Friday, November 30, 2012

The Economist Unbundles Tablet From Print

Time Inc. gives its print subscribers access to tablet and smartphone apps under a strategy it calls "All Access" -- designed in part to shore up print. But it gave up on an attempt to use that more robust package to underpin a price hike at Sports Illustrated from $39 to $48. Rival publishers such as Hearst and Conde Nast, meanwhile, have resolutely sold app subscriptions separately, figuring they're leaving money on the table otherwise.
Now an important independent magazine is leaving the "All Access" camp: The Economist last month stopped bundling app access with all new print subscriptions, charging more to newcomers who want both and introducing a print option that comes without apps.

Latin American Printing Forecast to Grow 4% in 2012

http://whattheythink.com/ 
A study produced by the Graphics of the Americas Expo & Conference (GOA) forecasts a positive state for the print industry in Latin America, a core GOA audience, in 2013.
Produced annually by the Printing Association of Florida, and now in its 38th year, GOA is held February 21-23, 2013, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
Based on statistics reported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the study reveals that the Latin America printing industry remained positive for most of the last decade, with a projected growth of 4% in 2013. The projected GDP in 2013 for Latin America and the Caribbean is 3.9%.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Labor Strike Affects CA Ports

A strike that began at the Oakland, CA, port yesterday apparently spread to the port in Long Beach, contacts said today.
"They have basically closed all ports this afternoon in Long Beach," said one California paper trader.
The Southern California port action involved clerical workers, not longshoremen, contacts said.
In Northern California, a trader today said that a contact said that APM Terminals Pier 400 "has been on strike" since yesterday and that "today Yusen (Terminals), Evergreen, Hyundai California United Terminals, (and) China Shipping ... have added to the list."
Also at Oakland, on Nov. 20, Service Employees International union 200 workers disrupted shipping at the port, local media reported.

Port Hawk Pensioners Asked to Pay Co.

NewPage Port Hawkesbury pensioners told to pay back $5 million due to calculation error:
Former workers of NewPage Port Hawkesbury in Nova Scotia were told this week that they have been overpaid and will each have to pay back thousands of dollars.
Morneau Shepell Ltd., the current pension plan administrator, sent out letters to the pensioners telling them how much they will have to pay back, and blamed the calculation error on the previous plan administrator, Aon PLC.
The mistake was made while calculating the early retirement provisions years prior to the idling of the mill in 2011.  About 200 people who opted to take a specific front-loading pension option are the pensioners who are now said to have been overpaid, and owe a collective $5 million. Some people have found out they have been overpaid as much as $60,000.

Graphic Packaging to Buy A&R Carton's Beer and Beverage

Graphic Packaging to acquire A&R Carton's Beer and Beverage Packaging Business in Europe
Graphic Packaging Holding Company recently announced an agreement for one of its subsidiaries to acquire A&R Carton's Beer and Beverage packaging business in Europe. The deal includes two manufacturing facilities that convert approximately 30,000 tons of paperboard annually.

Canadian National Printing Association Announced

Formation of New National Printing Association Formally Announced: PISC and CPIA have formally announced the formation of a new printing association to be called Printing Industries of Canada (PIC). PIC "will serve as the national voice of the industry and will actively support and promote the health and growth of Canada’s printing industry," and will be officially launched in April 2013.

Magazines Continue Tablet Commitment

Magazines Double Down On Tablet Commitment: The magazine industry’s faith in the future of tablets is not easing up, even though advertiser support for digital editions has been slow in coming and these platforms still represent a small fraction of overall distribution for most books.
Leading among group publishers is Hearst, from whom iMonitor counted 89 apps, followed by Time Warner with 84, Conde Nast with 83 and Future Media with 82.

43% of Magazines Have Both Print, Digital Growth

GfK MRI: Over 40 Percent of Magazines Have Concurrent Print, Digital Growth: More than 40 percent of magazines surveyed saw concurrent print and digital audience growth in the fall of 2012, according to the most recent study by GfK MRI.

Next Issue Expands Title Offerings

Next Issue Expands Title Offerings Outside 5 Founding Companies:
Next Issue Media, the company behind the unlimited magazine app Next Issue, is a joint venture formed by five of the largest domestic publishers—Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp. and Time Inc. To offer readers more options, the company announced Thursday that it is expanding its iPad catalog beyond these five companies. The new offerings will include magazines from publishers like Mansueto Ventures, New York Media and American Express Publishing, among others.

BPA Members’ Circulation: Digital Now 21%

Digital Accounts for 21 Percent of BPA Members’ Circulation:
The number of publishers reporting digital copies is growing, new numbers for media-auditing firm BPA Worldwide show. A total of 532 BPA print titles reported digital circulation for the June 2012 cycle—an increase of 6.4 percent when comparing the December 2011 period.

Wired's Puzzel; Only in Print

Wired celebrated its 20th anniversary year in 2012 with a hidden and quite old-school little print puzzle. If you stack the January through December issues with the covers facing up, it reveals a (frankly hard-to-read) quote on the spines that Wired founding editor Louis Rossetto made in the first issue, in 1993: "Our first instruction to our writers: Amaze us." A reader in Riverside, Calif., named Ben Allen was the first to notice the pattern—realizing after the first nine issues that it was spelling out a message. He quickly guessed the complete line with a Google search. The puzzle's makers, Eric Harshbarger and Mike Selinker, were wise to stick with Rossetto's pithy first instruction to writers. His second was: "We know a lot about digital technology, and we are bored with it. Tell us something we've never heard before, in a way we've never seen before. If it challenges our assumptions, so much the better."

Kodak Accepts Improved Credit Facility

Kodak Accepts Improved, $830-Million Credit Facility: Eastman Kodak has received and accepted an offer from the Steering Committee of the Second Lien Noteholders Committee for interim and exit financing totaling $830 million in loans. The commitment is superior to, and therefore replaces, the $793 million commitment announced by the company on Nov. 12.

Folio: People On The Move

People On The Move | 11.29.12:
Source Interlink’s Automobile Magazine has added Todd Lassa as its executive editor and Michael Jordan as senior editor. Lassa joins the magazine from sister publication Motor Trend, where he was Detroit editor. Jordan joins the magazine from Edmunds.com, where he was an executive editor and more...

ARM & UBM Tech Launch Signum

ARM and UBM Tech Launch New Digital Magazine:
ARM, a supplier and architect of digital semiconductor chips, has partnered with UBM Tech to launch the new digital magazine–Signum. The focus of Signum is to combine journalistic content with robust multimedia technology. 

Diversified Business Communications Buys Amazing Charts

Diversified Business Communications Buys Electronic Health Record Provider:
Portland, Maine-based b-to-b media company Diversified Business Communications has acquired Amazing Charts, a provider of electronic health records. The deal is intended to expand Diversified's Pri-Med division and its medical education business. 

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

EURO-GRAPH Reports Oct. Numbers


EURO-GRAPH has reported October European Graphic paper shipments rose +2.4% as compared to the same month last year. Exports increased +5.5% and demand was up +0.9%.

Sappi Cloquet: Union Votes to Authorize Strike

Sappi Fine Paper North America has learned that, in a vote yesterday, the Cloquet Mill employees represented by the United Steelworkers (USW) have authorized their leadership to call a strike if it chooses to do so. "Even though such a vote is not uncommon, and does not mean a strike will occur, we are very disappointed in the membership's action, given our fair and competitive contract package," said Rick Dwyer, Managing Director, Cloquet, Sappi Fine Paper North America.

Catalyst Paper Names Bidder for Snowflake

Catalyst Paper identifies the bidder for its Snowflake mill assets in Arizona.:
Catalyst Paper has accepted a qualified stalking horse bid from MLR Ventures, LLC  as part of the sales process for disposition of the Snowflake facility and Apache Railway.
“We have received a $12.0 million Stalking Horse bid for the assets and land associated with the Snowflake facility and the equity of Apache Railway,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin J. Clarke. “We look forward to beginning the next phase of the sale process and to identifying a qualified buyer in the near term.”

AbitibiBowater Mill Project Dead

A proposal to make pellets at the former AbitibiBowater mill in Grand Falls-Windsor is dead, CBC News has learned.
In May, Natural Resources Minister Jerome Kennedy confirmed that a company was interested in setting up shop at the former mill site.
But the company involved, York Energy, now says the government abruptly cancelled the negotiations and has killed the deal.

Resolute Estimates Fort Frances Idling Costs

Resolute Forest Products’ costs for indefinitely idling kraft mill and paper machine in Fort Frances:
Resolute Forest Products estimates the company will incur a charge of approximately $12 million for severance and other termination benefits, and $5 million in other closure costs resulting from the indefinite idling of the kraft mill and one paper machine in Fort Frances, Ontario.
Total future cash expenditures associated with these items are expected to be approximately $14 million.
Resolute Forest Products also expects to incur approximately $32 million of non-cash asset impairment charges to reduce the carrying value of the assets to their estimated fair value.

NS to Spend $6.3 million to Increase Crown Land

Nova Scotia plans to spend $6.3 million to increase Crown land base:
Nova Scotia is setting aside $6.3 million in its 2013-2014 budget to increase the province’s Crown land base.
Lands purchased will be used to increase coastal access, protect Mi’kmaq values, enhance wildlife conservation, and help the province meet its 12% land protection goal. The $6.3 million dollar investment includes $800 thousand from the Forestry Transition Land Acquisition Program.

Magazine Digital Readership Up 47%

Magazines’ newsstand sales may be struggling, but there’s a bright spot when it comes to digital readership. Today, GfK MRI released its fall 2012 Survey of the American Consumer, which tracks print and digital magazine readership, and found that magazine readership had increased by 1.6 percent (or nearly 20 million people) to 1.2 billion people since last spring. That was helped by a significant bump in digital consumption: Readership of magazines' digital editions jumped 47 percent, or 4.4 million people, to more than 13.5 million.

Time Launches Digital Video Unit

More changes are afoot at Time Inc. following the reshuffling CEO Laura Lang kicked off last summer. Today, in a company-wide memo, Lang announced the launch of a new digital video unit, a recognition that the company's brands need to tap new, potentially lucrative sources of revenue as their traditional print business continues to decline. 
To manage the unit, Lang brought in J.R. McCabe, who was vp, chief video officer at Meredith Corporation.

90% of Doctors Read Journals in Print

http://www.mmm-online.com/print-still-not-dead/article/269366/?DCMP=EMC-MMM_WeeklyDigest&spMailingID=5146624&spUserID=MjMyNDE2NDYwNgS2&spJobID=58987318&spReportId=NTg5ODczMTgS1 
Kantar Media found that even though younger doctors are more inclined to seek out digital journals that they still have an appreciation for the print edition of the current journal, much like their older colleagues. According to Kantar, the digital divide shakes out as follows: 90% of doctors read print journals and 40% rely on print and digital. In terms of single channel readership, Kantar said 50% of doctors were print-only and just 8% never let their fingers touch ink, relying solely on digital editions.

Buffet Still Bullish on Newspapers

Warren E. Buffett isn't letting one troubled newspaper color his view of buying what many media experts consider the dinosaurs of the news business. Mr. Buffett said he still planned to buy newspapers, even though he recently announced that he would be shutting down one that he recently bought by the end of the year.
Mr. Buffett went on a newspaper spending spree this year by buying more than 60 newspapers from Media General and a small stake in the newspaper company Lee Enterprises, a chain of mostly small dailies based in Iowa. At the time, he stressed that he had great confidence that newspapers would continue to be solid investments for decades to come.

Simon & Schuster Launching Archway Publishing

Simon & Schuster is joining Penguin and other full-service publishers in entering into the self-publishing business. In partnership with Author Solutions (now owned by Penguin), the company is launching Archway Publishing, “a new self-publishing service with a focus on fiction, nonfiction, business and children’s categories,” according to a statement.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

AF&PA Reports Oct. P&W Paper Ships

The American Forest & Paper Association released its October 2012 Printing-Writing Paper Report on Nov. 21.
According to the report, total printing-writing paper shipments decreased 2 percent in October compared to October 2011, primarily driven by declines in uncoated mechanical shipments.
Additional key findings include: 
October shipments of coated free sheet papers increased year-over-year for the fifth time in the past twelve months, reaching the highest level since September 2010. 
Shipments of uncoated free sheet paper in October increased 2 percent over the same period in 2011, with mill inventories at the lowest level since July 1995.
October uncoated mechanical paper shipments decreased 23 percent compared to October 2011, with YTD shipments down 16 percent relative to the previous year.

AF&PA Reports Recovered Fiber Consumption

The American Forest & Paper Association released its October 2012 U.S. Recovered Fiber Monthly Report on Nov. 20, 2012.
According to the report, total U.S. industry consumption of recovered paper in October was 2.49 million tons, 6 percent higher than in September 2012. Consumption was up across all grades except for Newspapers, which remained at its September low and was 25 percent lower than in October 2011. Year-to-date total consumption in 2012 is 4 percent lower than during the same period last year.

China's Paper & Board Exports Up 2.5% YTD


Reported by Customs Info.comData from China Customs Agency showed that in first 3 quarters, China exported a total of 3.531 million mts of paper paperboard ( not cut to length), up 2.5% year on year. Export value was US$ 4.23 billion, jumping 12.8%. Among which, export of newsprint and Kraft paper.

More Details from Catalog Survey; Essential Consumer Tool

Print Catalogs Remain Essential to Many Consumers: U.S. consumers continue to rely heavily on the print catalogs, as reported by the American Catalog Mailers Association in its latest study.
Key findings:
92% of those who examine the catalogs they receive have made a purchase
Nearly six out of 10 (58%) respondents look at catalogs as soon as they
Two-thirds (66%) of consumers surveyed say they examine the print catalogs they receive in the mailbox.

Departures Hikes Rate Base

Departures Sees Jump In Ad Revenue, Hikes Rate Base:
Departures, American Express Publishing’s luxury travel title, is seeing gains in print and online advertising, and will be increasing its rate base in the new year.
Ad revenue for the print magazine grew by 12 percent and paging grew by a total of two percent in 2012. The news marks the title’s second consecutive year of growth—in 2011, the magazine saw a 46 percent increase in ad revenue and a 43 percent increase in paging. Revenue from the digital side also increased by 144 percent for the full year of 2012. In all, 78 new advertisers joined Departures this year.

All You Debuts "Real Talk"

All You has even more "you" now after incorporating reader comments and questions into nearly a third of the pages of its most recent edition.
The December issue of All You debuted "Real Talk," an editorial feature that opens each of the magazine's sections with a question from readers. The franchise is threaded throughout the book as well, with flagged reader comments appearing as sidebars within several stories.

Tesco: Retailer's Success in Publishing

Tesco’s magazine has overtaken The Sun as the most read print title in the UK, proving that retail brands can become publishers in their own right.
The bi-monthly publication has grown its readership to 7.2m, according to the NRS. By contrast The Sun has a readership of 7.1m.
The retailer’s investment in content is a smart move, and it isn’t alone. Asda’s magazine has 6m readers. The M&S magazine has 3.7m readers. Sainsbury’s has 3.4m readers.

Pros & Cons of Holiday Subscription Discounts


‘Tis the season for huge savings. Whether they’re buying a car, TV or the latest Barbie, customers expect big price drops during the holiday season. The same goes in the magazine industry where publishers have made a habit of offering seasonal discounts on top of already deeply discounted subscription prices. But while slashing prices on magazines can attract hordes of new readers, there’s also the risk of having those readers undervalue the product itself.

Top Toy Catalog Ignores Typical Gender Roles

This secret is out. Sometimes, girls like to play with He-Man action figures and boys like to nurture dolls. A Swedish toy catalog is getting a lot of attention for swapping out traditional gender roles by depicting a boy playing with a dollhouse and a girl blasting an imaginary foe with a Nerf gun.
Top Toy created the holiday catalog for toy chains BR and Toys"R"Us. The catalog was released in both Denmark and Sweden, but the Swedish version features some Photoshopped changes. Perhaps most notably, a boy wielding a toy gun in the Danish catalog was replaced by a girl, while a boy appears on another page playing with a very pink dollhouse.

Retail, Online & Small Business Holiday Sales Strong

A record 247 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 226 million last year, according to the National Retail Federation. The average shopper spent $423 this weekend, up from $398 last year, helping total spending reach an estimated $59.1 billion.   
Small businesses across the country got their holiday season off to a strong start as millions of U.S. consumers "shopped small" on Small Business Saturday and made a big impact on local communities.
Holiday shoppers turned Cyber Monday into the biggest spending day ever with online sales growing 30.3 percent over the same period last year, according to cloud-based analytics findings by IBM (NYSE: IBM).

Marketing Email Often Flagged as Spam

http://www.btobonline.com/article/20121127/EMAIL13/311279994/study-marketing-email-often-flagged-as-spam
Marketing email accounts for the preponderance of spam reports, according to a study by email deliverability company Return Path. Perhaps as result, inbox delivery rates continue to fall, the company said.
Return Path's “Email Intelligence Report” found legitimate email sent by marketers accounted for 70% of “this is spam” complaints as well as 60% of all hits on spam traps, email addresses used to catch and flag spam. These spam-report results, higher than those for any email source, may be one cause of declining email deliverability rates, according to the report.

Q3 Newpaper Ads Down -5.1%

Overall newspaper advertising revenue declined to $5.27 billion in the third quarter, a drop of 5.1% from the year-earlier period, according to the Newspaper Association of America.
This is the 25th straight quarter of ad revenue declines for newspapers, the NAA said. From 2006-11, total newspaper ad revenue plunged 51.5%, from $49.30 billion to $23.90 billion.

Print Still Growing in India

The death knell may have sounded for a number of newspaper and magazine titles around the world, but India's print media sector is still enjoying growth.
It is not the country's busy and thriving cities that are largely fuelling this growth. Instead, media companies and advertisers have turned to smaller cities and towns where local publications are thriving amid improving literacy rates and burgeoning spending power.

HarperCollins Launches HarperTeen

HarperCollins Publishers announced today the launch of HarperTeen Impulse, a digital imprint focusing on Young Adult short stories and novellas. The new imprint will publish short-form works from new and established authors, providing original and exciting new teen ebooks across a wide variety of genres.

Interview with NAPL VP, Chief Economist

NAPL State of the Industry:
For most of us at NAPL, the Graph Expo show is where we conclude our research about this year and start thinking about next year. It is also where Andy Paparrozi, NAPLs VP and Chief Economist, announces the results of our State of the Industry research. During our latest NewsTalk Live webinar, I had the chance to interview Andy and here is a small segment of that interview.

Future PLC's Digital Focus

Future PLC's Digital Play:
Future plc, the UK-based enthusiast publisher that once relied heavily on print newsstand sales and subscriptions, has been in deep turnaround mode making digital a primary focus. And that challenge has been best illustrated in its struggling U.S.-based operations, where after a year of cost contraction through title sell-offs and closures and staff reductions, digital has become a strategic imperative.

Direct Marketers Face Change

Direct marketers embrace change, but worry: As the year comes to a close and 2013 approaches, marketers find themselves facing a radically different direct marketing scenario than in the past—along with several other concerns about the future.

It’s Time for Print Ads to be More Social

It’s About Time for Your Print Advertising to be More Social:
Despite this, my experience has shown that there are some media channels, such as print, ..that marketers don’t think about how social media and technology can be influenced by the medium, or vice-versa.
Following are a number of ways that your print advertising can be more social and be better integrated with technology:
PROMOTE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTIONS
Print advertising can drive a huge amount of traffic to your social media promotions.
GET CREATIVE AND INSPIRE SOCIAL AMPLIFICATION
Dazzle your consumers with print ads that are so incredibly creative that they feel compelled to share their experience with your ad with their social networks.
PROMOTE FOURSQUARE CHECK-IN SPECIALS
GRANT ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
DRIVE TO A COMPLIMENTARY MOBILE WEBSITE
INCLUDE A COMPELLING CTA

Postmaster General Compares USPS to...Twinkies

Ailing U.S. Postal Service Strives to Avoid Twinkie Fate: While the Hostess Twinkie may not be as central to the U.S. economy as the mail, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe sees uncomfortable parallels of iconic products within unworkable organizational structures. Like Hostess Brands Inc., where a labor impasse prompted the snack-food maker’s liquidation, the Postal Service, with 28 times Hostess’s workforce of 18,000, has been squeezed by labor costs and changing consumer tastes to the brink of extinction.