Time Inc. Buys AmEx Publishing

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/208815/time-inc-buys-amex-publishing.html#axzz2eQF39XP8

Time Inc. is making big strategic moves as it prepares to be spun off from Time Warner. In the biggest move so far, on Tuesday, newly appointed CEO Joseph Ripp announced the acquisition of all of American Express Publishing’s magazines, including Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Departures, Executive Travel and Black Ink.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the price tag is believed to be less than $100 million, according to unnamed sources cited by the New York Post. 
The AmEx titles will become part of Time Inc.’s Lifestyle Group, reporting to executive vice president and Lifestyle Group president Evelyn Webster.

http://www.adweek.com/news/press/time-inc-talks-buy-american-express-titles-152307

In a well-kept secret for the usually gossipy media industry, Time Inc. has agreed to buy American Express’ luxury publishing division, which includes Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure and Departures.

The price of the sale, expected to close in Q4, wasn't disclosed.

The sales talks were prompted by rules that required AmEx, as a bank holding company, to exit noncore businesses. Banking regulations limit AmEx’s ability to work in non-banking activities.

The New Yorker Tests Native Advertising

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

The New Yorker has begun running content on behalf of brands. But unlike other magazines that set the stage a year or so ago, there has been little fanfare around the fact that one of the most prestigious publications in print has gone native. According to a New Yorker spokesperson, the magazine’s native advertising initiative is not very different from other large, integrated programs Condé Nast brands have run for numerous advertisers over the years. Sponsored content is being created by TNY’s business side.   

Digiday

Hearst's Harper Bazaar/Yoox Group Agreement

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

Hearst’s Harper’s Bazaar and Yoox Group have signed an agreement establishing Yoox as the primary retail partner for ShopBazaar.com, the e-commerce platform. The partnership with Yoox will link ShopBazaar.com, which allows readers to shop for products featured in the magazine and its Web site (products chosen by editors), with two Yoox e-commerce sites thecorner.com and shoescribe.com, focused on high fashion and shoe shopping, respectively. E-commerce offerings from the Yoox sites are integrated into ShopBazaar.com alongside editorial content from Harper’s Bazaar. The magazine launched ShopBazaar a year ago, with Saks Fifth Avenue as its partner, but that partnership ended in June. Previously, Hearst’s Elle announced a partnership with e-commerce platform Net-a-Porter. That deal gives Elle Web site visitors access to 1,200+ luxury products from Net-a-Porter, and allows users to browse and search for products by a variety of characteristics, including category, color, price and designer.

MediaPost MediaDailyNews

WWD

Fashion Mags Bet on E-Commerce

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/208742/fashion-mags-bet-on-e-commerce.html#axzz2eQF39XP8

Fashion magazines are jumping into e-commerce feet first with a series of investments and partnerships with e-commerce sites. In the latest such investment, Hearst Corp.’s Harper’s Bazaar has signed a deal with Yoox making the latter the primary retail partner for ShopBazaar.com, the title’s online e-commerce platform.

The Atlantic’s Digital Side Expansion

http://www.foliomag.com/2013/atlantic-s-digital-side-continues-expansion-tear#.Ui9J0ryYyKw

TheAtlantic.com debuted its latest digital news site, the Education Channel, Monday evening—its tenth topic-specific site launch. The Atlantic has long made education a key subject for editorial coverage and this new channel will create a single location on the magazine’s site where readers can access all education-related stories.

POLITICO Acquires Capital New York

http://www.foliomag.com/2013/politico-acquires-capital-new-york#.Ui9JnryYyKw

Washington D.C. political reporting publication, POLITICO, announced its acquisition of Capital New York. This is the first major transaction since publisher Robert Allbritton sold his television holdings in July.
POLITICO co-founder and executive editor, Jim VandeHei will now also serve as president of the Capital New York division, and he tells Folio: this move was a play "to test our journalistic and business theories in another market." He adds that, "Everything we've done so far has been in Washington, but there is a certain way we do journalism, a certain velocity, a certain voice, and we've always wanted to try it outside of Washington. And to us, New York is the next logical place."

People Tries New Tiered-Subscription Model

http://www.foliomag.com/2013/people-tries-new-tiered-subscription-model#.Ui9JdryYyKw

People is revamping its subscription model, putting a premium on its digital products and adding new entry points.
Readers can go print- or digital-only for $112 per year, but they're getting more—i.e. apps and exclusive content—with the latter. A combination of the two runs $132 annually, while a V.I.P. offer, including multiplatform access, gift boxes and monthly prize drawings, is $200 per year.
Options had been limited before today's announcement. Combined print and digital subscription packages were sold for $112, with the choice to opt out of receiving the print magazine. There were no upper-tier options.

Direct Mail Without Call Tracking Is Just Silly

http://www.dmnews.com/direct-mail-without-call-tracking-is-just-silly/article/310903/

There's no rational reason why anyone should spend a dime, dollar, or penny on direct mail and then fail to use a call tracking number on the direct mail pieces themselves. Call tracking numbers provide incredibly valuable data about which mailers produce calls.
Not only can they tell you which ad copy, colors, size, CTA, geographic targeting efforts, and offers, produce calls—they can tell you which don't. Can you say optimization? They're also really easy to implement on direct mail pieces. You're putting a phone number on their anyway, right? You might as well put a phone number that gives you data.
Now let's talk pros and cons.

Print Is Doing Just Fine, Thank You

http://whattheythink.com/articles/65290-no-matter-what-critics-say-print-doing-just-fine-thank-you/

Ah, the travails of traditional media. Who among us hasn’t stifled a groan, or at least a yawn, upon being reminded by the digerati that the path ahead for print leads nowhere else but down?
But, the traditional media aren’t the only ones being disrupted by what’s been happening in the communications marketplace.
Digitizing information delivery doesn’t necessarily mean improving information delivery. Internet analytics provider comScore recently reported that of nearly 6 trillion display ad impressions sent across the web in 2012, 3 ads in 10 were never “rendered-in-view”: that is, actually seen by anyone. The results of this inefficiency, said comScore, were “significant waste, weaker campaign performance and a glut of poor-performing inventory that imbalances the supply-and-demand equation and depresses CPMs.”
Without doubt, print has taken its share of the lumps in the communications upheaval brought about by the rise of the Internet and, most recently, by our infatuation with mobile. But, print has been made stronger by what it’s endured, and it may be better positioned than some of the other media to profit from change still to come.

Incoming Catalyst CEO Visits BC Mill

http://www.avtimes.net/catalyst-incoming-ceo-impressed-by-alberni-1.614418

Although he is not yet officially the CEO of Catalyst Paper, Joe Nemeth was in Port Alberni on Wednesday to see how the local operation works.

Last month, Nemeth was the new president and chief executive officer, but the position does not come into effect until Oct. 1. With a strong interest in the pulp and paper industry from a hands-on perspective, Nemeth said it was important to him to tour the operations and see how they run.
Nemeth is originally from Victoria. Although he has visited the Alberni Valley, he never toured the local mill until this week.He left the tour impressed by both the operation and its employees.

Sappi Intends to Voluntarily Delist from NYSE

http://www.paperage.com/2013news/09_09_2013sappi_delisting_nyse.html

Sappi Limited ("Sappi" or the "Company") (SPP) announces its intention to voluntarily delist its American Depositary Shares ("ADSs"), which are evidenced by American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs"), from the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE"). Sappi will convert its current ADR programme into a Level I ADR programme to give current ADR holders the option to continue to hold ADRs. Level I ADRs are traded in the United States over-the-counter market as opposed to on a U S national securities exchange.

The Company's decision to delist from the NYSE is based on the low trading volume of its ADSs on the NYSE as well as the high costs and administrative complexity associated with maintaining its listing and registration in the U S. As of today, less than 1% of Sappi's shares are held through its ADR programme, and for the twelve months ended 28 August 2013, less than 1% of Sappi's average daily trading volume occurred on the NYSE, where the Company has been listed since 1998.

Natural Gas Conversions to Benefit ME P&P Mills

http://www.mainebiz.biz/article/20130902/CURRENTEDITION/308299998?template=mobileart

When natural gas from a pipeline starts flowing into UPM Madison's heating furnaces late this year, it will be a fuel conversion several decades in the making and a move General Manager Russ Drechsel expects will boost the paper mill's competitiveness.

"We first looked at this 30 years ago, and today it has become a reality," says Drechsel of the switch from oil to compressed to liquefied and now to pipeline natural gas. While he would not reveal the savings the magazine-grade paper mill expects from the changeover, he says even a savings of 10% would have been more than enough to make the investment. But by his estimates, the mill could see a much better return than that. Drechsel says natural gas will cost about one-third less than oil on a per ton basis. Still, he's opted for a dual-burner system, with the memories of oil price fluctuations and natural gas shortages last winter still fresh in his mind.

Nippon Nears Biomass Startup in Washington

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20130901/NEWS/309019985/testing-to-begin-before-nippon-biomass-facility-goes-online-next-month

After more than two years of construction and controversy, Nippon Paper Industries USA's expanded biomass cogeneration plant is stirring to life in preparation for going online in October.

"We're doing checkouts of various pieces of equipment," mill manager Harold Norlund said last week from his Ediz Hook office.
He sat in front of a picture window dominated by the cogeneration plant's conical biomass-fuel silo and related buildings.

Eldorado Seeks Funds for 2 Million MTPY Pulp Line

http://www.eldoradobrasil.com.br/En/index.html

Brazilian pulp producer Eldorado Brasil has applied to the Brazilian middle west dvelopment fund (FDCO) to raise Real 1.4 billion for the expansion of its 1.3 million tonnes/yr bleached eucalyptus kraft (BEK) pulp mill in Três Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul. The funds would be used for the construction of a new 2 million tonnes/yr BEK pulp line, estimated at Real 7 billion and scheduled to start operating in 2017. 
Grubisich first announced the company's intentions of building a 2 million tonnes/yr line - instead of the previously planned 1.7 million tonnes/yr line - last August, in the CEO/Executive Panel Discussion at RISI's Latin American Pulp and Paper Outlook Conference, in São Paulo, Brazil.

Demolition Begins on Verso's Sartell Mill

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/06/3610363/demolition-of-former-minn-paper.html

Crews have started demolishing the former Verso Paper mill in Sartell.
Jeff McGlin of AIM Development, which now owns the mill, says workers have started removing buildings on the north side of the site.
McGlin tells the St. Cloud Times (http://on.sctimes.com/18zAbcD) that over the next month, demolition will move toward the utility plant.
Part of the paper mill was destroyed in an explosion and fire last year. The plant's former owner decided to shut it down and sold the property.

Direct Mail, Book Publishing Gaining Momentum

http://digitalprinting.blogs.xerox.com/2013/09/direct-mail-book-publishing-and-transpromo-gaining-momentum-as-growth-applications/#.Ui4bxbyYyKw

Direct mail, book publishing and transpromo are gaining momentum as the most promising sources of growth for graphic communications providers, who continue to find digital printing helps them expand their businesses.
These are among the results of the annual survey of  the Xerox Premier Partners Global Network consisting of leading graphic communications providers. The survey was conducted online in six languages during August 2013 by GMC Analytics Software among more than 400 Xerox Premier Partners.

Q2 U.S. Ad Spending +3.5%

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

After flat Q1 spending, ad spending in measured U.S. media rose 3.5% in Q2 vs. Q2 2012, reports Kantar Media. However, last year’s Q2 spending was depressed by marketers reserving budgets for the Summer Olympics, and Q2 2013 got an extra lift from more NBA playoff games. Without those factors, spending in Q2 2013 would have been down by a full percentage point. Consumer magazines’ Q2 ad dollars rose 1.9% based on their rate card prices, but their number of ad pages fell 2.1%, according to Kantar.  

Ad Age

Bloomberg Businessweek to Release Documentary

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

The magazine sold the documentary, which focuses on the 2008 financial crisis and the role of former Treasury Secretary Henry “Hank” Paulson Jr. in trying to contain it, to Netflix for exclusive distribution. The film will premiere at an event Thursday that will include a panel featuring Paulson and NYC Mayor/BB owner Michael Bloomberg. “I think that we have done a good job at the magazine of building up credibility, but we wanted to stretch that credibility into other forms of media,” said editor Josh Tyrangiel.

NY Times

Time to End CnnMoney Partnership

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

Last week, Time’s News Group president Todd Larsen told staff that the CNN Money joint venture between Time Inc. and Turner, the cable parent of CNN, will be dissolved on May 30. The site, which had nearly 12 million unique monthly visitors in July, will be kept alive by Turner, but Fortune and Money magazines will no longer contribute Web content. Instead, they will develop their own Web sites. 
NY Post