Heidelberg Cutting Capacity 15%

Heidelberg to slash 1,500 jobs and cut capacity by 15%: Heidelberg has concluded a consultation with its employees that will see its worldwide headcount slashed by more than 1,500 come 2014.

AF&PA Issues Annual Study

AF&PA Releases Paper, Paperboard, and Pulp Capacity Survey: The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) today released the 52nd Annual Survey of Paper, Paperboard and Pulp Capacity, reporting that U.S. paper and paperboard capacity decline slowed to 1.4% in 2011 to a level of 89.7 million short tons. 

More on Resolute/Fibrek

Steelhead will refrain from tendering Fibrek shares to AbitibiBowater:
Following the announcement made on March 31, 2012 by Steelhead Partners, LLC and its affiliates, Fibrek Inc. understands that Steelhead, the second largest shareholder of AbitibiBowater, intends not to tender any of its Fibrek shares to the unsolicited insider bid made by AbitibiBowater Inc. (doing business as Resolute Forest Products) until the minimum tender condition contained in the Abitibi bid has been met.

Resolute Extends Offer for Fibrek

Resolute reduces minimum tender condition and extends its offer for Fibrek:
AbitibiBowater Inc., doing business as Resolute Forest Products, has announced that it has reduced to 59,502,822 shares the minimum tender condition of its offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Fibrek Inc.

St. Mary's Sold

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/Around-the-North/120326/St--Marys-sale-approved.aspx

The sale of shuttered St. Marys Paper, which produced Supercalendered paper, in Sault Ste. Marie has been approved by an Ontario court.

On March 26, authorization was given for the sale to numbered company 2319839 Ontario Inc., which has been described by manager and receiver Ernst & Young as “a consortium of companies including an auctioneer, a real estate development company, a metals recycling company and a forest products company.”

“The receiver understands that the purchaser may potentially seek to redevelop the mill into a biomass facility with a cogeneration plant while liquidating the mill assets,” reads Ernst & Young's report.

NewPage Invests in Mill

http://times-news.com/local/x684078876/NewPage-building-future-in-Luke-officials-told

NewPage is investing $15.8 million in capital improvements to its Luke, MD coated freesheet paper mill. 

Appleton to Begin Cuts in May

http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/news/2012/04/02/appleton-papers-local-job-cuts-coming.html

Appleton Papers Inc. will start cutting staff at its West Carrollton plant in May, according to a filing with the state of Ohio.

The Wisconsin papermaker, which said earlier this year it would be ending paper production in West Carrollton and cut 330 jobs, will start the local layoffs on May 20 or within 14 days after that date.

MPA Develops Metrics

http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120402/MEDIABUSINESS14/304029997/mpa-develops-tablet-metrics-guidelines

MPA announced it has developed voluntary tablet metrics guidelines. Among the guidelines are five metrics: total consumer paid digital issues, total number of tablet readers per issue, total number of sessions per issue, total time spent per reader per issue and average number of sessions per reader per issue.

Hudson News/Comag Deal

Hudson News Takes Minority Stake in Comag: According to several sources, Hudson News president James Cohen is taking a minority stake in Comag Marketing Group.  will remain in his position as well.
The deal signals another major shift in the magagzine newsstand supply chain, bringing once disparate players closer together.

New USPS Option for Direct Mailers

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120402/DIRECT0202/304029998/usps-to-allow-marketing-images-on-permit-indicia&template=printart

The U.S. Postal Service plans to allow direct mailers to include logos, trademarks, brand images and other kinds of marketing designs in the printed postage information area of their mail pieces.

Postmaster General Lays Out Vision

Postmaster General Lays Out Vision for Mailing Industry at Postal Forum: In a keynote address to open the National Postal Forum, Patrick R. Donahoe, Postmaster General and CEO of the U.S. Postal Service, today discussed the transformative power of technology and innovation in the mailing industry.

Canadian Government Continues Support of Industry

http://www.paperage.com/2012news/03_30_2012fpac_government_support.html

The Forest Products Association of Canada said that it is pleased that the Government of Canada has decided to maintain spending on programs aimed at transforming the forest sector.

The "Jobs and Growth" budget from Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, includes $105 million over two years for forestry innovation and market development.

China Imposes Duties

China has ratified five-year antidumping duties on imports of photographic paper and board from the European Union, the US and Japan. The China's Ministry of Commerce made the final ruling last week, announcing that duties ranging from 16.2% to 28.8% are to be collected as of March 23.

UPM Re-elects Chairman

http://www.upm.com/en/Pages/default.aspx

At the organisation meeting of UPM-Kymmene Corporation's Board of Directors, Mr Björn Wahlroos was re-elected as Chairman, and Mr Berndt Brunow was re-elected as Deputy Chairman.

Quad/Graphics Buys Share of Manipal

Quad/Graphics Purchases Minority Interest in Manipal Technologies: Quad/Graphics Inc., a global provider of print and related multichannel solutions, has entered into a strategic partnership with Manipal Technologies, India’s largest print services and end-to-end business solutions provider.

RRD Closing IL Plant

R.R. Donnelley to Lay Off 207 Workers, Close Plant in Mendota, IL: MENDOTA, IL—March 29, 2012—According to a story in the Chicago Tribune and AP reports, R.R. Donnelley plans to close its printing plant in Mendota, IL, and lay off its 207 employees by the end of May.

PRC Approves USPS Discount

PRC Approves Sequel to USPS’s QR Code Promo: The Postal Regulatory Commission has approved the U.S. Postal Service’s request to offer a discount to merchants who use a QR code in their catalog mailings and other direct pieces this summer. The USPS will offer the 2-percent discount to mailers in July and August, and merchants who want to qualify for the discount can register beginning May 1.

Flint Raises Prices

Flint Raises Prices on Spot-Color Inks, Varnishes and Pressroom Chemistry: Flint Group North America has announced an 8-percent price increase on spot-color inks and overprint varnishes used in sheetfed and heatset applications. In addition, it is instituting price increases of $0.75 to $1.25 on press washes used in sheeted and offset web applications, effective April 1.

Possehl Purchases manroland UK

Possehl Purchases manroland Great Britain’s Web Business: On 8th March 2012, Possehl & Co. mbH, the owner of manroland web systems GmbH, purchased the business and assets of manroland Great Britain’s web division from MRGB Realisations Limited, formerly manroland Great Britain Limited.

Port Hawkesbury Mill Gets Extension

Port Hawkesbury mill gets 60 day extension to creditor protection period:
The NewPage Port Hawkesbury (Supercalendered paper) mill was granted another extension for its creditor protection period by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court today. This extension is for 60 days.

Resolute's Amos Union Votes No

Amos employees say ‘no’ to concessions, Resolute issues ultimatum:
The unionized employees at Resolute Forest Products‘ Amos Division in Quebec said ‘no’ to Resolute’s demand for concessions. The Amos division produces newsprint and employs about 160.

Verso Announces Exchange Offer

http://www.versopaper.com/newsarchive.aspx

Verso Paper Corp. announced today that two of its wholly owned subsidiaries, Verso Paper Holdings LLC and Verso Paper Inc. (collectively, the "Issuers"), have launched an offer to issue up to $180.2 million aggregate principal amount of a new series of 9.75% secured notes due 2019 (the "New Notes") in exchange for any and all of the Issuers' outstanding $180.2 million aggregate principal amount of senior secured floating-rate notes due 2014 (the "Old Notes").

M-real Changes Name

The Annual General Meeting of M-real Corporation held today 28 March 2012 decided to change the company's business name to Metsä Board Corporation, amended the field of business of the company to more accurately correspond to the current business operations.

Hearst Acquires 20% of Stylus

http://www.pubexec.com/Publishing Executive

Hearst Corporation today announced that it has acquired a 20 percent stake in Stylus Media Group, which provides business intelligence to consumer companies. The announcement was made jointly by Frank A. Bennack, Jr., CEO of Hearst Corporation, and Marc Worth, CEO and founder of Stylus. Financial terms were not disclosed.

 

Digital Circulation Grows

http://adage.com/article/mediaworks/magazines-digital-circulation-doubles/233771/

Digital circulation soared to an estimated 3.29 million in the second half of 2012 from 1.46 million in the year-earlier period, a 125% increase, according to publishers' reports with the Audit Bureau.

Despite all that growth, however, digital remains about 1% of magazines' total paid and verified circulation.

Sears Selling Cataloguer?

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/lands_end_game_5p3ePLWUD0sqSpTPERJGeM?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Business

As reported by The New York Post, Eddie Lampert, chairman of Sears Holdings, has quietly been shopping Dodgeville Wis. mail-order catalog Land's End to potential buyers.

2011-16 Local Media Ad Spending

2011-2016 Local Media Ad Spend: Digital Strong, Traditional Flat: Local media industry adviser BIA/Kelsey expects strong growth (12.7%) in the digital segment of local media advertising through 2016. The firm expects traditional local media to grow from $111.5 billion to $112.7 billion in 2016.

European Woodfree Ships Fall

http://www.cepifine.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15&Itemid=16

CEPIFINE reported February coated woodfree paper shipments declined -5.3% as compared to the same month last year. Year-to-date, shipments fell -5.8%. Demand was down -4.2% for the month and -5.1% for the year. Exports decreased -7.9% in February and -7.3% Y-t-D.

U.S. Paper Recovery Reaches 66.8%

http://www.afandpa.org/

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) today announced the 2011 recovery rate of paper consumed in the U.S., which has reached a record-high 66.8%. The level of paper recovery for recycling achieved in 2011 is nearly double the industry benchmark of 33.5 percent set in 1990, the year the industry established its first recovery goal.

China's RCP and Pulp Imports Grow

China's total recovered paper (RCP) imports climbed 42.7% to around 2.531 million tonnes in February, up from some 1.774 million tonnes the previous month,  China's total pulp imports jumped 32.5% in February from the previous month to nearly 1.554 million tonnes, Imports of BSK pulp are up 10.8% year-to-date, 2012/2011.

Battle for Fibrek Goes On

Battle for Fibrek: Quebec Court of Appeal sides with Resolute:
The Quebec Court of Appeal has sided with Resolute Forest Products and has overturned a lower court ruling that had helped its rival in its attempt to acquire control of Fibrek Inc.
The Court has reinstated the cease trade order on Fibrek Inc.’s private placement of 32,320,000 special warrants to Mercer International Inc. The court’s ruling could be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Forbes Retools ForbesLife

Forbes Retools Its Luxury Spinoff ForbesLife: Starting with its March issue, Forbes has relaunched its 22-year old luxury lifestyle offshoot ForbesLife and, for the first time, is selling the title as a standalone at newsstands.

40% of B-t-B Media Revenue in Events

The Event Stars of Magazine Media: Business-to-business media revenue hit $26.49 billion last year, with revenue from trade shows, events and conferences rising to 40% of that total, according to American Business Media.

Haymarket Sells Racer Magazine

Haymarket Sells Majority Stake in Racer Magazine: Haymarket Media has sold its majority stake in Racer Magazine back to its original founding management team of Paul Pfanner and Bill Sparks.

Global Ad Spend Forecast Up 4.8%

Global Ad Spend Expected to Grow 4.8% in 2012; US Growth Steady at 3.6%: ZenithOptimedia predicts global ad expenditure will grow 4.8% in 2012. The global media services group now expects ad expenditure to grow 5.3% in 2013 and 6.1% in 2014.

Valpak to Hire 100 Veterans by 2013

Valpak Announces Plans to Hire 100 Veterans by 2013: Valpak, a leader in local print and digital coupons, announced a commitment to hire 100 veterans by the end of 2013.

USPS Reports February Loss

USPS' losses mount in February: The U.S. Postal Service reported a loss of $1.1 billion for the month of February, the fifth month of its fiscal year, raising its year-to-date losses to $5.6 billion.

EURO-GRAPH Reports February Numbers

Total European shipments of coated mechanical paper fell -2.5% in February, as compared to the same month last year. Demand was down -3.9%, but exports rose by +2.9%. Shipments of Supercalendered paper increased 0.9% and demand was up 4.5%. Exports declined -14.6%.

St.Mary's May Never Restart

http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3514164

St. Marys Paper is expected to be approved for sale in a on Monday morning.

A union representative for the papermaker's 300 workers expects the buyer, 2319839 Ontario Inc. won't restart operations, but instead will strip raw iron, special metals and electric motors from the century-old Supercalendered paper mill.

West Fraser Raising Pulp Price

West Fraser followed Canfor Pulp, Domtar, Resolute Forest Products and Tembec in announcing an increase of $30/metric tonne for NBSK pulp, effective April 1.

Variety For Sale

Variety Goes on the Block: Reed Business Information [RBI] today announced that is putting Variety up for sale. The company has spent the last three years divesting its U.S. magazine properties.

Resolute Paper Raises NBSK Prices

Resolute Forest Products announced an increase of $30/tonne on NBSK pulp, effective April 1.

Nippon Restarts LWC Machine

The Nippon Paper Group  has restarted another machine at its Ishinomaki mill in Japan.

Ishinomaki is the last facility in the country still dealing with machine damage from the catastrophic tsunami and earthquake of March 2011. PM 6, a 272,000 tonne/yr lightweight coated (LWC) paper unit, started back up on March 9. PM 5, which can produce 150,000 tonnes/yr of LWC, came back online on February 22.

White Birch Union Approves Offer

White Birch employees vote ‘Yes’ to accept final offer:
The vote by the unionized workers of the Stadacona mill yesterday was 79% in favour of accepting White Birch Paper Company‘s final offer. The offer includes significant concessions, but also gives the workers a chance that their newsprint mill may reopen.

Norske Skog Sells Follum Mill & Operations in Chile

http://www.pulpapernews.com/2012/03/norske-skog-sells-follum-to-viken-skog
Norske Skog divests its operations in Chile:
Norske Skog has entered into an agreement to sell the Follum, which the company had closed, to Viken Skog.
Separately, Norske Skog announced the sale of Norske Skog Bio Bio in Chile to Group BO, a consortium of Chilean investors, for USD 56 million.

ABC Endorses New Consolidated Media Report

ABC board endorses new Consolidated Media Report format for business publishers: The Audit Bureau of Circulations board has endorsed a new Consolidated Media Report format for business magazine publishers. The CMR enables publishers to include data from such brand extensions as newsletters, trade shows and websites to help quantify the reach of the brand.

Access Intelligence Buys LeadsCon

Access Intelligence Acquires LeadsCon, Daily Deals Summit: Access Intelligence, owner of FOLIO: publisher Red 7 Media, announced today it has acquired LeadsCon.

Flint Group Raising Prices

Flint Group Announces April 1st Price Increases: Continuing raw materials cost increases as well as other operations and logistical cost increases in 2012 requires Flint Group to increase prices of solvent based packaging inks and all packaging and narrow web white inks in North America effective 1 April 2012.

Trouble for USPS Reform Bill

Backlash Against USPS Mail Plant Closures Threatens Reform Bill: The massive political backlash against U.S. Postal Service plans to reduce the size of its mail processing network by 50 percent has reached fever pitch, threatening to completely block any postal reform legislation.

Quad Establishes Media Solutions Services Group

Quad Graphics Establishes Media Solutions Services Group:
Quad Graphics Inc. announces the formation of Media Solutions, a services group dedicated to helping marketers and publishers more efficiently and effectively integrate print and new media channels.

RRD 8% Dividend Yield

R.R. Donnelley Prints Everything -- Including an 8% Dividend Yield -- Except Profits:
As investors, we're all increasingly accustomed to modern companies - created in recent years to capitalize on things like the Internet, global trade and the use of myriad technologies that replace much of what workers formerly did.

eBook Sales Reaching Plateau

Are eBook Sales Reaching a Plateau?: The once-exploding sales growth of eBooks has slowed dramatically, according to research from RR Bowker.

Vietnam; World’s Largest Wood Chip Supplier

Vietnam now world’s largest wood chip supplier

More Details Kodak's Chapter 11

More details emerge behind Kodak's fall into Chapter 11:

A dramatic collapse in licensing revenues at Kodak's Consumer Digital Imaging division and a doubling of losses at its Graphic Communications Group wing helped propel the firm into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

People On The Move; Omnimedia

People on the Move: Alison Adler Matz is named senior vice president and publisher of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s Everyday Food and Whole Living. She was previously publisher of Fairchild Fashion Media’s WWD Beauty Inc.

Supercalendered Paper Ships Fall

The PPPC has reported that North American Supercalendered paper shipments declined -27% in February as compared to the same month last year. Demand was down -28.3% and imports decreased -32.7%. The operating rate was 96%. SC-A/SC-A+ shipments fell -17.6%, demand was down -22.6% and imports declined -34.7%.

NYSE Accepts Verso Plan

http://www.versopaper.com/default.aspx

Verso Paper Corp. announced today that the New York Stock Exchange has accepted the company's plan for continued listing on the NYSE.The company also reported preliminary results of tender offer for certain outstanding debt.

Norske Skog Closing Follum

Norske Skog will stop paper production at its Follum mill in Hønefoss, southern Norway, on March 30. The mill makes 145,000 tonnes/yr of coated paper on PM 7 and 145,000 tonnes/yr of improved newsprint and book paper on PM 1.

AF&PA Reports February CGW Ships Up

http://www.statmill.org/

According to the American Forest & Paper Association, total printing-writing paper shipments in the U.S. increased 2% in February compared to the same month in 2011. Coated mechanical paper shipments jumped four percent year-over-year, the largest such increase since September 2010. Shipments of coated free sheet rose year-over-year for the first time in the past 15 months.

Sappi Limited Named First HP Indigo Partner

Sappi Limited Named First HP Indigo Worldwide Preferred Media Partner:
North America announced today it has been named as the first worldwide member of the HP Indigo Preferred Media Partner program.

B-to_B Media Revenue Jumps 6.9%

B-to-b media increase revenue 6.9% in 2011: Total b-to-b media revenue grew 6.9% to $26.5 billion last year, according to Business Information Network data released by American Business Media.

Cintas Reports Q3 Results

http://www.cintas.com/company/investor_information/highlights.aspx
Cintas Corporation today reported results for its third quarter ended February 29, 2012. Revenue for the third quarter was $1.01 billion, representing a 7.9% increase compared to last year's third quarter. The Company's third quarter operating income of $137.5 million was a 26.3% improvement as compared to last year's third quarter. Net income increased 28.7% to $76.0 million.