Long-Time Midland Paper CEO Announces Retirement

Apple announced that it will acquire digital magazine subscription service Texture, adding another service into its repertoire of monthly-billed entertainment. Texture offers subscribers unlimited access to over 200 magazines, including titles such as The New Yorker, ESPN Magazine, Time and National Geographic. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Having launched in 2010, as Next Issue, Texture was created in a collaborative effort by Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp., Rogers Communications and Time Inc., to provide a place for readers to access stories and entire issues of familiar titles while also introducing them to new publications. Click Read More below for additional information.

As reported recently in the Bangor Daily News, John Halle (CEO of Cate Street Capital) has formally dismissed the libel lawsuit that Cate Street Capital and Halle had initiated against Verle Sutton almost two years ago. This claim of libel had resulted from an article in the May 2014 issue of The Reel Time Report, written by Sutton, in which Cate Street Capital and State of Maine officials were strongly criticized for actions they took that related to the Great Northern Paper mills in northern Maine. Industry Intelligence, the publisher of Reel Time, had also been named as a defendant in this lawsuit. Industry Intelligence and John Halle reached a settlement earlier in 2016. In response to John Halle choosing to end the lawsuit against Sutton, and the Industry Intelligence settlement, Verle Sutton has issued the following statement: I am grateful to family and friends who have been so supportive during the last two years as we fought through the groundless lawsuit that John Halle and Cate Street Capital initiated against me for authoring “The Maine Problem.” The legal costs incurred during the last two years have been substantial, and the time our family lost was unfortunate. However, our losses pale in comparison to the damage that has been inflicted on the East Millinocket and Millinocket communities and, in fact, on all of northern Maine. These communities and this region were misled by state officials and Cate Street about the viability of the restarted Great Northern Paper mills.

Over more than six months of extreme disruption, the nation’s independent bookstores have steadily grown their businesses beyond their four walls. A PW survey of three dozen indies nationwide found most offering some combination of online sales, curbside pickup, home delivery, outdoor browsing, and in-store shopping. The diversity of sales channels reflects a substantial expansion of retail customer service as they navigate evolving market conditions caused by Covid-19 and climate change. More than 80% of bookstores surveyed are now open for some form of limited in-store browsing, with appointments or other measures to ensure that they abide by state capacity guidelines. Of the shops that are not open to in-store browsing, all have online ordering and most are offering curbside pickup and outdoor browsing. That level of customer service reflects an unparalleled modernization of independent bookselling, but the question on the minds of booksellers is whether their efforts will be enough to combat forces beyond their control.