Tainui Press Design & Print graphic designer and digital printer Vanessa Hooton has been named the New Zealand Print Industry Apprentice of the Year.

The print industry's superannuation fund, Media Super, is aiming to join construction industry fund Cbus, while maintaining its own brand, and is now looking at a number of merger options for the two to come together to create a $59bn fund, ten times bigger than the current Media Super pot.

QLM has opened its new 3000sqm production centre, with clients, suppliers and ministers lining up to wish the business well.

Logick Print & Graphics was effectively named best printer in New Zealand, winning the Pride in Print 2020 Supreme Award, for its Bee NZ Premium Packaging for Manuka Honey, entered in the Paper & Board Packaging category.

The B1 VariJet 106 inkjet press being developed by the Koenig & Bauer and Durst joint venture will be ready for beta testing by the end of the year, while its corrugated press has now finished beta.

Wellington City Council has postponed a vote on enacting a by-law, which would have seen fines implemented for putting print into letterboxes marked no junk mail, following lobbying from The Real Media Collective.

The highest number of clicks on the Print21 industry news website in the last seven days went to the paper imports plunging news, our report of the latest figures by IndustryEdge, which revealed the full horror of the Covid crisis.

Michael Hannan, chairman at print giant Ovato, has delivered a strong message calling for government support for manufacturing once JobKeeper expires at the end of September, warning that if nothing is forthcoming “absolute carnage” will follow.

Press giant Koenig & Bauer has unveiled a new B1 press for the packaging and commercial markets, the Rapida 106 X, at its live streaming event in Germany.

Covid-19 has sent this year's Print Industry Creativity Awards online, with all state awards being live streamed tonight, at 8pm, via the PVCA Facebook page.

The Fair Work Commission is mandating an increase in the minimum wage for print industry workers, but in light of the Covid crisis has delayed it from next week until November.

Billion dollar paper producer Norske Skog is investing €350m in converting two newsprint papermaking lines into containerboard lines, entering the packaging market for the first time, as newsprint demand plunges.

Runaway Australian online graphic design success story Canva is seeing its valuation skyrocket, its latest fundraising round giving it a paper price tag of $8.6bn.

Konica Minolta will be supporting charity partner Breast Cancer Network Australia, by matching donations dollar for dollar, to help raise $55,000 during the 55 Hours of Giving campaign, which runs until 3pm on Friday.

Flint Group Packaging Inks – a major provider of packaging printing inks – is investigating how to support a circular economy for its business.

The fall in print during height of the Covid crisis has been highlighted by the April import figures from IndustryEdge, which says coated mechanical imports plunged by almost a third, with bigger falls expected in May.