Agfa Wins Product of the Year Awards
Agfa is taking home two product of the year awards from Printing United Alliance. The Oberon RTR3300 won in the RTR UV category (over 80 in.) and Jeti Tauro H3300 LED won top honors in the UV Hybrid/Flatbed High Volume Production Class category. The Oberon is making its North America debut at the Printing United Digital Experience. The Printing United Alliance hands out the awards for solutions from its member suppliers that are available for sale in 2020. Over 200 entries were submitted across 85 categories. Agfa’s headquarters are in Belgium. The largest production and research centers are in Belgium, the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, the U.K., Austria, China and Brazil. Printing United, originally scheduled to take place at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta on October 21–23, will now move to an online experience this fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
New York Times Co. Launches Pivotal Ad Platform
The New York Times Company’s advertising team has unveiled Pivotal, a platform built for marketers seeking brand relevance and consumer insight on “the most important topics today,” says the Times. Backed by the Times’s audience data and research, Pivotal delivers guidance and recommendations for brands to shape creative work and marketing strategies. https://nytmediakit.com/pivotal. The team conducted multilayered research, interviewed journalists, experts, readers and adults across the U.S. and tapped into The New York Times’s first-party data to outline recommendations around six key territories: race, climate, sex, gender, tech and money. “Pivotal offers marketers insight on the role their brands can play in our lives. In the near future, we’ll introduce a variety of ways brands can engage with our experts and our insights,” says the Times. Axios offers more info on the program here.
Philadelphia Inquirer to Sell Printing Facility
The Philadelphia Inquirer is shuttering its Montgomery County printing plant and moving production of its papers to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, to an operation owned by Gannett, the paper reported. Up to 500 people are losing jobs in the move, according to the paper. It’s possible Gannett will hire some of The Inquirer employees, but that’s not guaranteed, according to Lisa Hughes, publisher and chief executive officer of The Inquirer, the paper said. The cuts represent nearly half of the paper’s staff of 1,073. The closure of the Schuylkill Printing Plant in Upper Merion Township may come by the end of the year, the paper said. The sale is not yet final, said a memo to staff from Hughes. The Inquirer is working with a buyer for the 45-acre property. The buyer’s identity was not made public. The property has a 674,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, opened in 1992. The change is “is aimed at ensuring the survival of the media company as consumers turn to digital platforms for their news,” said the paper.
Powder, Snowboarder, Bike, Surfer Shut Down
Powder, Snowboarder, Bike and Surfer are shutting down, according to film/media company Teton Gravity Research. A360 Media owns the publications. The company hasn’t put out a statement, but Powder magazine had a posting on its website. “On October 2, we were notified by our parent company A360 Media, LLC (formerly American Media, LLC) that our entire editorial staff will be placed on indefinite furlough, effective November 20, 2020, when operations of the magazine, our website, and our social channels will be paused. We do not know if or when this hiatus will end,” it said. Enthusiasts have followed the action sports magazines in some cases for generations, said Teton Gravity Research.
North Equity Buys Popular Science, Other Titles from Bonnier
North Equity, a digital media venture equity firm, has acquired a number of media brands from Bonnier Corporation. The acquisition includes Popular Science, Popular Photography, Saveur, Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, Better You and Interesting Things. The additions complement North Equity’s home platform, where Saveur will join BobVila.com and Kitchenistic to form a new food category. They will also create a new specialty media vertical under Popular Science and Popular Photography and expand North’s growing footprint in the military, tactical and outdoor verticals, where it recently added Task & Purpose. “Since inception, the North team has proved our ability to acquire, reimagine and profitably grow media brands,” said Andrew Perlman, North Equity managing partner. “We have accomplished this by working with the teams at each brand to deliver high-quality, meaningful content and build innovative, sustainable business models.” North is based in Miami with offices in San Francisco and New York. Bonnier is owned by Sweden-based Bonnier AB.
Pocket Outdoor Media Acquires Big Stone Publishing
Pocket Outdoor Media, creator of active lifestyle content, has acquired Big Stone Publishing, the longtime publisher of Rock & Ice, Trail Runner and Gym Climber magazines and websites. The BSP brands join POM’s existing stable of active lifestyle brands: Climbing, Backpacker, Women’s Running, Triathlete, Yoga Journal, Clean Eating, VeloNews, SKI and Warren Miller Entertainment, among others. “This acquisition significantly strengthens our ability to engage with outdoor enthusiasts across all of the seasons and sports that live at the intersection of adrenaline and adventure,” said Robin Thurston, CEO of Pocket Outdoor Media. The company’s Active Pass membership program recently launched for its endurance brands, featuring benefits that include a wide range of premium content, VeloPress books, magazine subscriptions, Roll Massif event access, and training plans through a strategic partnership with Today’s Plan. The membership program will roll out across the entire POM network in the coming months with content and benefits from the new acquisitions included. Pocket Outdoor Media is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, with offices in San Diego and Toronto.
Las Vegas Review-Journal Goes with SCS’s Production Suite
The Las Vegas Review-Journal has contracted with SCS to install its production suite — Layout-8000, SCS/ClassPag and SCS/Track — in 2021, according to SCS. The systems will be part of an overhaul of the Review-Journal’s entire advertising and production workflow. The SCS production suite will be integrated with AdPoint from Lineup, continuing to expand a relationship that includes implementations at The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sonoma Media Investments and, most recently, the new Gannett, says a news release from SCS. More than 300 sites producing over 2,000 publications in 10 countries use SCS Software, says SCS. SCS is privately held by Richard and Martha Cichelli.
ProPublica Expanding, Hiring
ProPublica is adding offices in the South and the Southwest and augmenting its presence in the Midwest, the company announced. The expansion is in addition to ProPublica’s joint initiative with The Texas Tribune and our Local Reporting Network. ProPublica is adding reporters, editors and members of specialized teams. New York-based ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism.
209 Multimedia Buys Morris Newspapers of California
The Turlock Journal, Manteca/Ripon Bulletin, Oakdale Leader, Ceres Courier, Escalon Times, Riverbank News and 209 Magazine are under new ownership, the Turlock paper reported. Hank and Kelly Vander Veen have bought the Morris Newspapers of California (MNC) publications through their company, 209 Multimedia. Hank Vander Veen has been group publisher of MNC for nearly ten years, said the paper. Previously he spent 25 years with McClatchy. “I firmly believe that local community news organizations remain vital to our democracy as the trusted local source for news and information. I am committed to fostering that environment while meeting the needs of all of our dedicated advertisers and subscribers,” said Hank Vander Veen. The paper are printed at a company facility in Manteca. All current staff will move to the new company, says the paper.
Konica Minolta Drops Out of Drupa
Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe has dropped out of drupa 2021, the company announced Oct. 8. “We very much still believe in the power of personal relationships and of course the power of seeing our portfolio and touching the print products from our presses and are evaluating the potential combinations of virtual and real-life concepts,” said Olaf Lorenz, general manager international marketing division, in a release on the cancelation. “However, exhibiting at drupa or any other trade fair at the moment makes no sense to us during the current world uncertainty. Things are too unpredictable.” Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe is based in Langenhagen, Germany. The move follows drupa dropout announcements from Ricoh, Canon, Screen, Xerox, EFI, Kodak, Fujifilm and HP, the trade fair’s biggest exhibitor. The fair is scheduled for April 20¬–28, 2021, in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Coastside News Group Buys Pacifica Tribune
The Coastside News Group has bought the Pacifica Tribune, the Half Moon Bay Review reported. The company also owns that publication. The buy came about through investments from Pacifica residents, says the Half Moon Bay Review. Terms of the deal were not made public. CNGI was set up by local residents in 2017 to buy the Half Moon Bay from a private company in Arizona. Its status as a benefit corporation means the company must work for the community good, says the paper. “The synergies between these adjacent coastal communities will help us fulfill our primary mission to support and expand quality local journalism on the San Mateo Coast,” said Coastside News Group CEO Rich Klein in a statement. “I am happy to turn over the reins of the Tribune to an award-winning local group who has years of experience in journalism,” Pacifica Tribune owner Sherman R. Fredrick said. His Battle Born Media still has papers in Marin County and Nevada.
More News
• California Sunday Magazine is stopping publication and will cut staff, the LA Times reported. Two years ago, its publisher, Pop-Up Magazine Productions, was bought by Emerson Collective, founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Steve Jobs. Emerson Collective also took majority ownership in the Atlantic.
• Lee Enterprises is hosting a nationwide virtual career fair starting from Oct. 14 to 25. More than 330 companies from at least 20 states will participate in the Anywhere Career Fair, according to the Lee-owned La Crosse Tribune.
• Santa Cruz’s Good Times (California) weekly has bought the Press-Banner from Tank Town Media.
• In May 2020, DCOS inked a deal with Tryck i Norrbotten (Lulea, Sweden) to future-proof their eight tower, single folder Goss Magnum press. The order includes a full DCOS package solution, replacing and retrofitting the complete Omnicon system, the shaftless drive system and the QTI Multicam system. The installation will take place in the fourth quarter of 2020.
• Detroit-based Outlier Media has decided not to finalize a merger with the MuckRock Foundation.
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