PRC Directs Postal Service to Address Compliance Issues with Pricing and Service: Flat-shaped mail and service performance continue to be major areas of concern

Dotdash Meredith is eliminating the print editions of six of the former Meredith Corp.’s most iconic magazines, including InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, Eating Well and People en Espanol, according to a report yesterday first published by the Wall Street Journal. The Journal said it obtained an internal memo from Dotdash CEO Neil Vogel in which Vogel told employees that the move would eliminate about 200 jobs, which represent less than 5% of Dotdash Meredith’s total staff. The other magazines being shut down are Health and Parents. “We have said from the beginning, buying Meredith was about buying brands, not magazines or websites,” Vogel said in the memo. “It is not news to anyone that there has been a pronounced shift in readership and advertising from print to digital, and as a result, for a few important brands, print is no longer serving the brand’s core purpose.”

Today, it seems we are conditioned to think about innovation in terms of disruption or the emergence of products that are bigger, brighter, sharper, contain more memory or longer battery life. Paper has been so embedded in our lives over multiple generations that it is not only taken for granted, but sometimes thought of as an analog industry in a digital world. Yet our industry has survived recessions, war, global competition, soaring energy costs, increasing environmental regulation, e-books, tablet computers. We have proven time and again, through the resilience and ingenuity of our people, we can evolve our products and meet new customer needs. The paper industry has found innovative ways to reduce costs, increase productivity and developed new, value-added products that continue to make life better. Innovation comes in many forms; sometimes accompanied by press releases and media coverage and sometimes through continuous improvement and optimization of operations that are implemented without major fanfare or hoopla. All deserve to be recognized during National Forest Products Week, celebrated this year from October 15- 21. By leveraging emerging technologies, the U.S. paper industry has made dramatic improvements in energy use, resource efficiency and operational flexibility, which has enabled it to compete in the global marketplace. Through innovation, older, inefficient facilities have been transformed into world-class operations that reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, reduce water intake, extract more value from renewable biomass and are positioned to capture value in emerging markets. Click Read More below for additional information.

S&P Global announced it has entered into a $1 billion accelerated share repurchase agreement with Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC. The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2018. The Company is using available cash to fund the accelerated share repurchase transaction. Since the 50 million share repurchase authorization from the Board of Directors in 2013, S&P Global has repurchased 31.6 million shares. Click Read More below for additional information.