According to a statement from Mark A. Suwyn, chairman of the board and CEO of NewPage, the changes "will actually increase our 2008 North American production by 3-8% compared to the combined production in 2007."

Rick Willett, president and COO, said, "We believe our customers will benefit from our closing slower, lower volume, less strategic machines and moving affected grades to machines that can manufacture them most efficiently, yielding a higher quality, more consistent product."

The specific actions are:

- Permanently close the No. 11 paper machine in Rumford, ME, which produces coated freesheet and groundwood papers for magazines and catalogs, by the end of February 2008. About 60 employees will be affected.

- Permanently close the pulp mill and two paper machines, Nos. 43 and 44, in Niagara, WI, by the end of April 2008. The machines produce 230,000 tons of LWC coated groundwood papers used in magazines and catalogs. About 319 employees will be affected.

- Permanently close the No. 95 paper machine in Kimberly, WI, by the end of May 2008. The Kimberly mill produces coated freesheet papers for publication printing, and specialty papers for pressure-sensitive or glueapplied labels. About 125 employees will be affected.

- Permanently close the Chillicothe, OH, converting facility by the end of November 2008. Some converting machines and volume will be transferred to existing facilities in Luke, MD, and Wisconsin Rapids, WI. About 160 employees will be affected.

Products produced on the closed machines will be shifted to more efficient machines within the integrated mill system. All areas of the company such as sales, finance and other support functions could be affected.

"We do not anticipate any further steps related to the integration," said Willett. "Right now the market is strong and we do not anticipate taking any market-related downtime which would be separate from these actions."

NewPage says it is the largest printing paper manufacturer in North America, based on production capacity, with more than $4.3 billion in pro forma net sales for the last 12 months ended September 30, 2007.

The company also says its product portfolio is the broadest in North America and includes coated freesheet, coated groundwood, supercalendered and specialty papers. NewPage's US mills are in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. There is one in Nova Scotia, Canada. Total annual production capacity is about 5.5 million tons of paper, including 4.3 million tons of coated paper, 920,000 tons of uncoated paper and 300,000 tons of specialty paper, as well as about 3.2 million tons of pulp.