September 3, 2010 J.S. Eliezer Associates, Inc. News
Supply News
NewPage Announces Price Increase on Coated Paper
NewPage announced a price hike of $2.50/cwt on coated sheet and sheeter roll brands, Anthem®, Fortune® and Gusto®, all weights, finishes and related brands. The increase will take effect on orders with confirmed delivery dates on or after Oct 1st. (NewPage)
AbitibiBowater Names Nine Directors for Restructured Company
AB announced a new board of directors of nine individuals to serve upon emergence from bankruptcy. The current Board Chairman, Richard B. Evans and President/CEO, David J. Paterson, will continue leading the new company. The term of this new board will begin when their Plans of Reorganization receive creditor approval and confirmation by US and Canadian courts. Several members selected to the board have experience in the industry, including 1) Pierre Dupois, who at one time was a senior executive at Domtar, 2) Richard Garneau, who has been a director at AB since June 2010, and recently was CEO of Catalyst Paper Corp, 3) Jeffrey Hearn, who retired from Intl Paper in April, 2009, where he served as an officer and in upper management, 4) Paul Rivett, who has been a director at AB since April 2008 with legal expertise and operations experience. Another notable director is David Wilkins, who served as the US Ambassador to Canada under George W. Bush from 2005-2009. Paterson stated, “This group of individuals represents some of the top business leaders in North America, bringing a broad range of skills and expertise as well as an unwavering commitment to corporate governance and business ethics.” (RISI and CNW)
Demand News
Source Interlink To Digitize >6 Million Magazine Photos
Source Interlink is starting to digitize its archive of photos from multiple titles over several decades. The entire archive consists of >6 million images, with the bulk from Petersen’s Hot Rod and Motor Trend titles. SVP Jacqueline Blum stated, “Many of the photos/negatives in this archive are unique, one-of-a-kind shots that do not exist elsewhere. As time marches on the ability to keep these images in pristine condition so that they can be used in the future is challenging at best, unless we take advantage of what technology has to offer us now.” The plan is to send out 25,000 negatives every 2 weeks and to get back scanned images in super high resolution (3,000 dpi) JPEG format, which will then be edited and tagged. Completion of the project will take several years. Blum said, “We will continue to develop newsstand specials and support other publications with the archive, in addition to books and other valuable uses in the coming years…this ongoing effort will make our photographic archive a more readily accessible and rich resource of automotive history.” (Folio)
Mobile Marketing Opportunity Among Shoppers
Mobile phones are used by 82% of shoppers while they are in the store, highlighting an opportunity for retailers to optimize sales via mobile coupons and social marketing. In a survey conducted by InsightExpress called the 2Q 2010 Digital Consumer Portrait, they found that 20% of Smartphone owners made a special trip to the store after receiving a mobile coupon. Many advertisers in the telecom, automotive, retail and restaurant industries are leveraging the ‘store locator’, ‘view map’ features to drive foot traffic to their establishments. Another trend is to use targeting campaigns base on past behavior or search requests. (Mobile Commerce Daily)
Economic News
August Unemployment Rate Rose to 9.6% With Job Losses
Overall, the US lost 54,000 jobs in Aug, and the unemployment rate increased slightly to 9.6% from 9.5% in July. Private employers actually added 67,000 jobs, better than forecasted; however, the government cut 121,000 jobs, including 114,000 temporary Census positions. The average workweek was unchanged at 34.2 hours. (Wall Street Journal, New York Times and MarketWatch)
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