How Catalogs Drive Your Business

http://www.retailonlineintegration.com/article/how-catalogs-drive-your-business/1

The printed catalog is the main driver of traffic to the web. However, with all of the other touchpoints available to consumers today, how do we really know the impact of catalog mailings on web sales? And why do we give so much credit to the print catalog? There are a few reasons why, and they include the following:
The process of matching back order files to mail tapes gives companies the strongest sense of how catalogs drive web business. 
When looking at your order curves, you'll see that online sales spike every time a catalog hits in-home
Contact strategy testing: Try testing holdout panels in mail vs. no mail split tests. The mailed segments always perform better.
A reduction in catalog circulation always results in a reduction of sales from the web.

Hearst Names Western European Director

http://ipdahome.org/newsstand/?cat=296

Hearst Magazines International has appointed Arnaud de Puyfontaine managing director for Western Europe. Puyfontaine, 49, has been CEO of Hearst Magazines U.K. since 2009 and EVP of Hearst Magazines International since 2011. He will now oversee the activities of Hearst Magazines in Spain, Italy, Holland, Germany and France. He will continue to report to Duncan Edwards, president and CEO of HMI. HMI is building a presence in the region, launching a German edition of Harper’s Bazaar in September and a French edition in 2014.

REMAG Incentives Program Expands

http://ipdahome.org/newsstand/?cat=296

REMAG, a program in which consumers recycle magazines, newspapers or catalogs in in-store kiosks, has been implemented in SuperMax supermarkets in Puerto Rico. For each recycled periodical, consumers get up to five instant coupons good for discounts off magazines of their choice (across 15 categories). They can also designate a nonprofit or charity to receive a monetary reward for each coupon. The program has support from leading consumer products companies (General Mills, P&G, Kraft, Pepsi, among others) and environmental organizations.   

Next Steps Marketing

Business Worries About USPS Rate Jump

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/1007-other/319075-postal-services-big-customers-dreading-a-rate-hike

Private-sector groups are growing increasingly worried that the Postal Service's board is going to consider a broad rate increase next month, a move they say would amount to an attack on some of the agency’s best customers. Industries that heavily use the mail, like magazines, catalog marketers and banks, say that a sharp hike in the postage rate would drag down their bottom line.

 Mailers also insist that, while they understand the USPS's board of governors has to look for ways to firm up a dire financial situation, approving a rate increase would be counterproductive for the agency, and little more than a temporary substitute for the long-term changes the service desperately needs. 
A postal rate increase of as much as 10 percent could produce a short-term revenue burst for the struggling service, mailers say, but could be a long-term loser once companies rely less on the mail.

Access Intelligence Sells Health Group Brands to UCG

http://www.foliomag.com/2013/access-intelligence-sells-health-group-brands-ucg#.Uh5YQbyYyKw

Access Intelligence has sold its Dorland Health and Contexo Media brands to Gaithersburg, Maryland-based UCG, a portfolio company with brands in the healthcare, financial services and telecom markets, among others.
Terms of the deal, done on behalf of UCG's DecisionHealth LLC, were not released.
Access Intelligence, parent company of FOLIO:, produces multiplatform content for several markets including media, energy and aviation/aerospace. Healthcare is a fourth grouping, but, as evidenced by the sale, is not considered as core to the company's strategic focus.
Contexo Media provides books, software and e-learning products for medical practices in the areas of reimbursement, coding and compliance. And Dorland Health publishes the monthly Case in Point as well as a group of newsletters.

Digital Growth Ignites Innovation

http://whattheythink.com/articles/65012-digital-growth-ignites-innovation/

Stakeholders in the sign and display market can look back on the past 18 months and note solid growth attributed to the steady and measured ascent of digital printing. Globally, we witnessed the continued adoption and embrace of digital as innovative new technologies helped print providers convert analog pages to generate new business and increase opportunities with existing clients.
Industry reports noted that high-end digital printing equipment sales reached record levels in the past year. As screen and offset technologies decline, analog manufacturers are increasingly focused on reducing costs for short runs. Meanwhile, digital UV and latex technologies are quickly gaining ground and reaching new levels of productivity and quality.
The financial climate has also pushed print providers to reduce costs and improve efficiency, while simultaneously finding new revenue with higher-value added services. 

Out-of-Home Continues to Grow

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/207796/out-of-home-continues-revenue-upswing.html#axzz2dChgh1yd

Out-of-home advertising revenues increased 5% from around $2.1 billion in the second quarter of 2012 to just under $2.2 billion in the second quarter of 2013, according to the latest figures from the Outdoor Advertising Association of America.
This marks the 13th straight quarter of growth for out-of-home, which has posted steady year-over-year increases since the second quarter of 2010. 

EURO-GRAPH Reports P&W Jully Ships

http://www.euro-graph.org/publicms/index/view/

EURO-GRAPH has reported European coated mechanical paper shipments in July fell -5.7% as compared to the same month last year. Demand declined -7.2%. Exports rose +1.3%. Coated woodfree shipments were down -5.7%, demand fell -3.8% and exports decreased -14.8%. Supercalendered paper shipments fell -0.6%, but demand went up +0.5%. Exports declined -4.8%. Uncoated woodfeee shipments for the month decreased -3.2%, demand was down -4.3%, but exports rose +6%.

UPM to Reorganize Finance & Control Operations

http://www.paperage.com/2013news/08_27_2013upm_reorganize_finance.html

UPM announced that it plans to reorganize its Finance & Control operations and to outsource recurring transactional tasks to an external company by the end of second quarter 2014.

The reorganization is expected to affect up to 180 positions, mainly in Finland and China, UPM said.

The plan is part of UPM’s profit improvement program published on the 6th of August 2013, the company added.

According to UPM, the restructuring of operations aims to improve Finance & Control function’s cost-efficiency through simplifying the ways of working and building the ability to scale to current and future business needs.

July Global Pulp Shipments Up

Global pulp deliveries edged up by 1.2% to 3.683 million tonnes in July, up from 3.639 million tonnes in June, according to Pulp and Paper Products Council (PPPC) data.
Shipments were 6.9% higher than the year-earlier period, up from 3.445 million tonnes in July 2012.
The shipment-to-capacity ratio fell from 92% in June to 90% last month.
Bleached softwood kraft (BSK) pulp shipments moved up from 1.840 million tonnes in June to 1.944 million tonnes in July, while bleached hardwood kraft (BHK) pulp deliveries fell from 1.680 million tonnes in June to 1.617 million tonnes last month.

China's Imports of RCP and Pulp Grow

China's recovered paper (RCP) imports ticked up last month, climbing 5.0% from June to more than 2.384 million tonnes in July, according to data from China Customs.

Mixed paper intake saw the biggest increase, surging 18.8% compared to June to 466,295 tonnes.

This is down to a sharp decline in June, when intake plummeted 22.7% from May to 392,531 tonnes.

Mixed paper is the prime target of the Chinese government's intensified customs inspections under the Green Fence policy. Buyers and sellers have tried to stay away from trading the grade, especially European tonnage.

July's total RCP imports figure was 1.4% higher than the 2.352 million tonnes recorded in July 2012. 

China's total pulp imports grew 7.8% in July compared to the previous month, climbing to 1.388 million tonnes, according to data from China Customs.

The rise was ascribed to a surge of bleached softwood kraft pulp imports, which amounted to 575,178 tonnes last month - up 15.2% from June.

Intake of bleached hardwood kraft pulp edged down 3.0% month-on-month to 482,131 tonnes.

July's total pulp import figure was 16.1% higher than the 1.196 million tonnes recorded in the same month of 2012.

NewPage Introduces Ed #15

http://news.paperindex.com/ProductLaunches_NewTechnology/NewPage_Introduces_Ed_15_Interactive_Print/ 

NewPage Corporation (NewPage) announced today the release of Ed #15: Interactive Print, the newest brochure in its popular "Ed" series which has been delivering educational tips and advice on printing techniques, new technologies and sustainability topics relevant to customers and other stakeholders for more than a decade.  
"Ed #15 showcases paper as the original interactive communication medium," states Steven DeVoe, vice president, Marketing for NewPage. "Paper keeps getting better, finding new ways to connect, not just to a particular audience, but also to other media. With new browser technologies, print has become a uniquely effective gateway to video, websites, e-catalogs and other information through smart devices. Printed communication is more vital than ever. It's vibrant and highly effective—reaching millions and selling billions."

Print: Evolve from Outbound to Inbound Marketing

http://whattheythink.com/articles/65025-lets-proactively-evolve-print-outbound-inbound-marketing/

Outbound marketing is promotion-based; spread the message about my company, my products, and my services to as many people as I can interrupt in the hope that some will find the message relevant. Print examples of this are blasting out huge direct mail campaigns to strangers, newspaper advertisements, and billboards. The majority of outbound marketing messages get ignored – we filter mass e-mails, we fast forward through commercials, we ignore billboards, we throw away junk mail.
Inbound marketing is attraction-based; give something away, create compelling content in exchange for the permission to market to a prospect who has already found your message relevant. The message in inbound marketing isn’t about you; it’s about your customer’s challenges – that’s what makes it relevant and compelling to them. We also ignore some of this marketing, not because it interrupted us but because it wasn’t relevant to us. When it is relevant, we consume the content and give “permission” to send further marketing messages.

Print Preferred by Parents for Back-to-School Shopping

http://printinthemix.com/Fastfacts/Show/768

The back-to-school shopping season is second only to Christmas in size and importance to retail sales.The Back-to-School Shopping: 2013 Trends, a survey by mobile location analytics company Placed, provides analysis of purchase planning, advertising preferences and smartphone usage which influence shopping activities.The survey’s results highlight the power and importance of print in the advertising mix.PARENTS PREFER PRINT ADVERTISING FOR BACK-TO-SCHOOL PROMOTIONS  
When more than 12,000 U.S study participants (all smartphone users with at last one child) were asked which ways they prefer to receive back-to-school promotions, 46.3% said “print ads,” followed by “direct mail” (41.3%) -- far ahead of social media (21.2%).

Rodale Publishing Custom Magazines for Hotel Chains

http://www.foliomag.com/2013/rodale-publishing-custom-magazines-hotel-chains#.Uh0JJ7yYyKw

Rodale Grow, the content marketing agency of Rodale Inc., will publish magazines for two hotel chains owned by Hilton Worldwide. The Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts and Conrad Hotels & Resorts will both launch luxury magazines focused on their unique collections of lifestyle brands.
The bi-annual titles will have free print issues, available in-room at hotels and resorts globally, and be digitally distributed via Flipboard, iTunes and the Google Play Store. 
“Rodale has been increasingly involved in custom publishing over the past several years,” says Robert Novick, SVP, international, business development and partnerships for Rodale in a statement. “We’re looking to expand even more this year and next in both digital and print."

Reactions to USPS Exigency Case

http://www.dmnews.com/exigency-extra/article/309012/

With the direct mail industry preparing to debate the United States Postal Service's (USPS) Postal Board of Governors on Sept. 5 in a discussion about a potential exigent rate increase, we present considerations posed by parties that figure to be affected by such a move.
"If the USPS Board of Governors impose an above-CPI-cap exigency postage increase on catalog mailers, catalog mail volume will inevitably take a significant fall. In some cases, catalog volume could decline to post-2007 rate increase levels, and will be very hard for some companies to recover from. More than six years since the damaging 20%-plus postage increase imposed on catalog mail, this industry has still yet to recover; an exigency increase will only exacerbate the problem." — American Catalog Mailers Association
“With the availability of highly effective and efficient marketing alternatives, any significant postage rate increase would change the ROI calculus by companies in comparing alternatives. That shifting ROI, in turn, would threaten the sustainability of our existing strategies and compel an industry-wide shift of investment of communication and advertising dollars from mail to those alternative channels...  — The Affordable Mail Alliance
“Attempting to address some of the service's inherent problems—notably an oversized and underutilized infrastructure—by imposing a rate increase on a product [periodicals] postmaster generals have called ‘the anchor of the mailbox' [as] both unwise and unlawful... — MPA , The Association of Magazine Media
“And now let's look at the reasons why the USPS should not play the exigency card. The primary reason is that the result of higher-than-CPI increases will be an immediate loss of volume and movement to other marketing channels...— Joe Schick, director of postal affairs, Quad/Graphics 
And more...