TORONTO—A Masthead analysis of ABC circulation figures suggests Canada Post is losing mail volumes faster than overall industry circulation declines as publishers increasingly turn to other distribution channels including single-copy sales, bulk distribution and newspaper inserts.

In the last five years (June 2006 - June 2011), overall magazine circulation has declined 10.7% among ABC member magazines. (Not all magazines are declining.) But the volume of magazine distribution through mailed subscriptions has declined 18%. The volume of magazine circulation through other methods has actually increased 3.1%.

The results were recently presented at a Toronto chapter meeting of the National Association of Major Mail Users.

EDMONTON, AB—Dejong Printing has installed a new Komori LSX 629 press with coater, bought from K-North.

Dejong offers prepress, offset printing and finishing services.


Don Turner and Alex Dandajena of Dejong

ST. THOMAS—St. Thomas Printing, a family-owned commercial printing business, recently purchased a new Polar 66 cutter at the Graphics Canada show. The company was established in 1990 and has since been servicing the London, St. Thomas and Talbotville area.


With the new cutter is Mark Groeneweg of St. Thomas Printing

ROCHESTER, NY—Former film giant Eastman Kodak has filed for bankruptcy protection, according to a story in the New York Times today.

Citigroup is reportedly providing Kodak $950 million in financing to allow the company to continue operating through the bankruptcy. Kodak is looking to sell off its 1,100 digital patents in the meantime.

“Kodak is taking a significant step toward enabling our enterprise to complete its transformation,” said Antonio Perez, chairman and chief executive officer, in a news release on the company's website. “At the same time as we have created our digital business, we have also already effectively exited certain traditional operations, closing 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, and reducing our workforce by 47,000 since 2003. Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core IP assets. We look forward to working with our stakeholders to emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company.”

AUGSBURG, GERMANY—Bloomberg is reporting today that industrial conglomerate Possehl & Co. based in Lübeck, Germany has bought Manroland's web press unit in Augsburg, but investors are still being sought for operations in Offenbach and Plauen.

The latter sites will initially be taken over by management, insolvency administrator Werner Schneider told Bloomberg.

AUGSBURG, GERMANY—A press release issued yesterday explains troubled press manufacturer Manroland is very close to being sold.

"Negotiations are in the final stages for the sale of Manroland AG as part of the company's insolvency proceedings," reads the release from its insolvency administrator.

TORONTO—The Jan. 16, 2012 edition of Marketing magazine presents interesting data on ad spending for this year, particularly for print media.

The Marketing 2012 Outlook Survey Readership Study consulted 120 industry professionals for their thoughts, including biggest business concerns (one was world financial collapse) and plans for social media marketing this year (72 percent expect to increase time and resources devoted to it).

TORONTO—Webcom is doubling its inkjet capacity with an $8 million investment, it announced today.

The latest investment is an HP T350 Colour Inkjet Web Press to complement the HP T300 installed just over a year ago. PrintCAN was on hand during a Webcom open house at that time to see the first HP addition for the printer's BookFWD program.

OTTAWA—October was a strong month for exports, rising 4.7 per cent from October 2010 to $86.8 million, a rebound from a weaker September that saw an 18% drop in exports from a year previous. However, 2011 exports up until October total around $754 million, down from about $802 million during the same time period in 2010. Meanwhile, imports fell somewhat from September, while the trade balance fell further into the negative.

OTTAWA—Canada Post's unionized rural and suburban mail carriers (RSMC) are now working without a contract, according to the postal union's spokeswoman.

Aalya Ahmad said about 7,000 carriers who deliver to boxes in communities outside major cities (e.g. Kanata and Orleans in the Ottawa area) had an eight-year contract that expired on Jan. 1 of this year.