Ink on paper is in renaissance, says editor of Wallpaper*

Magazine publishers are among the people being featured in a new series of short films by an international paper manufacturer talking about what paper means to their companies. A new film will be launched every month by UPM Paper Europe and North America website. The first film in the Talking Heads series features Wallpaper* magazine editor Tony Chambers. He says, among other things

“I’ve noticed much more interest in how you use paper and how you use ink on paper, and experimenting with getting more from it. Because if you’re going to invest in putting your content into paper, then you need to make the most of it and I think there’s a real renaissance now in how content is delivered on paper.” 

Boreal forest agreement talks break down

Negotiations towards an agreement to protect Canada's boreal forest have broken down, according to a Canadian Press story carried by Maclean's. Three years of effort have come to nothing as two of the seven environmental organizations involved -- Greenpeace and Canopy -- pulled out, saying they had nothing to show for their efforts in preserving forestlands and wildlife. 

Canopy, in particular, said virtually nothing had been accomplished in protecting threatened woodland caribou. It said, in effect, that its logging partners had been dragging their feet.

The agreement in principle, when it was announced in May 2010, expressed a hope to reconcile the need for wood and wood products, such as magazine paper, and the need for protecting endangered habitat and wildlife. There was an initial agreement to suspend logging on 29 million hectares of boreal forest (an area the size of Italy) representing about 66% of boreal forests in a broad swath across Canada. In return, the conservation groups agreed to suspend their "Do Not Buy" campaigns led by Canopy (formerly Markets Initiative), Forest Ethics and Greenpeace.

Resolute Forest Products said that it was disappointed the participants (which included 19 forest companies) couldn't come to an agreement in what the Forest Products Association of Canada described as the largest, most complex deal of its kind ever reached anywhere in the world. Resolute said that it had made a series of proposals, including setting aside 204,000 hectares of Northwestern Ontario forest for conservation and 12% or 692,000 hectares of Quebec forest. 

Canopy forest campaign withdraws from Boreal Forest agreement, citing no meaningful progress

Canopy, the forest markets campaign organization has announced that it is withdrawing from the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA), mostly because the alliance with forest industry companies and organizations has proved toothless and ineffective when it comes to preserving forestlands and wildlife. Essentially, Canopy is saying that its logging partners have been dragging their feet. 

"Despite our best efforts, not a single acre of Boreal Forestland across 170 million acres has been legislated into protection or even recommended for protection jointly by the environmental and industry caucuses," the organization said in a release. "Nor has the process succeeded in developing more than one Caribou Action Plan for the 51 herds of this threatened and iconic species. In addition, the deferrals and areas of suspended harvest that were a cornerstone of the agreement expired in 2012 and while offering assurances that deferrals remain in place, the forest industry members have consistently declined to provide maps or identify areas where harvest suspensions remain in place or where harvesting may have resumed."

Canopy says it has always focussed on getting concrete results from brokering and negotiating meaningful change, ranging from the greening of the Harry Potter books through creating Second Harvest paper from wheat straw waste and such agreements as Torstar's environmental purchasing policy, recently announced. The organization intends to shift its focus to a reinvigorated, independent markets campaign and a push to protect Quebec's Broadback Valley Forest.

Three Cree First Nations have recently declared strong support for protection for this biologically rich, intact forest within their traditional territories. The three major tenure holders in the region are, at present, on record as supporting the suspension of logging operations in the region. The Quebec government is in the process of implementing a new forest management regime. The coalescence of all these factors has opened the door to a tremendous and potentially short-lived opportunity to secure meaningful, large-scale and lasting protection of more than 60% of this high-priority boreal landscape. We hope to capitalize on this opportunity over the coming months.

The CBFA was announced in May 2010; it was an agreement between 9 conservation groups and the  21 member companies of the Forest Products Association (FPAC). The agreement covered about 66% of the commercial forests in a broad swath across Canada. There was an initial agreement to suspend logging on 29 million hectares of boreal forest (an area the size of Italy). In return, the conservation groups have agreed to suspend their "Do Not Buy" campaigns led by Canopy (formerly Markets Initiative), Forest Ethics and Greenpeace.

Using recycled magazine paper protects the environment, study says

A recent study on behalf of National Geographic magazine in the U.S. to find out if it made environmental sense for them to use recycled paper in their magazine suggests that it most certainly does. Based on an independent evaluation, in 14 out of 14 environmental impact categories, the production of deinked pulp had substantially lower environmental impacts than using virgin fibre pulp. The results of the study were reported in a guest post on Dead Tree Edition by Frank Locantore, project director of the Green America Better Paper Project. 

While National Geographic hasn't yet acted on the results, it seems highly likely that it will  and join many other magazines such as Fast Company, Audubon and Ranger Rick in using green paper. In Canada, titles such as Cottage Life and Canadian Geographic have already done so. 

The long post notes that 9 million tons (!) of printing and writing paper remains uncollected and therefore is lost to the recycling process each year in the U.S. 

Forest industry study: tablets may cut mag paper use by as much as 50% within 15 years

Because of the spreading use of tablets, the North American demand for paper for magazines will drop by as much as 20% by 2015 and perhaps as much as 50% over the next 15 years, according to a forest product industry study. A story in Folio: quotes global forest products information provider RISI which notes that there are already over 10 million tablets in use today, with many more to come.

As print circ falters in the magazine industry (about 45 percent of consumer magazine report circ losses in ABC’s half year report), publishers have been putting an enormous amount of time and resources into producing digital editions for magazines. More publishers are striking deals for subscription sales with Apple (last week, Reader’s Digest joined a growing group of publishers including Conde Nast, Time Inc., Hearst, etc. who now offer digital subscription and single copy for purchase through the App Store.) Time Inc. also recently announced that its entire magazine portfolio (21 titles in total) will be available for the iPad by January 2012, while it and other publishers like National Geographic are developing apps for Android-based tablets as well.

Printing paper consumption down one- third since 2000

North American consumption of printing paper has dropped by more than 33% since 2000, according to Andre Bernier, chairman of the Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada. In a story carried by the Montreal Gazette and other Postmedia papers, Bernier said in an interview at the PAPTAC conference that last year the industry sold 32 million tonnes, compared with 48 million 10 year ago.

"That jolting statistic covers all graphic products, from newsprint to coated and magazine papers and book grades, and the industry knows it must adapt swiftly," said Bernier, a former CEO of Quebec pulp producer SFK Pulp (now Fibrek Inc.) and now a productivity expert with Catalyst Paper Corp. in Vancouver....

"The industry is breaking out from its conservative past and is fully aware of how the iPad and other tablets and electronic wonders are stealing millions of readers away from newspapers, magazines and books," he said. "The tide can only be stemmed by developing new products from the basic cellulose pulp, for instance."

He said that the prices have firmed since the recession and there is still a window of opportunity, but the industry's challenge is being cost-competitive and developing new products.

Publishers told to get their mags ahead of people's changing attitude towards paper

[This post has been updated]The president of the Canadian Forest Products Association, Avrim Lazar, brought a blunt message to the American Magazine Conference last week about a possible consumer backlash against paper-based publishing products like magazines. He called on publishers to respond as leaders to the changing attitudes of consumers towards their printed products. 

[It has been pointed out that this video was not made this year, but was from 2008, for which we apologize. Rather than simply deleting the post, we are amending it and leaving it up. In fact, the sentiments expressed as as apt today (perhaps more so) than they were two years ago. -- DBS]

Advertising Age put up this brief video selection from his presentation. Here's a partial transcript:

"There is a danger that the paper, instead of contributing to the field and the identity [of a magazine] will undermine it," he said."You might think of pulp and paper as the most lumpen product possible. But if you don't do the right thing by the environment, it will be the commodity that is the message.

People will feel that they are pigs, that they are dinosaurs, that they are not with it because they're buying your magazine. The attitude of consumers, and it has changed quite a bit over the past little while -- they used to be worried only about local, environmental problems. Now, overwhelmingly, they say it's global. Perhaps most importantly for you, they used to think it was industry's fault; they now think it's shared.

More than 80% of consumers think they are as responsible as business with fixing the environment. And they focus on waste. They think their own wastefulness, the magazine racks being full, the catalogues, are what's destroying the planet. And even though the economy is in bad shape, they know this is not going to go away.

The global GDP is going to double over the next 20 years; think of it. All the pollution and the environmental pressure that we now experience doubling. And the only way to deal with it is to take a leadership position. To get ahead, to make certain that the paper you are printing your magazines on is legally harvested, from places that are regenerated, inviting outside scrutiny, promoting recovery and dealing with climate change."

Chalk one up for back issues of magazines not crumbling away

The law of unintended, but pleasantly surprising, consequences applies apparently in the way magazine paper is increasingly being made in Europe and North America, according to a post on Magstastic Blogsplosion, a website authored by Andrew Losowsky. 

The substitution of calcium carbonate (essentially, chalk) for the more expensive imported china clay in the coating of magazine paper means that, inadvertently, the coating tends to neutralize the acids that are created/part of the paper-manufacturing process. 

This may ensure that it may be a longer while before print magazines crumble in our hands. (I expect comments from the "print is dead" crowd that this is all moot since we'll all be reading on iPads and the like. But for the rest of us, this is good news.)

Will cheaper paper mean that National Geographic magazines will crumble?

A relatively recent switch by National Geographic magazine to print its inside pages on much less costly coated groundwood paper may mean that, in future, copies will not stand up so well to the test of time. According to a story in the blog Dead Tree Edition, the magazine was previously printed on coated freesheet paper which doesn't contain lignin, a natural ingredient that causes the yellowing and degradation of the paper.

Database tracks phenomenal growth of eco-paper availability

The number of eco-papers available to printers in North America has grown from 97 to 228 in just 18 months, according to information released by Canopy, the  non-profit organization working to improve the environmental performance of paper and wood companies.

"We're witnessing a phenomenal shift in the paper industry where sustained and growing green demand is steering paper production towards ecofriendly options, giving a life line to mills and a future for our endangered forests and species," said Nicole Rycroft, executive director of Canopy.

Canopy maintains a database that tracks the qualities of 350 different papers and the mills that provide them. 

Indigo tells customers which books are green; can magazines be far behind?

Canada’s leading book retailer, Indigo Books & Music Inc. now tells its customers -- in kiosks in their stores and online -- which books are printed on papers containing recycled and/or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) fibre, according to a posting on the website of Canopy, the campaigners for sustainable paper use.

Book titles that lack environmental information at the kiosks either have no environmental paper qualities to speak of or the publisher has yet to provide details for that title. Indigo is the first international book retailer to provide this level of transparency about the environmental qualities of books in their stores.

Recycled paper gets special displays for some U.S. magazines

Barnes & Noble stores in the U.S. are in the second year of featuring magazines that use recycled paper in special magazine racks in over 240 of their largest stores. The project is being done in partnership with Green America’s Better Paper Project. Since the project started, 46 magazines have taken part.

The ten magazines participating in this month’s promotion include: Tricycle, Mother Jones, Natural Home, Make, Miller-McCune, Mothering, VegNews, Grit, Stanford Social Innovation Review and The American Prospect.

“These unique promotions increase visibility and sales for magazines that have made the commitment to print on recycled paper. In tough economic times these magazines are testament that environmental and fiscal responsibility can go hand in hand,” says Máire Walsh, director of client services at Next Steps Marketing, and who runs the promotions on behalf of Green America’s Better Paper Project.

Sorting out the standards for eco-certified paper and wood products

Magazine publishers who want to be on the side of the angels are confronted by a variety of certifications being bandied about for paper from eco-certified wood pulp. So called "green" terms are tossed about like logs in a stream, but consumers and publishers alike could be forgiven for being baffled by the gab.

Christopher Pollan, a contributing editor for The Tyee in Vancouver has written the first in a projected series of articles about the "war" over eco-certified wood and wood products. While his story covers everything from newsprint to building supplies, it's an interesting look at the two, largest rival forestry certification non-profit organizations* which put their stamp (literally and figuratively) on paper we use to print magazines: the forestry industry-created Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which was conceived by a coalition of North American environmental activists.

What both certification programs have in common is that their respective logos -- appearing on books and 2x4s and everything between -- carry a promise of "sustainability;" both indicate that eco-conscious buyers can relax and know they are buying a product that they can feel good about.

What the rivals do not share, is a common vision of what sustainability looks like on the forest floor, and whether the differences between certification standards matter at all.

Pollan notes that the SFI has roots in the American Forestry and Paper Association (AF&PA), though now nominally independent and that it is waging an expensive and high level public relations and ad campaign across North America, designed to influence influential users . He reports that SFI is criticized for "greenwashing" unsustainable practices such as high-elevation clear-cutting and attempting to blur the differences between it and the tougher FSC standards.

"We consider SFI to be forest greenwash," says Jennifer Krill, Program Director at San Francisco's RAN, a founding member of the FSC. "The marketplace cannot trust the SFI to deliver the environmental and social standards that customers are demanding."

Krill says that SFI-labelled products can come from old growth forests, from huge clear cuts, and from tree plantations that were formerly ecologically-diverse forest -- and all the while, unwitting consumers and businesses buy the wood in an effort to be sustainable.

*Readers of this blog will know that there are other players such as Canopy (formerly Markets Initiative), a Vancouver-based environmental organization that advocates with publishers on behalf of eco-paper purchasing and use through a sustainable supply chain, thereby sparing the world's ancient forests. It endorses FSC standards.

There's demand for Canadian eco-paper if only the mills would produce it

The Canadian publishing industry -- magazines, books and newspapers -- want at least 550,000 metric tonnes of eco-paper, worth something like $560 million, but no Canadian paper mills are so far prepared to supply it. According to a new report released by Markets Initiative, the ailing Canadian pulp and paper industry could be repositioned for success by adopting more environmentally sensitive technology and processes.

"There's no reason Canada's troubled pulp and paper industry can't take inspiration from the auto sector and start reinventing by producing a greener product," says Nicole Rycroft, executive director of Markets Initiative, which over the past ten years has worked with all of Canada's major publishers, printers and logging companies, developing and advising on green policies.

"The world's biggest publishers tell us time and time again they want more environmentally sound paper and more recycled paper. Why can't Canada be the one to supply it?"

Have your say about changes to federal magazine programs

It's April, already, and a deadline looms to have your say about proposals for re-designing the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) and the Canada Magazine Fund (CMF). The Department of Canadian Heritage has made specific proposals for reform and is seeking comment.

While various industry interest groups have participated in roundtables held across the country and will be making formal responses, individual publishers and others with a stake in magazines should not be slow to wade into the discussion. It is critical to the way magazines are going to be delivered and supported in the years to come.

You can read the proposals and the background information here. And you can comment on them at periodicals@canadianheritage.gc.ca.

You have until April 25.

Transcontinental Inc. pledges to promote "environmentally preferable" paper

It's too early to say if this is a tipping point, but the announcement yesterday by Transcontinental Inc., Canada's largest commercial printer, that it would champion "environmentally preferable" papers may be the breakthrough that the green paper movement has been working for. It is the first major North American printer to do so.

The company, which is also the largest publisher of consumer magazines in the country, will "promote the use of paper with maximized post-consumer and de-inked recycled fibre and encourages the use of paper made with pre-consumer recovered fibre or alternative fibres in preference to virgin wood fibre", according to a story in the Montreal Gazette.

"Our goal was to develop a paper-purchasing policy that would promote sustainable development in a tangible way by giving our clients clear choices," company president Luc Desjardins said.

The new policy was developed with input from environmental publishing advocate Markets Initiative.

"Transcontinental is the first major North American print-media conglomerate to take such a comprehensive step toward safeguarding our forests and our climate," said Nicole Rycroft, executive director of Markets Initiative.

In addition to such well-known consumer magazines as Canadian Living, Elle Canada and More, Transcontinental prints La Presse in Montreal and other Canadian and U.S. daily and community newspapers. At least one of Transcontinental Media's titles -- Outdoor Canada -- has made the switch. The announcement did not say that other Transcontinental titles would lead the way for their other printing customers, but that seems compelling and inevitable in light of the announcement.

(See our earlier posts)

Markets Initiative says that, currently, publishers of 74 Canadian magazines are working with them to shift away from papers that contain fibre from the world’s ancient and endangered forests. Less than 5% of magazine paper has any post consumer recycled content and every second, a tree is cut down for use in magazine paper. Canadian periodicals use about 110,000 tons of paper annually, while consumer magazines use an estimated 81,000 tons of paper every year.

The figures are even more dramatic for the newspaper industry: About 1.1 million metric tonnes of newsprint were consumed in Canada in 2004, equivalent to over 12 million trees used to produce Canada’s newspapers alone. Canada's total production of newsprint, including exports, uses almost 95 million trees.

Champions of ancient forest friendly paper honoured

Markets Initiative, the doughty champions of ancient forest friendly paper use in Canadian publications, has given out "Order of the Forest" awards to a number of people at magazines and printers for their support and encouragement of the cause. The awards were made Friday at the MagNet magazine conference. Since this is the first time the awards have been given out, there was some catchup to do, with some awards back-dated:

• 2004
  
• John Thomson, (past) Publisher, Canadian Geographic, for the role he played in the development of the first Magazine Ecokit and the public launch of our work with magazines
• 2005
• Alison Jones, Publisher, Quill & Quire, for leading the redesign that allowed Quill & Quire to be the first of the St. Joseph Media titles to switch to Ancient Forest Friendly paper
• Lynn O'Hearn, Sales Representative, St. Joseph Print, for going above and beyond to help her clients use Ancient Forest Friendly and eco paper
• 2006
• Jodi Books, Production Manager, explore and Cottage Life for doing all she has done to help the company implement across all departments.
• Maria Mendes, Manager of Print Production, Transcontinental Media, for her production support in helping Canadian Home Workshop and Outdoor Canada be the first Transcontinental Media titles to use glossy Ancient Forest Friendly paper
• Christian Dogimont, Publisher, HoBO, for wanting to use Ancient Forest Friendly paper so much he switched HoBO to uncoated paper... And for challenging Vanity Fair, in an editorial, to walk their environmental talk
  

Mega-merger for Abitibi-Consolidated and Bowater paper companies

Pending shareholder votes at both companies on July 26, one of Canada's largest paper companies, Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. will be merged with U.S.-controlled Bowater Incorporated. The proposed merger can be voted on as the result of an interim order of the Quebec Superior Court.

Abitibi-Consolidated shareholders will vote in Montreal; Bowater stockholders in Atlanta Georgia. (Bowater Canada Inc., a publicly traded subsidiary of the US firm.

The combined company, would be called AbitibiBowater Inc., will be the 3rd largest publicly traded paper and forest products company in North America and the 8th largest in the world. AbitibiBowater would own or operate 32 pulp and paper facilities and 35 wood product facilities located mainly in Eastern Canada and the Southeastern U.S. and would also be among the world's largest recyclers of newspapers and magazines.