Top coated-paper company files for bankruptcy, says rural paper mills to stay open for now

NewPage Holdings Corp., North America's largest manufacturer of coated paper, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a move that could affect employment in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Maine, Maryland and Kentucky, home of its southernmosst plant, on the Mississippi River near Wickliffe.

According to bankruptcy filings, the Ohio-based company currently owes $4.2 billion in debt against $3.4 billion in assets, and its annual losses have deepened from $22 million in 2007 to $674 million last year, Rick Romell, of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. (Journal Sentinel map)

The company has entered into talks with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. to obtain a $600 million loan to remain open during their Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, reports Mike Spector of The Wall Street Journal.

The jobs of those currently working at paper mills owned by NewPage are at stake, and with them, the fate of local economies where these mills operate. Romell writes Wisconsin has a lot to lose because paper making is a key industry in the state. However, in a statement the company released, NewPage vows to keep open their U.S. operations through the company's bankruptcy restructuring process.