Monday, July 30, 2012

Weyerhaeuser Reports Q2 Results


Weyerhaeuser Company today reported net earnings of $84 million for the second quarter, or 16 cents per diluted share, on net sales of $1.8 billion. This compares with net earnings of $10 million on net sales from continuing operations of $1.6 billion for the same period last year.

IP Sells Franklin PM to Tak


Tak Investments, LLC, is pleased to announce it has completed a deal to purchase a portion of the papermaking assets at International Paper's recently reopened mill in Franklin, Virginia. Over the past few months, Tak Investments has been converting one of the mill's former paper machines to tissue production. Tak Investments has established a new subsidiary, ST Tissue, LLC, that will operate at the Franklin mill site. Full-scale tissue making operations will begin in late September, 2012.

Study: Direct Mail Still Preferred

Direct Mail the Top Channel for Some of America's Best Known Companies: Among some of America's most well-known companies, direct mail ranks number one in planned marketing channels.
Direct mail ranked number one (88%) planned marketing channels for 2012, followed by web/micro-site, email, and social media.

Media Measurement & Tracking Tools

Top Social Media Measurement and Tracking Tools: Social media audiences have effectively become another universe of prospects to tap, which means measurement and tracking is essential to yielding from these visitors both direct and indirect revenue. While Facebook and Twitter offer their own analytics tools, a host of third-party offerings exist to pick up where they leave off.

Managing Multi-Channel Content

The New CMS Mandate: Managing Multi-Channel Content: Magazine publishers—especially larger ones with multiple syndication and distribution channels—have struggled for years with finding better ways to manage and automate the use of their valuable intellectual property.

Standard Register Reports Q2 Results

Standard Register Announces 6% Revenue Decline for Q2: Standard Register, a leader in the management and execution of mission-critical communications, today announced its financial results for the second quarter and first half of 2012. The Company reported quarterly revenue of $155.1 million and a net loss of $1.1 million. The results compare to prior year quarterly revenue of $164.3 million and a net loss of $1.0 million.

Spin Magazine Reports Layoffs

Reports: Major Layoffs at Spin:
Billboard.biz broke the news Friday that Spin had a round of layoffs and a later report by The New York Times said 11 employees were let go—a third of the staff. Among those that were shown the door were editor-in-chief Steve Kandell and managing editor Catherine Davis.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Domtar Reports Q2 Results

Domtar reports net earnings of $59 million in second quarter, 2012:
Domtar Corporation has reported net earnings of $59 million in the second quarter of 2012 on sales of $1.4 billion.
In comparison, Domtar reported net earnings of $28 million for the first quarter of 2012, and net earnings of $54 million for the second quarter of 2011.

Paperlinx Selling Operations in Europe, South Africa, CEO Resigns

Paperlinx to sell operations in Europe and South Africa, CEO to step down
PaperlinX announced recently announced that it has entered into the following agreements:
- to sell its operations in Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia to the Heinzel Group for EUR 19.6 million.
- to sell its loss-making operations in South Africa to local management.

Buckeye CEO Resigns

Buckeye Announces Resignation: Buckeye Technologies Inc. reported that President and Chief Operating Officer Kristopher J. Matula has announced his intent to resign from the Company effective August 31, 2012 to focus on other interests. Mr. Matula stated that he will resign from the Company’s Board of Directors on August 7, 2012.

61% of Consumers Take Action on Magazine Ads

Consumers Take Action Thanks to Magazine Ads: Six out of 10 magazine readers say exposure to specific magazine ads led them to take, or plan to take, action (such as make a purchase).

ABC Makes Changes

ABC Raises Fees, Defers Reporting Actions:
The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) is making strategic changes to its reporting requirements and will be raising fees by 3 percent before the end of the year.
ABC’s board voted to defer implementation of a new publisher’s statement that would have expanded how consumer magazines report metrics for digital publications, and those that require larger magazines to report issue-by-issue data through ABC’s Rapid Report tool until new digital reporting requirements have been vetted further.

House Beautiful Multiplatform Ad Campaigns

House Beautiful: A Case Study On Multiplatform Ad Campaigns: House Beautiful has come a long way in its 117-year history, and the publication is now offering its advertisers more, too. Over the next year, it will be slowly rolling out a highly integrated advertising campaign, complete with print, online, tablet, social, live events and mobile media support.

Dennis Launches New Cycling Title

Dennis Publishing launches monthly cycling magazine:
London-headquartered, £100m turnover Dennis Publishing, which owns over 50 magazines, will launch the new cycling title with an initial UK print run of 50,000.
Produced by Bicester printer BGP, Cyclist will hit both digital and high street shelves, priced at £5 an issue, on 19 September backed by a £500,000 multi-platform marketing campaign.

NYT Revenues Up


For the first time in years, the New York Times Co. has posted a year-over-year gain in quarterly revenues -- a rare bright spot in the struggling newspaper industry. Total revenues edged up 0.6% to $515 million in the second quarter of 2012. Total revenues at its News Media Group increased 1.2% to $489 million.

Meredith Reports FY 2012 Results


Meredith Corporation, the leading media and marketing company serving American women, today reported fiscal 2012 fourth quarter revenues grew 6 percent to $375 million, and earnings per share grew 2 percent to $0.67, both from the prior-year period.

Magazine Industry Thriving in China


While print publishing’s had a tough time in the states and in many parts of the world over the past few years, the magazine industry in China is apparently booming.
China has become a huge market for luxury fashion, with consumers buying more than just clothes and accessories. According to a piece in the New York Times this past weekend, young Chinese women are spending huge chunks of their incomes on Chinese versions of Western fashion glossies such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, etc. They’re obsessed. And Western publishing houses like Hearst are making bank.

Valassis Announces Q2 Results

Valassis Sees Its Revenues Slide and Net Earnings Take a Big Hit: Valassis announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2012. Its revenues were $540.2 million, a decrease of 4.4 percent from $565.2 million in the prior year quarter.

Deluxe Reports Q2 Results

Deluxe Reports Its Revenue Grew 7 Percent in the Second Quarter: Deluxe Corp. announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2012. “We had an outstanding second quarter following an outstanding first quarter,” said Lee Schram, CEO of Deluxe.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

EURO-GRAPH Reports H1 2012 P&W Ships


EURO-GRAPH has reported European H1 2012 shipments of coated mechanical papers fell -7% as compared to the same period last year. Demand was down -9.4% and exports increased 1.7%. Coated woodfree shipments decreased -3%, demand declined -2,6% and exports fell -8.5%. Supercalendered shipments were down -3.6%, demand decreased -1.5% and exports fell -12.2%.

Taiwan Will Not Levy Duties on Coated Imports


Taiwan will not levy anti-dumping duties on coated paper imports from China, Japan, South Korea and Finland.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced yesterday that it would not levy temporary anti-dumping duties on imported coated paper from China, Japan, South Korea and Finland, as the government's preliminary evaluation showed these imports did not cause real damage to the local paper manufacturing industry.

Burgo Closing Coated PM


Burgo is set to reduce its coated woodfree (CWF) paper capacity.
During a meeting of company officials and trade union representatives in Rome last week the firm revealed plans to shut down the 120,000 tonne/yr PM 1 at its mill in Avezzano, central Italy.

APRIL Starts 450,000 PM


Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL) has commissioned a 450,000 tonne/yr uncoated fine paper machine at a greenfield mill in Jiangmen city, Guangdong province.
The first sheet of paper rolled off the line on July 20, said a contact from the company.

Weyerhaeuser Cuts Pulp Price

Weyerhaeuser have informed North American customers that their northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) pulp prices would decline to $850/tonne, effective August 1 until further notice.

IP Reports Q2 Earnings

International Paper 2Q 2012 results: net earnings including impact of ...:
International Paper today reported second-quarter 2012 net earnings attributable to common shareholders totaling $134 million compared with net earnings of $188 million in the first quarter of 2012.

AF&PA Publishes Sustainability Report

2012 AF&PA Sustainability Report Shows Significant, Measurable Progress On Better Practices, Better Planet 2020 Goals: (USA) The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) today released the results of its biennial Sustainability Report, which showed that the U.S. paper, pulp and wood products industry has made significant, measurable progress toward achieving the goals of its Better Practices, Better Planet 2020 sustainability initiative.

Newsprint Exports Decline Sharply

Newsprint Exports See Drastic Fall: A drastic fall in Canadian newsprint shipments to traditional export markets in Asia and Latin America this year is creating more storm clouds for the industry. For all North American mills, June offshore shipments were down 23 percent from a year earlier and down 25 percent for the first six months of 2012. Offshore business represented 28 percent of total shipments.

Consumer Magazines: 14.7% of Ad Spending

Share of U.S. Advertising Spend by Medium: Kantar Media has published a report on U.S. advertising spend by medium.

RRD Reducing Pension Contributions

R.R. Donnelley whittles away at expected pension contribution:
R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., Chicago, will reduce its expected 2012 pension contributions by $46 million, primarily as a result of the recently passed federal highway bill.

Magazines Rank Highest In Ad Receptivity

Magazines Continue to Rank Highest In Ad Receptivity: Magazines continue to score significantly higher than TV or online in ad receptivity, as well as other key engagement dimensions.

Country Sampler Finds Way to Cut Costs

Country Sampler Tweaks Color Correction, Saves Big:
For image-heavy publications, the color-correction stage is a critical pre-press process and, if adjusted for maximum precision, can be an area where publishers can save big on printing costs.
Karen Elston Davis, prepress manager for Country Sampler Group, began a quest last year to find a method that could dramatically decrease color correction time while improving quality and color balance. 

Governors Pushing for On-line Sales Tax


More than 21 states have simplified how they collect taxes in hopes of recovering an estimated $20 billion in sales taxes that go uncollected by out-of-state online merchants every year. But the nation's governors say they still need help from Congress.
Online sales are soaring. State budget deficits are growing. And tax-free Internet sales are once again in the spotlight.
Congress is considering bills that would “level the playing field” by allowing states to require all online merchants doing business in that state to collect sales tax. Web retailers have largely had a free ride since a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that only merchants with a physical presence in a state are responsible for collecting sales tax.

MAZ Plans to Change Publishing Apps


When you jam a bunch of ex-Apple designers and smart engineers into the same company, the outcome is usually pretty good.
That's still true with MAZ, a New York-based startup that's building a way for publishers to quickly roll out iPad applications for their publications.

Wired Best in Digital



  http://www.adweek.com/news/press/wired-new-yorker-entertainment-weekly-top-l2s-digital-rankings-142149
Wired is the most successful magazine brand in the digital space, according to digital marketing think tank L2. Today, L2 released its second annual Digital IQ Index: Magazines study, which ranks the best and worst digital strategies in magazine publishing.

Hearst's Elle and Marie Claire Publishing Largest Issues


It looks like September is set to be a record-breaking month for a whole slew of fashion titles. Following Hearst’s news that Elle and Marie Claire are publishing their largest-ever issues (the former for Hearst, the latter for the magazine itself), Vogue, InStyle and People StyleWatch are on track to set their own records with impressive ad gains.

Random House & FreemantleMedia to Develop TV Shows


In a corporate-sibling partnership that could help FremantleMedia build a scripted programming business in the U.S., the production company has inked a first-look deal with Random House to co-develop shows based on book titles.