate for Bazaar, only to say it would be up in ad pages over last year.

Elsewhere at Hearst, Cosmopolitan's September issue, editor in chief Joanna Coles' first, is projected to be up 26 percent. On the men’s side, Esquire’s advertising increased more than 25 percent. Riding the luxury wave, Town & Country saw gains across all categories for a 12 percent increase, adding new advertisers like Valentino, Asprey and David Yurman.

Hearst Makes Key Appointments

http://www.hearst.com/press-room/pr-937-20130708.html

Troy Young, president of Hearst Magazines Digital Media, today announced the appointment of Mike Smith to the new role of vice president, revenue platforms and operations, and the promotion of Mike Dushane to vice president, product development. The hires are part of the process to align technology, content creation and advertising, enabling Hearst teams to build more engaging digital media products and respond quickly to market opportunities. Smith and Dushane will report to Young, and start in their new roles immediately.

Since 2000, Smith has been at Forbes, rising from chief technology officer of Forbes.com to president of Forbes.com and chief digital officer of Forbes Media. He was involved in all aspects of the business, including leading a team at Forbes to create a programmatic sales operation, supporting the development of advertising solutions and technology, and working with the editorial team to deploy the Forbes.com contributor platform. Before that, he was chief information officer at TheStreet.com and a director of information technology at HBO from 1991 to 1999.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/204212/hearst-mens-group-names-boyars-exec-director-gro.html#axzz2Ya6RbCZY

The Hearst Men’s Group named Lisa Boyars executive director, group marketing. In her new role, Boyars will be responsible for the marketing teams of Car and Driver, Popular Mechanics and Road & Track. Since 2007, Boyars has been working for Condé Nast Media Group, rising from integrated marketing director to senior director of client and marketing solutions. She was a co-founder of Condé Nast Ideactive.

Reader's Digest Plans Turnaround

http://www.foliomag.com/2013/post-chapter-11-rda-looks-turnaround#.Ud2pz1OYyKw

Upheaval has been a defining characteristic of RDA Holding Co. for the last three years.

There have been two bankruptcies, the company's revenues have been cut by more than a half a billion dollars and key business units have been sold off. Three different CEOs have overseen the changes. 
RDA is now set to emerge from Chapter 11 in late July with about $100 million in debt. That's down from around $500 million at the time of the latest bankruptcy filing and $2.1 billion less than the first time around.
"If anything had taken away from [our core business] over time, it was just a lack of focus," Guth says. "I think there was an anecdotal view that the publishing sector in general was going to continue to decline and therefore we needed to do other things to offset that. There's nothing wrong with that philosophy—a lot of successful businesses have done that—but in our case, all those other pursuits accelerated the decline." 
Part of Guth's strategy has been to divest those ancillary lines of business. Among other changes since he arrived, Everyday with Rachel Ray and Allrecipies.com were sold to Meredith in separate deals, 150 staffers were laid off and it was announced that the company would license its international operations. 
The other part of the strategy has been in recalibrating its core.

Folio Q&A: Hearst's Mike Smith

http://www.foliomag.com/2013/q-hearst-digitals-mike-smith#.Ud2qS1OYyKw

Troy Young, hired in May to the new position of president of Hearst Magazines Digital, has made some of his first moves in organizing a management team for the division. In addition to promoting Mike Dushane to vice president, product development, Mike Smith was just hired as vice president, revenue platforms and operations. Smith arrives from Forbes, where he was president of Forbes.com and chief digital officer of Forbes Media. Here, Folio: checks in with Smith to see what his first priorities are for building out the platform that supports the group's digital revenue-generating efforts.

Men's Magazines Have Good First Half

http://adage.com/article/media/magazine-ad-pages-decline-half-2013/243026/

Men's magazines were one bright spot in the decline of magazine ad pages in Q2 and H1. Conde Nast saw some of the biggest gains among the major publishing companies, with its GQ magazine reporting 302 ad pages in the second quarter, a 6.8% increase from the quarter a year earlier. Sibling Details turned in 192 pages, a 14.2% spike. 
Hearst-owned Esquire had 253 ad pages in the second quarter, a 4.7% increase. Gains were also reported by Men's Health, part of Rodale; Men's Journal, part of Wenner Media; and Men's Fitness, the American Media Inc. title that introduced a redesign in May, aided by former Men's Health editor David Zinczenko.

Williams-Sonoma Partners with Sherwin-Williams

http://www.oregonlive.com/hg/index.ssf/2013/07/sherwin-williams_williams-sono.html

Just when you thought there could not possibly be more choices when it comes to paint, Sherwin-Williams and Williams-Sonoma have announced a new partnership resulting in Sherwin-Williams paints that coordinate with Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen and West Elm collections.

 "Williams-Sonoma, Inc., and Sherwin-Williams are both committed to helping consumers create beautiful, coordinated furnished spaces," said Karl Schmitt, vice president, marketing, Sherwin-Williams. "Through this exciting new partnership, we are making it easy for people to get inspired and create their perfect space, whether they are shopping in-store, online or through catalogs."

Hearst TV Sues Aereo

http://www.adweek.com/news/television/hearst-tv-sues-aereo-boston-over-copyright-infringement-151086

Hearst TV, owner of WCVB-TV, the ABC affiliate in Boston, opened up a front in the broadcast legal battle against Aereo TV.

Like the suits filed by broadcast TV owners in New York, Hearst claims Aereo is infringing on its copyright by retransmitting its signal without permission.

Magazine Ad Pages Decline

http://www.adweek.com/news/press/magazine-ad-pages-continue-decline-despite-increase-digital-151087

The Association of Magazine Media has released its consumer magazine ad page data for the second quarter of 2013, and again, print advertising continues to decline. Advertising for the quarter fell 4.5 percent versus the year-ago quarter, putting the total decrease for the first half of the year at 4.9 percent.

Some of the hardest-hit magazine categories included financial titles (The Economist, Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, Money and Harvard Business Review all saw double-digit ad page drops on soft financial advertising), newsweeklies (Time was off 16.8 percent, The Week, 22.7 percent) and thought-leaders like The Atlantic, New York and The New Yorker.
The publisher-submitted numbers come from Publishers Information Bureau, a service of MPA.

Condé Nast Rolls Out Vanity Fair Channel

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/cond-nast-entertainment-rolls-out-vanity-fair-channel-151089

In March, Condé Nast Entertainment rolled out its first video series, from Glamour and GQ. Those were followed by offerings from Vogue and Wired. Today came the fifth channel, for Vanity Fair.
While earlier channels were heavy on the service quotient, the Vanity Fair programming slate is heavy on the pop culture and entertainment fare for which the magazine is well known.

"Our goal is to bring Vanity Fair to life in a new medium," editor in chief Graydon Carter said in a statement.

Dolan Sells Two Business Services Assets

http://www.foliomag.com/2013/dolan-company-sells-two-business-services-assets#.Ud2qp1OYyKw

B-to-b publisher and professional services provider The Dolan Company has announced agreements to sell off two of its legal services businesses to affiliate groups. 
The company's NDeX South and NDeX Indiana platforms, regional mortgage default processing services, are being sold in separate transactions to separate firms, but will bring in a total consideration of $17.5 million, according to a statement on The Dolan Company website.

May Commercial Print Ships Fall

http://blogs.whattheythink.com/economics/2013/07/may-commercial-printing-shipments-disappoint-public-relations-and-graphic-designer-employment-rises/

May 2013 US commercial printing shipments were $7.01 billion, down -$317 million (-4.3%) compared to 2012, and down by -$417 million after adjusting for inflation (-5.6%). April printing shipments were revised up by +$34 million, to $6.724 billion. May was the first month since October 2012 to register more than $7 billion in shipments. For the first five months of 2013, shipments are down -1.3%, -2.8% after inflation.

Tribune Co. to Split in Two

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/11/business/media/tribune-co-to-split-in-two.html?hp&_r=0

Ending months of speculation, the Tribune Company announced on Wednesday that it would spin off its newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune, into a separate division called Tribune Publishing Company. Its broadcasting properties would remain together in the Tribune Company. 
The move mirrors one by News Corporation, which this summer spun off its newspapers into a discrete division. The common motivation is an effort to separate high-value, high-return entertainment and television assets from newspapers, which face a difficult operating environment that has dragged down earnings. 
The Tribune Company, which emerged from bankruptcy at the end of 2012, signaled last week that it saw a bright future in broadcasting when it purchased 19 television stations in 16 markets, bringing its total number of television stations to 42 and giving the company a large footprint in the local television business.

Two Sides Challenges EEPN Claims

http://www.twosides.us/US/Two-Sides-challenges-incorrect-facts-and-exaggerated-claims-being-made-by-the-European-Environmental-Paper-Network-EEPN

It has come to the notice of Two Sides that the EEPN, European Environmental Paper Network, who claim to be ‘a network of non-profit organizations working together to accelerate social and environmental transformation in the paper industry’, is making claims about the sustainability of the paper and associated industries which either require substantiation or retraction. ‘EEPN Paper Facts’
EEPN, amongst a number of questionable assertions and claims, falsely states that the paper industry is “one of the most destructive industries of our time’ and responsible for ‘a wide range of harmful environmental impacts’, ‘negative social impacts’ and ‘human rights abuses’. Whilst recognising that isolated problems can be found in any large industry Two Sides firmly disputes the implied scale of the impacts raised and, in the European context of the EEPN’s focus, questions the origin and accuracy of these assertions.