North American P&W Paper Ships Reported

The Pulp and Paper Product Council has reported North American coated mechanical paper shipments for July fell -2,3%, as compared to the same month last year. Demand was down -0.7% and imports did not change. The operating rate was 91%. Coated woodfree shipments declined -1.2% for the month, demand fell -0.8% and imports increased by +3.5%. The operating rate was 87%. Uncoated woodfree shipments were up +1.3% in July, demand grew +3.7% and imports jumped +15.6%. The operating rate was 92%. SC-A/A+ paper shipments increased +31.9%, demand was up +30.6% and imports rose +28.7%. SC-B/SNC+ shipments were up +22.5% and demand grew +28%. The operating rate for Supercalendered paper was 91%.

G-P Completes Acquisition of Buckeye Technologies

http://www.gp.com/index.html

Georgia-Pacific LLC and Buckeye Technologies Inc. (BKI) today completed the previously announced acquisition of Buckeye by Georgia-Pacific. Under the merger agreement, all outstanding shares of Buckeye Technologies' common stock were converted into the right to receive $37.50 per share, net to the holder in cash, without interest, subject to any withholding of taxes required by applicable law. The transaction was valued at approximately $1.5 billion, including debt.

As a result of the merger, Georgia-Pacific acquired all of the outstanding stock of Buckeye Technologies, including ownership of its five manufacturing facilities, global sales offices and headquarters. Employees of Buckeye Technologies (approximately 1,200) are now employees of Georgia-Pacific as Buckeye becomes a wholly owned subsidiary.

Burgo Names Board, CEO

http://www.burgo.com/en

The Annual General Meeting of the Burgo Group has elected a new Board of Directors that will be in office until the approval of 2015 annual report. The Shareholders has confirmed Mr Girolamo Marchi, Mr Giorgio Cefis, Mr Alessandro Bertani and Mr Enrico Benaglio as Board Director. Ms Martina Castegnaro, Chief Controller Officer of Palladio - Zannini Industrie Grafiche SpA, Mr Alberto Marchi, HGM SpA Director, Mr Paolo Mattei, Vice President of the European Association of Graphic Paper Producers, Lorenzo Marzotto and Gianni Vallardi, former Managing Director of Group Il Sole 24ore Newpaper Division, have been elected as directors of Burgo Group for the first time.

Mr Girolamo Marchi, former CEO of the Group, and Mr Giorgio Cefis, former Chairman, has been appointed, respectively, Chairman and Vice - Chairman of Burgo Group while Mr Paolo Mattei, former CEO of Cartiere del Garda and Senior Advisor to the CEO of Lecta Group, will be CEO of the Group. 

Cate Street Pays Katahdin Tax Bill

http://bangordailynews.com/2013/08/22/business/cate-street-pays-1-4-million-tax-bill-but-katahdin-region-problems-remain/

The Katahdin region’s largest single taxpayer paid $1.42 million in property taxes it owed East Millinocket and Millinocket this week, but that money won’t solve the towns’ fundamental problems, officials said Thursday.

Wired to the towns on Wednesday, the money diminishes but won’t end Millinocket’s cash-flow crisis or East Millinocket’s need to further reduce school spending, leaders in both towns say.
Concessions from unions or cuts to public worker retiree benefits or higher taxes eventually might be necessary to keep town governments and schools operational, they said.
But the $363,171 to East Millinocket and $1,066,350 to Millinocket in principal and interest payments in overdue property taxes paid by Cate Street and its subsidiary, the new Great Northern Paper Co., are welcome, leaders said.

Direct Mail Market Trends

http://whattheythink.com/articles/64890-direct-mail-market-trends/

Drivers and Barriers for Adoption of Color Digital

Within the last few years we have seen the introduction of two high-speed inkjet technologies aimed at the direct mail space..

Value of color

As with all new technologies, there are only two reasons to adopt it: it provides additional value or it lowers costs..

Hybrid Production

Both high-speed inkjet presses and high-speed inkjet heads can deliver fully variable color images. Using inkjet heads means the design is limited in size to the width of the head, typically 4.25 wide..

Eliminating Preprinted Forms

High-speed inkjet presses can offer cost savings in addition to full color variable imaging. Nearly all direct mail letters are first printed with an offset shell and then overprinted with black laser..

Postal Savings

High-speed inkjet presses are enabling another cost savings and this one appears to be significant. With one of these presses the direct mailer can run white paper in and the completed job out providing the direct mailer with the option to co-mingle jobs on press. This allows the direct mailer to bypass a cost center (co-mingling) and create substantial savings.

Workflows

Being able to print the output for a direct mail campaign is just part of the challenge..

Ad Spending

Direct mail is just one of many choices for marketers today..

Cross Media

While according the 2012 Channel Preference Study conducted by Epsilon, direct mail is still the most trusted channel, direct mail alone is not sufficient for communicating with customers..

Summary

The digital printing industry has been promoting the value of variable data printing for quite some time now – a good solid ten years. Adoption occurred first with low volume applications. Now, finally, we are seeing the large direct mail suppliers purchasing high speed color inkjet presses and heads and as the remaining barriers to adoption are being knocked down, we are seeing adoption and rapid growth for high volume color digital printing of direct mail.

ACMA Urges Cataloguers to Fight Postal Rate Case

http://www.arandell.com/news/postal-rate/

ACMA has credible inside information from Washington that the USPS Board of Governors may order an 8%-10% exigency postage increase following its September 5th Board meeting. There’s time for the catalog mailing community to beat this back, but not much time. Whether you’re an ACMA member or not, if you don’t step up and get involved fast, this increase could be disastrous.
Sadly, with less than 2% of the catalog industry participating in any industry trade association focused on national postal policy, we simply do not have the resources necessary to execute the most effective opposition to the exigency threat that we can think of.
If 8%-10% of your annual postal spend seems to be an enormous number, for a fraction of this amount, you can greatly reduce the likelihood that an exigent increase will be approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission by investing in an ACMA membership or by making a contribution to our postal action fund (more on that below). Even if the PRC grants an exigency request, mailers can still fight this in court. What’s more, Washington is obviously a very political environment. A well-orchestrated public relations campaign can also preempt an unfavorable exigency decision if executed now.

BoSacks: Defending Print the Right Way

http://www.piworld.com/article/bosacks-speaks-out-defending-print-the-right-way/1

Several times this week I have been involved in correspondence and conversations about QR codes and various other forms of augmented reality. The theory continuously presented to me is that print will be saved by the use of augmented reality. It is at that point I stick my feet into the ground, as I think there is nothing much further from the truth on this subject than this thought process. 

Here is my reason why although it is a good tool, it isn't something that you could or would use on every page, or for any extended period in a printed magazine. When we are offered a QR code or other AR launch system in a magazine that takes us to the Web, we are then forced to balance two separate devices. The Web product/cell phone/tablet in one hand and a magazine in the other hand, or on your lap, or perhaps on the desk, making neither a comfortable long-term reading experience. Continually sending people from the printed magazine page to an electronic device defeats the purpose of having a good print product and the concurrent rewarding lean back experience that we are all so proud of as an industry. As the old expression goes, putting lipstick on a pig only wastes your time and annoys the pig. Although AR indeed has its valuable moments and its usefulness, AR is a distraction to the nature of our printed products. In this case it is trying to fake the electrification of the printed page. If I wanted to get online, I would have done so. If I chose to read a magazine, why send me somewhere online? Does that make sense to you?

Fight the ‘Dead Tree Media’ Myth

http://inlandpress.org/articles/2013/08/23/knowledge/current_stories/doc5153313351cfd437632202.txt

The public doesn’t want to make hard choices, and they don’t want their oxen gored. They certainly don’t wish to be disabused of any cherished mistaken notions. For this reason, the environmental advantages of print on paper as a medium of information exchange are seldom addressed. A pity it is, for rarely has a subject been so mired in misconception.
This means it is up to you and me to enlighten the public. Consider the following facts, which we all know to be true but are lost on the public at large:
Paper is carbon locking, meaning that paper retains carbon dioxide, just as if it were still a tree.
The paper industry plants more trees than it harvests. Without paper, there would be fewer trees.
No virgin forests are used for papermaking. 
Only one-third of paper is made from cutting trees. Another third is made from sawmill waste and another third from recycled paper. 
Newspapers in particular have been on the forefront of the recycling movement. Newspapers may very well be the greenest medium of all.
The manufacture and use of computers, e-readers and mobile devices is damaging to the environment. Ditto for the Internet and cloud computing, which rely upon vast arrays of power-gulping servers.

 

Digital Platforms Hot, Print Works

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/opinion/digital-platforms-may-be-hot-but-print-works/story-e6frg9tf-1226703701817

I HAVE been charting the course of the print industry in this space for more than a dozen years now. It has been an uneasy, often depressing journey for an old newspaper hand who remembers fondly the glory days of The Way We Were.
Of course, we will never return to those times when circulations grew and "rivers of gold" filled the corporate coffers. But there are growing indications the worst of the decline might be behind us. The time is now right for a reappraisal of print and newspapers in particular.
New research, here and in the US, comparing consumer use of digital platforms - whether they be desktops, laptops, tablets or smartphones - with printed editions of newspapers shows a previously obscure factor: the level of engagement between readers and their source of information.

Skateboader Magazine Shuttered

http://www.pubexec.com/aggregatedcontent/skateboarder-magazine-cease-publication

Skateboarder Magazine announced Tuesday that it will cease publication later this year after nearly 50 years of operations. The move follows the merger of GrindMedia and TransWorld, which was announced in May. "Skateboarder Magazine will discontinue regular frequency publishing on print and digital platforms effective Oct. 15, 2013," GrindMedia said in a statement. "This week, Skateboarder will release its third digital edition and companion limited edition print version, which will be its final edition."